Welcome! This website is rich in resources for teaching and learning about Montana history. We invite you to orient yourself by taking a guided tour or by reading through this introduction and exploring the site on your own.
We have posted much of the material as Pdf files, which can be viewed and printed with Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat reader and would like to download it click here.
The Maps section of the toolbar contains printable Pdf files of blank Montana maps to download and print. The Useful Links section of the toolbar suggests general Montana history sites and other resources that students and teachers will find useful for research projects.
Drop-down menus on the toolbar provide access to the chapter pages. Here, you will find a pdf file of the chapter text, two worksheets to download and print, and interesting links relating to the content of the chapter. Designed by middle school teacher Moffie Funk, these worksheets vary in difficulty and are intended to reinforce specific skills (reading maps, interpreting data, creating graphs, etc.) while reinforcing content covered in the text. Content standards associated with the worksheets can be found here.
Most chapters also contain a section titled Learning from Historical Documents. This section will include background information and links to relevant primary-source documents. Because original documents can be hard to read, we also provide a link to published excerpts of the documents. Finally, the page includes a link to a printable Written Document Analysis Worksheet, which will help students analyze the primary source material.
For each chapter we have provided password-protected sample tests and answer keys for the worksheets and tests posted online. The tests (and test answer keys) are posted as Word documents, so you can easily modify them to suit your particular needs.
Also provided are answer keys for the end-of-chapter material. These are not typical answer keys because the "Critical Thinking," "Past to Present," "Make It Local," and "Extension Activities" at the end of each chapter contain open-ended questions and activities with a range of possible answers and/or results. Therefore, for those questions, the answer key provides guidelines, suggestions, background information, and resources rather than absolute responses.
The educator's section also includes information on how each chapter of Montana: Stories of the Land aligns to the Montana Content Standards for Social Studies and the Essential Understandings Regarding Montana Indians (EU).
Ultimately, it will also contain information on historical controversies and other background material that we hope will enrich your understanding of Montana history as well as links to lesson plans, other resources, and ideas for fieldtrips.
As we continue to build this website, we welcome your feedback. Know of a good site we've missed? Found a bad link? Have other comments to share? We want to hear from you.