Montana: Stories of the Land

Chapter 20 - Building a New Montana, 1945 - 1965

Websites and Online Lesson Plans

Information is available online about the Hungry Horse Dam and power plant, the Yellowtail Dam, and the Libby Dam. 

Pitwatch.org provides detailed information on the Berkeley Pit. 

"Creating a New Community in the North: Mexican Americans of the Yellowstone Valley," by Laurie Mercier (in Stories from an Open Country: Essays on the Yellowstone River Valley, University of Washington Press, 1995) is the best source for more information on Mexican Americans in Montana.

The Char-Koosta News, the newspaper of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, is now available as full-text online for the years 1956-1961 and 1971-1988. Use this online resource to research tribal views on issues of the period.

Teachers interested in further study of the Cold War may find the following resources of use: The Great Falls Tribune article on the North American Air Defense Command; the fascinating (if somewhat biased) Cold War Museum website; and curriculum on the Cold War created by Nebraskastudies.org (which could be adapted to Montana). 

The National Archives' Teaching with Primary Documents project also includes several lessons relevant to the Cold War and the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam:

• "Telegram from Senator Joseph McCarthy to President Harry S. Truman"
• "The United States Enters the Korean Conflict"
• "Photographs and Pamphlet About Nuclear Fallout"
• "Memorandum of a Conference with President Eisenhower after Sputnik"
• "The War in Vietnam: A Story in Photographs"

The Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History has posted reminiscences of Montanans who fought in the Korean War.

The Daily Yonder published the article "Indian Relocation: Sending Roots under Pavement," about the Indian community in Chicago and their experience with the federal Relocation program.

Videos or DVDs

Chapter 5, "Ethnic Migration," (20 minutes), Chapter 6, "Federal Indian Policy" (19 minutes), and Chapter 7, "Montana's Resource Driven Economy" (17 minutes), from Montana Mosaic: 20th Century People and Events. (Check your library. OPI donated a copy of this DVD to every public school in Montana. The DVD is also available as streaming video.)

Contrary Warriors: A Film of the Crow Tribe - 60 minutes 

Possible Fieldtrips

Berkeley Pit, Butte

Libby Dam, Libby 

Yellowtail Dam Visitor Center, Fort Smith

 

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

Tests and Answer Keys