Folklife Resources for Educators

Materials Related to Montana--Social life and customs

There are 3 titles in this list.

Cowboy Poets - Teaching Guide
by Paddy Bowman
http://www.folkstreams.net/context,276

Teaching guide for grades 10-12 to accompany an excerpt of the film “Cowboy Poets,” created by Kim Shelton in 1988. Fourteen minutes of the 50-minute film are chosen as a focus for the teaching guide. The film excerpt documents Wally McRae, a cowboy poet from southeastern Montana, a third-generation rancher and gentleman-philosopher, who uses his poetic gifts to make personal statements about continuity within the ranching community and the strength of cowboy traditions under siege in the modern world. The teaching guide and film explore the topics of cowboy culture and poetry, family ranch life, environmental conservation, and community resistance to a giant coal corporation in the neighborhood. The entire film is also available as streaming video on folkstreams.net.

Sponsoring Organization:
Folkstreams


http://www.folkstreams.net/

Folklife in the Classroom
by Montana Arts Council
http://art.mt.gov/folklife/folklife_classroom.asp

Activities, lesson plans, and background about Montana folk arts and artists. Activities include the topics of "Cowboy Music & Poetry," "Documenting Traditions," "Indian Rawhide Drum Making," and "Quilting Traditions." Site also includes lesson plans, activities, and posters related to individual Montana traditional artists. The artists represent Blackfeet Indian beadwork, knifemaking, wood artistry, and traditional rawhide work from the White Clay People (Gros Ventre) tradition. Each lesson plan is in a 5 p. PDF format. Lesson plans are correlated to Montana Standards for Arts.

Sponsoring Organization:
Montana Arts Council
830 N Warren Street
Helena MT 59620
(406) 444-6430
http://art.mt.gov/default.asp

A Life in Beads: The Stories a Plains Dress Can Tell
by National Museum of the American Indian
http://americanindian.si.edu/education/files/NMAI_lifeinbeads.pdf

Teaching poster for grades 4-6 with accompanying lesson plans and activities that explore the traditional art of dressmaking and dress decoration among women of Native American tribes from the Great Plains region. Through the stories and art of contemporary women from the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes in Montana, students will learn about materials used in the past and today, as well as the cultural values and meanings behind dress decoration. Meets national curriculum standards for Social Studies. (10 p. PDF)

Sponsoring Organization:
National Museum of the American Indian
Fourth Street & Independence Avenue, SW
Washington DC 20560
(202) 633-6996
http://www.nmai.si.edu/