Open Book Club Presents People Before the Park

SEELEY LAKE - Dr. Sally Thompson will be reading from her recently published "People Before the Park" Saturday, March 5 at 7 p.m. at the Grizzly Claw Trading Company sponsored by Alpine Artisans' Open Book Club. Her presentation will include Power Point photos and charts. Dr. Thompson is a retired Professor of Anthropology from the University of Montana, Missoula, and a recognized ethnographer and ethnologist. The event is free and everyone is welcome.

In "People Before the Park," the Kootenai and Blackfeet tribes share their traditions, stories and legends, food ways and hunting techniques, spiritual beliefs, place names and other aspects of their traditional life. The balanced partnership of Dr. Thompson and her Kootenai and Blackfeet colleagues has produced a splendid array of stories and insights into the tribes existence in their traditional territories that included the land that is now Glacier National Park.

For centuries before the intrusion of the white man, the tribes lived in enjoyment of the abundance of the land in the greater Glacier/Crown of the Continent area. "People Before the Park" begins by describing the beauty and bounty of the greater Glacier area and how the tribes utilized these resources. There is a wealth of information provided by the representatives of the two tribes regarding their lifestyles, stories and travel routes, some of which are in use today. Historic descriptions of interactions with the tribes by early white visitors are also included.

This is an academic text with great detail and will be of interest to those who are curious about the history of native Americans and this area of Montana and who would appreciate the spiritual part of the physical world by imagining its ancient use. To complement the incredible detail, the book is thoroughly indexed which easily allows the reader to find references to specific topics or areas of special interest.