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Table of Contents
Facilitator's Guide
The Great Peace Council of 1855
A Readers' Theater in Three Acts
78 pages, PowerPoint on CD, and supplemental materials
Suggested for High School
The participatory format of Readers' Theater offers an excellent, hands-on opportunity for students to learn from the official documents and personal diaries about this historic council (a.k.a. Blackfeet Treaty Council; Lame Bull Treaty; Judith River Treaty), and its results.
This unique and professionally-researched resource helps citizens of the Interior Northwest - who share a land base with many Indian Nations through treaties made between 1855 and 1871 - to understand the history that led to these binding agreements.
Guide features
The guide contains several features designed to help set the stage for the Cast of Characters, providing essential geographical and historical background information that will enhance learning opportunities for students during the Readers' Theater experience. These features include:
- Background information on Montana's first treaties
- Geographic Orientation Pre-View activities
- Facilitator's Guide
- Notes for Classroom Application
- Correlations to National and State content standards
- Historical maps for geographic orientation and general study
In the Afterword, we hear from two Blackfeet educators on the context and attitudes of the various parties in attendance, and their thoughts on the history of their tribe since the time of the agreement.
Closing activities provide an opportunity to consider the agreements made through a discussion employing group role-play. A final reflection is designed to help participants integrate new perspectives on our multi-cultural history.
Maps and Supplemental Material
- USGS base map of Montana
- 1857 Stevens "Map of the Indian Nations and Tribes" (partial; area of Montana today)
- 1855 Stevens and Cumming map used during treaty negotiations
- Scripts for readers, with instructions for copying
- Color-coded name tags that enhance each participant's adoption of an identity during the reading
- Illustrated PowerPoint show (on CD), with scripted prompts in hard copy for the person advancing the slide show.
- Complete text of the treaty, with names of all signatories