Melissa
Harvesting the Hair of Mother Earth (2019)
Women gather and pick sweet grass late June and July. 21 blades per braid of sweet grass, one of the four sacred medicines given to us from Creator. We use it to pray, cleanse and purify.
– Jackie Traverse
Ojibway
Indigenous Resistance & Resilience
Compelling Question
How has Indigenous resistance to colonization resulted in survival and intergenerational resilience?
Supporting Question 1
What deliberate acts did the U.S. government conduct to achieve the goal of human and cultural genocide from 1840s to 1890?
Supporting Question 2
What methods and strategies were used by Indigenous people in resistance efforts and movements?
Supporting Question 3
How have Indigenous people demonstrated resilience through persistence and resistance?
Extension
Examine additional Indigenous stories and voices who were impacted by policies enacted in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Explore the diverse ways Indigenous people responded and were impacted
Taking Informed Action
Using evidence and knowledge generated from the inquiry, design a project that explores impacts of 19th and 20th-century federal Indian policy and highlights forms of resilience and resistance in the 20th or 21st century. movement.
Share the findings in an authentic setting.
Erin O'Reilly
Educator & Researcher in Missoula, MT
How can we teach about colonization and the policies, laws, and actions that directly and deliberately impact people while also study resistance and movements that push against those pressures?
Melissa Hibbard
Educator & Historian in Helena, MT
How can we grow students' confidence and willingness to read and critically and creatively engage with books and concepts related to Indigenous history and culture?