Greetings From Montana

Hello All,
Life is busy for me in Montana! I joined my Global Volunteers group at Great Falls Airport on Saturday morning. The majority of us come from two different families who have used summer vacation time to volunteer and learn more about Montana and the Blackfeet culture. It has been fun for me to connect with Bridget, who will be entering third grade this fall, and Nancy, a retired librarian who is the matriarch of the other family. Our home base is the Head Start building in Browning. We are sleeping dormitory-style in classrooms that are set up with bunks, sheets and blankets. I feel pretty much at home surrounded by books, toys, and furniture covered up in black plastic!

We have a morning meeting each day. We listen to an inspirational quote that one team member has chosen, the daily journal from the previous day that another member wrote, and updates on each of our work projects. We then decide who will be doing what for the day, and we scramble off to various locations on the reservation. So far I have volunteered at the Community Development Center. Global Volunteers matches their own team members with members of the communites they support. This means I have had lots of opportunities to interact with tribal members. I am learning a lot about Blackfeet history and culture.




Part of a sculpture outside of Browning Hospital - made with recycled metals

Two of our team members help coordinate our free time activities. On Sunday, we took a drive through the reservation to get our bearings and see some of the sights. The reservation is very close to Glacier National Park and the Canadian border. We stopped to take pictures at Duck Lake, St. Mary Lodge, Two Medicine Lake, and Glacier Lodge in East Glacier.

Two Medicine Lake

On Sunday night I watched a video that helped me understand more about the Lewis and Clark expedition from a Blackfeet perspective. On Monday, we drove to a ranch on the outskirts of Browning to participate in a sweat. Being a part of this spiritual ceremony was an incredibly powerful experience that I never would have had without the strong local connections that Global Volunteers has made.
I am off to work now with some people who are setting up for Indian Days, a pow wow that will occur over the next four days in Heart Butte.

I hope all are well back home.