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Lesson Plan

Native Harvest

Glacier National Park

Grade Level:

Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

Subject:

Science,Social Studies

Lesson Duration:

60 Minutes

Essential Question

What is the value of native plants? How can plants be cultural resources?

Objective

Students will be able to:
Research uses and characteristics of a plant native to the Glacier NP area.
Define what it means to be a native plant.
List two reasons why native plants are important to the Blackfeet, Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreille as well as other people in Montana.

Background

Preview the student reading for unit 4, page 24 - 33, and assign as homework or incorporate into class time. (See the unit introduction, pages 60-67, for resources to discuss traditional tobacco use versus smoking cigarettes). Jeff Hart’s, Native Plants and Early Peoples, written from his interviews with elders from different tribes around the state, contains histories and stories about major plants used in this area. Pages 82-85 describe the use of kinnikinnick’s leaves as a smoking mixture. 

Photos and information about plants can also be found on-line at Montana Plant Life.  If students are able to use Apps, there is a Glacier Wildflower App available for download. The Plants of Waterton-Glacier National Parks and the Northern Rockies, by Richard J. Shaw and Danny On, Missoula: Mountain Press, 1979, describes and illustrates with colored photographs over 200 species of trees, shrubs, flower and plants found in the park. 

This lesson is one part of Work House: A Glacier National Park Science and Indian Education Program. It can be completed as a stand alone lesson or as part of the greater Work House course. 

The full Work House Program is available on Glacier National Park's website. 
Background information as well as the full lesson plan can be found as a PDF here.

Preparation

• Student Reading, Unit 4
• Art paper
• Theme paper
• Colored pencils
• Native Plants and Early Peoples, Jeff Hart and Jacqueline Moore

Procedure

1. Discuss the student reading for unit 4 from the homework assignment. Share answers (as a class, in pairs, or small groups) for the “checking understanding questions). Why are native plants important? What is a native plant? Both teacher and students supply as much personal information about plant uses as possible. This is a good place to re-listen to the Salish and Pend d’Oreille video clip, “I Can Almost Hear Our Ancestors” from the At Home in This Place DVD as it mentions getting plant medicines and how the park is a reminder of what things were like years ago and the lifestyle of that time.
2. Emphasize the importance of respecting and preserving native plants in our environment and the respect we need to show for local tribes. It is not legal to pick plants in Glacier National Park. We are not encouraging people to gather these plants, but rather to learn about them so that we might understand more about our environment and the importance of these plants to the Blackfeet, Salish, Pend d’Oreille, Kootenai (and other American Indian) cultures.
3. Explain that the class is going to do some individual research and put together another book. This time it will be about native plants.
4. Read and discuss the background information provided by Jeff Hart for one or two interesting plants. Ask the students to each select a plant from Native Plants and Early Peoples book, or from their own experience that they would like to research. Explain that they will have to use at least two sources- oral or written- to make this research their own. (They could also select a plant from the Glacier NP Coloring book. Then they could print and color in the drawing of their plant). 
5. Supply the students with the following "Questions for Plant Research", page 15. Add additional questions that might be appropriate. There are similar online lesson examples from Missouri Headwaters State Park and Cut Bank Public School on-line lesson (grade 7) for identifying native plants and their use by local tribes. 

Possible Extensions 

• Writing Extension: When the students have finished writing, editing, and rewriting; ask them to do illustrations of their chosen plants.
• Field Trip Extensions: Invite an herbalist from the Blackfeet, Salish, Pend d’Oreille, or Kootenai to visit your class and talk about plant uses.
• Plant a native garden at your school - the Montana Native Plant Society Flathead Chapter has native plant lists, nursery locations and much more.
• Flathead Audubon, Flathead National Forest, and Flathead Conservation District - offer native plant gardening and restoration projects.
• Partner to do a Master Gardner project with Montana State University Extension.
• Visit a native plant nursery or have a speaker from one visit your class.
• Ranger-Led Field Trips and Service Learning Projects in Glacier National Park. The park’s native plant restoration program has service learning field trips for middle and high school students; the Forest Processes and Fire Ecology field trips can be modified for 3rd - 8th grade.
• Self-Guided Field Trips as well as Guided Tours - various concession operated - in Glacier National Park.
• Glacier Institute - geology and other education programs.
• Guided Tours in Glacier National Park- various concession operated.
• Flathead Community of Resource Educators (CORE) - outdoor education guide for field trips in the Flathead Region.
• Family Forestry Expo and River Honoring - organized annually, target specific grades and include information about native plants.

Vocabulary

Ceremony, native plant, protocol, scientific name.

Assessment Materials

Have the students present their research to the class and then bind the papers and illustrations into a class book. Take the book on your field trip and use it as a reference during your visit. Present the book to the school library when completed.

Additional Resources

• Aboriginal Tobacco Program - Cancer Care Ontario, Canada.
• Salish -Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee- 81 Blind Barnaby Street, P.O. Box 550, St. Ignatius, Montana 59865, Phone: [phone].
• Kootenai Culture Committee - Kootenai Culture Committee, PO Box 278, Pablo, Montana 59855, Phone: [phone].
• Blackfeet Community College Cultural and Language Division -Browning, MT 59417-0819, Phone [phone].
• Glacier National Park Fact Sheet, “Culturally Scarred Trees”.
• Montana Project Learning Tree, Montana State University Extension.
• Explore the River Curriculum CD- CSKT Tribal Fish & Game; the Habitats Native section has information about traditional uses of native riparian plants and their Salish -Pend d’Oreille names.
• Niitsitapiisini Our Way of Life; The Story of the Blackfoot People - Blackfoot First Nations and Glenbow Museum of Calgary, teacher toolkit. • Flathead Watershed Sourcebook; A Guide to an Extraordinary Place.
• Flathead Watershed Sourcebook; A Guide to an Extraordinary Place. 
• "Avalanche Basin Audio Tour” created by students from the Univ. of MT.
• Glacier’s Plant Invaders Traveling Trunk -contains hands-on materials and lessons to learn about non-native, invasive plants.
• “Seasons of the Salish” DVD. Produced by Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Tribal Preservation Office and distributed by OPI to every elementary school library. It is also included in the PlaceNames: Building Worldviews Using Traditional Cultures and Google Earth, distributed by OPI to every middle and high school library.

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