Greetings, Flathead Beacon readers! Maggie Dresser here to take you to the east side of the Continental Divide in today’s roundup. Earlier this week, Media Director Hunter D’Antuono and I enjoyed some windshield time on a gorgeous fall day and took a field trip over to Babb to hear about a slew of inspiring stuff happening in the Blackfeet Nation.
With Chief Mountain as the backdrop of the annual gathering of the Shield Keepers and Chief Mountain Guardians, we heard from elders, young interns, Tribal Historic Preservation Office leaders and Blackfeet members working to preserve their culture. Much of the gathering was centered around Blackfeet Eco Knowledge (BEK), an organization that combines western conservation practices and Indigenous culture to protect the land and enrich the culture.
The gathering attracted tribal members from Navajo Nation in the Southwest and Kainai Nation across the U.S.-Canada border who introduced themselves during a pipe ceremony led by Blackfeet elder and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer John Murray.
We’ll be dropping a feature next week covering the Blackfeet Eco Knowledge and the work they’re doing, so I won’t divulge too much right now. But here’s a sneak peek into some of the other stuff that’s happening in the Blackfeet Nation.
A highlight from the east side trip included a presentation from Gheri Hall with the Blackfeet Tribal Historic Preservation Office, who told the audience about some of the projects the organization has been working on.
For example, the office recently started conducting a DNA project that revealed evidence of Blackfeet people on the landscape dating back 18,000 years.
“So that really solidifies our existence here on the land,” Hall said. “We have an archeologist who pairs our oral stories to the landscape here and also gives that validity – the validity of our stories that are true throughout time that we’ve passed down.”
The project, however, has since run out of funding. But Hall said research was starting to confirm the Blackfeet predated all other tribes’ existence in Montana.
“You know – you can go around all day telling people that this is our land, but until somebody actually reads it and has actual tangible evidence, then that really changes the way things are,” Hall said.
I’ll have more on the gathering next week, but until then – here’s the rest of today’s Daily Roundup.
Nuclear Missile Workers Are Contracting Cancer. They Blame the Bases.
People who maintained the nation’s land-based nuclear missile arsenal are coming down with similar cancers. The Air Force is wrapping up a large study of the health risks they may have faced.
As Glacier Reduces Visitor Services Amid Government Shutdown, Parks Advocates Push for Full Closure
Although most national parks remain “as accessible as possible during the federal government shutdown,” visitor services in Glacier National Park will be limited or unavailable as officials await guidance and business leaders are left “flying blind”
In her latest column, Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger Julie Laing shares her recipe for bulgar taco “meat.” Check it out here.
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