Montana: Stories of the Land

Chapter 5 - Beaver, Bison, and Black Robes: Montana's Fur Trade, 1800 - 1860

Additional Resources for Chapter 5

Educational Trunks

From Traps to Caps: The Montana Fur Trade, from the Montana Historical Society. This trunk gives students a glimpse at how fur traders lived and made their living along the creeks and valleys of Montana, 1810-1860.

Takeaways

Inspired by reading specialist Tammy Elser, who was in turn inspired by SKC graduate Taylor Crawford, we've created a "Takeaway" bookmark for every chapter of Montana: Stories of the Land. Before starting a chapter, print and cut out these bookmarks and distribute them to your students. Ask them to use the Takeaway to summarize the GIST of what they learn from reading assigned sections of the chapter. Remind them that they don't have much room, so they'll need to think before they write down the most important idea they want to take away from the section. Learn a little more about the GIST strategy.

Even though we've created Takeaways for every chapter, we don't recommend you have your students complete a Takeaway for every section of every chapter they read. That would be exceedingly tedious. However, used appropriately, they can be a useful tool for encouraging reflection and teaching students how to summarize information.

Websites and Online Lesson Plans

White Oak Society Learning Centre and Trading Post  includes well-organized and relevant information on many aspects of the fur trade.

The Gabriel Dumont Institute's "Virtual Museum of Metis History and Culture" is an amazing clearinghouse of material relating to the Metis. (Note: Videos and audio recordings are no longer working, but there is a wealth of written information. You may wish to direct students conducting projects to the bottom of the Learning Resources page where there essays aspects of the traditional Metis lifestyle. You can also find some of their videos on the Gabriel Dumont Institute's YouTube channel.

The Northwest Journal has articles on many topics related to the fur trade, including finger weaving, Metis style, "Fur Post Construction," "Women in the Fur Trade," and "A Year in the Life of a Canoe Brigade."

To accompany "The American Buffalo: Spirit of the Nation," an episode of the program Nature, PBS created this website.

A good bibliography of books and articles relating to the fur trade in Montana is available through the Montana History Compass.

PBS created a lesson plan on the spread of infectious diseases (particularly cholera) among American Indians to accompany its documentary, The West.

Videos or DVDs

Crossing Boundaries: The Story of Sophie Morigeau, by Salish Kootenai College - 27 minutes. Available through SKC Media (call 406-275-4878 or email frank_tyro@skc.edu.)

Possible Fieldtrips

Fort Benton, Montana

Fort Owen State Park, Stevensville  (Related IEFA lesson plans are available.) 

St. Mary's Mission, Stevensville

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, Williston, North Dakota

Alignment to Content Standards and Essential Understandings Regarding Montana Indians (EU)

Tests and Answer Keys