For countless years before the arrival of the first Europeans in North America, Plains Indians chronicled their histories in magnificent pictorial styles. Early explorers and fur traders introduced new artistic tools and techniques into the region in the early 1800s, and native artists incorporated these new mediums into their traditional styles of pictographic histories.

Based on a temporary exhibit of the same name, this multifaceted curriculum provides you with all the tools necessary to bring ledger drawings and other pictographic art from the permanent collections of the Montana Historical Society into your classroom and to engage your students both in the study of a vibrant art form and to gain new insights into Indian peoples’ adaptability and resilience during a period of rapid change. 

The Art of Storytelling Curriculum grew out of a temporary exhibit displayed at the Montana Historical Society (MHS) in 2012. In cooperation with the Indian Education Division of the Montana Office of Public Instruction, MHS created curriculum packets, which included all the resources on this website as well as prints of selected images from the exhibit. These packets were sent to all Montana public school libraries in October 2012. 

This web-based version of the curriculum includes the following:
 

Basic Information for Teachers

• Information (in brief) about ledger art and the concepts covered in this unit, as well as links to additional resources.

Sample Templates

• Printable Ledger Templates teachers can reproduce as "canvases" for art projects, created with reproductions of pages from a ledger book used at Fort Keogh
• A drawing of a buffalo hide, also for use as a "canvas" for art projects
• Background information on the ledger book pages

Lesson Plans

• The Winter Count: Marking Time (Grades K-3) and (Grades 4-6). Useful resources for the 4-6 lesson include:
  • Fort Peck Tribal Timeline or timeline of another Montana Indian tribe of your choice.
  • Background information on federal Indian policy periods
• Personal Storytelling Oral Traditions, and Narrative Art (Grades K-3) and (Grades 4-6)
  • Family Story Assignment Worksheet
  • Family History Question Ideas
• Exploring Influences and Perspectives through Ledger Art (Grades 7-12). Useful resources for this lesson include:
  • Trailtibes.org (Blackfeet)
  • 1855 Blackfeet Treaty 
  • “Two Worlds Collide, 1850-1887,” Montana: Stories of the Land (Helena, 2008)
  • Montana Tribal History Resources, created by the Montana Office of Public Instruction's Indian Education Division
  • Other lesson plans and resources from the Montana Office of Public Instruction's Indian Education Division
  • Picturing America, NEH. (Most school libraries have this series): “Sans Arc Lakota” Ledger Book, 1880-1881 (Artist: Black Hawk); “Catlin Painting the Portrait of Mah-to-toh-pa—Mandan, 1861/1869”
  • University of California San Diego Plains Indian Ledger Art Project 
  • National Museum of the American Indian: “A Song for the Horse Nation” 
  • Museum of the Plains Indian: "Treasures of the IACB (Indian Arts and Crafts Board" 
  • Websites of contemporary artists: Terrance Guardipee (Blackfeet) and Kevin Red Star (Crow) 

PowerPoint Presentations

• Medicine Bear, Yanktonai Dakota (Sioux), Winter Count PowerPoint
  • Lesson Plan for Using the PowerPoint (K-6)
• The Art of Storytelling PowerPoint for Grades K-6
  • Lesson Plan for Using the PowerPoint (K-6)
• The Art of Storytelling PowerPoint for Grades 7-12
  • Lesson Plan for Using the PowerPoint (7-12)

Maps

• Tribal Homelands, 1855
• Montana Reservations, 1870 and 1890
• Current Montana Reservations
   

Selected Images from the Montana Historical Society Exhibit