River Honoring teaches respect for land
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“It’s the best classroom I’ve ever taught in,” said tribal educator Germaine White, gesturing with open arms around the Woodcock campsite near Moiese.
Kids from all the Reservation schools, Lakeside, Trout Creek, Kalispell and Missoula would agree it’s a great classroom. About 600 children and adults visited during the two-day River Honoring.
“We always wanted the River Honoring to be permanent, traditional, a way of life,” said Tom McDonald, head of CSKT Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation.
Teepees dotted a meadow bordered by the Flathead River, each offering a presentation about some facet of tribal culture, wildlife, wetlands, fire, horses in the backcountry, water quality, the Bison Range, fish, air quality, art and forestry, for example. At the sound of the drum, classrooms moved from teepee to teepee.
Flat grassy areas provided fields for shinny and doubleball, and trees fringing the areas were good places for kids to plunk down and eat their sack lunches. A slight breeze and clouds intermittently shielding the sun made for perfect weather.
A group of fourth graders from Linderman School in Polson played shinny. With big grins, the students tried to hit the deerskin ball, about the size of a cantaloupe. The object of shinny is to get the ball through the other team’s goal.
Dana Hewankorn, as referee, made kids keep their shinny stick below their knees and broke up clots of players so the game could continue.
Near the bank of the Flathead River, elder Pat Pierre talked to students about honoring the river and the land.
“We have a responsibility to be good stewards of the earth,” Pierre said. “You take; you give.”
Asked what that meant to him, one student explained that if he and his family camped on the river, they should pick up all their trash and pack it out with them.
Across the way, Paul Philips from Salish Kootenai College Fitness talked to fourth-graders about tribal life 100 or 200 years ago. Drawing them into the discussion, Philips asked what women would have been doing. Students’ answers including cooking, butchering animals, scraping hides, carrying wood and sewing clothing.
Men, he said, would have been hunting, knapping arrowheads and taking care of their horses and their weapons.
“Early Indians were extremely active, with a low sugar intake,” Philips said, “And they ate extra lean meat, such a buffalo, deer, elk, and rabbit. They had to save fat to put in their diet.”
There was no sugar in their diet, Philips said, but today people are extremely inactive and eat much more sugar. People need more insulin to deal with the sugar in their food and that can lead to type 2 Diabetes. But diet and exercise can prevent the disease.
And exercise they did. Gathered on a long, flat patch of grass, the kids each got a stick, about 3 feet long, and prepared to play doubleball. The ball is made of buckskin with two balls joined by a leather strap. To score, a player must either throw the ball over, under or get the ball wrapped on the goal posts by passing the ball to teammates. Doubleball originally was a women’s game, Philips said, and sometimes played on either a 1 to 3-mile field. The game built up endurance for foot travel as the tribe moved and taught teamwork and hand-eye coordination.
The children playing doubleball didn’t realize it, but the River Honoring has been going once since 1986 when it was primarily aimed at Salish Kootenai College students. In 1992, tribal leaders decided to focus on a younger audience, grade school children, to “increase awareness and instill a favorable land use ethic,” according to a history of the River Honoring written by Les BigCrane.
“In the last 10 years, Tom has had the vision and foresight to invite the community in,” White, Natural Resources and Education Specialist with CSKT said.
A community barbecue on Monday night drew about 300 people. Awards were presented, too. Marlene McDanal received an award for stewardship to the land; Co Carew, SKC Social Work Department Chair, received the education award; and Andy Woodcock, an elder award.
The River Honoring is a blend of culture, history and a sense of place, which is unique, McDonald said, since the event can be held on the river.
It teaches children how to respect water, live lightly on the land and shares history, culture and language of the tribes, McDonald explained.
