Travel

TRAVEL

SEMINARS IN PLACE

  • Billings, MT: We will begin our summer institute in Billings, MT, by spending several days at Montana State University-Billings, where we will have lodging in the dorms and our meetings on campus.
  • Bismarck, ND:  We will conclude our summer institute in Bismarck, ND, spending several days at the North Dakota Heritage Center. During this period, we will be lodged in America’s Best Value Inn, a mile from the NDHC. We will have some smaller vehicles for moving folks between the hotel and the seminar site, unless you prefer to walk.

EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY

  • Between the two seminars we will be on the road for about two weeks, visiting reservations, natural sites, tribal colleges, state and national parks.  During this period, we will be staying in motels that have been chosen with an eye both to comfort and economizing.
  • The Homestead Inn and Suites in Hardin, MT, has given us a firm quote of $48.15/night/person in a shared room with two queen beds.  All meals will have to be found in the surrounding community, and there will be daily stops at supermarkets. Here are the TripAdvisor recommendations for places to eat. Very easily walkable places are Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Subway, and McDonalds. This reservation and rate are to be confirmed in January 2019.
  • The Best Western Golden Prairie Inn and Suites in Sidney, MT, will cost $39/night/person for a two-bedded, shared double with free Wifi and breakfast. Reservation for 16 rooms and price confirmed by Bryce Baker, Sept. 29, 2018.
  • The Comfort Inn and Suites in Watford City, ND will cost $54.21/night/person in a shared double room, but this will include free Wifi, free breakfast, some light refreshments all day, and free cookies after 3 PM.  We might arrive in time on Thursday, July 11th, in order to have free soup, but the other evenings we will have to find our own dinner.  The reserved rooms and price were confirmed by Brenda Juker on October 24, 2018.
  • The Coal Country Inn in Stanton, ND, will cost $35 + tax/night/person in a two-bedded, shared double (which will include free Wifi but not a free breakfast). Breakfast options include going to the motel’s restaurant or walking to a grocery store. Lodging reservation and price were confirmed by Rebecca Bailey on August 24, 2018.
  • America’s Best Value Inn, Bismarck, ND, will cost about $35 + tax/night/person for a two-bedded, shared double with free Wifi and breakfast.  Lodging reservation and price were confirmed by Dean Kerzman on August 24, 2018.

PACKING

  • ACADEMIC MATERIALS

We highly recommend that you bring a laptop or an iPad where you can store your reading materials (which you can download from the website), take notes, and prepare your lesson plan or curricular materials (your “Teaching”). Since you will need to keep a journal of our trip, you might either do that digitally or bring a sketch-book or the like.  But we are providing you with a 100-page paper-based notebook for writing by hand. A good camera (a good quality digital phone camera is acceptable) will be important for recording your visits to archaeological sites, museums, and dramatic landscapes. If you have video capability on your camera, that could be a plus, for instance for recording the session where you learn to build a tipi or if one of the elders consents for you to record a story or to film a dance at a powwow.

  • PRACTICAL ITEMS

A day pack or a grocery bag would be a good idea for carrying your academic materials, your picnic items, and other practical items, such as a collapsible umbrella (for creating your own shade on hot afternoons). The Director will have some binoculars to share when we visit the Pictograph Caves and for viewing wildlife in some of the parks.

We will be having many picnic lunches, so you might wish to bring a picnic cloth upon which to sit. The project will provide paper towels, napkins, plastic utensils, plastic bowls, cups, and plates (that you can save, wash, and reuse), plus a couple of cutting boards and knives for preparing picnic items.  In the dorm at MSU-Billings, we are supposed to have access to kitchens on every floor, where you can prepare food (unless you go off campus to eat), but it turns out that there are no refrigerators.

Bringing your own bottle or thermos for water, would be a terrific idea; this could be filled each morning and brought with you on our excursions (or even in classrooms).  We will also be providing emergency bottles of water and some occasional snacks on the bus trips, but we will ask for your empty plastic bottles back so that we can recycle them.

Emergencies: If you require insulin, if you might need an epi pen, or if you anticipate the potential for a snake bite kit (going off trail?), please bring your own. We do have two bottles of bear spray (which we don’t anticipate having to use!), and someone who is going off to Glacier Park after our time together might get to take the spray with them. We will have a fairly extensive first aid collection with many other items; we will put these on display so that you will see and know what is available. The more general first aid items will be with us in our places of lodging and on the bus.

Weapons and illegal drugs will not be allowed and would be cause for expulsion. Moderate alcoholic beverage use should be restricted to your own evening dining time, as alcohol will not be tolerated during group picnics in parks or in Native communities.

  • APPAREL

Comfortable shoes for walking are essential for this Institute. A hat or sun visor and sunglasses will also be welcome additions to the suitcase.  Be sure to bring both sunscreen and mosquito repellent. Temperatures in eastern Montana and western North Dakota average in the low- to mid-80s in July, so bring clothing (casual) that will be suitable for warm weather but perhaps also a sweater/fleece or light jacket for night-time wear, as night-time temperatures fall into the high 50s.

Powwow clothing:  You might wish to choose your clothing with some guidelines in mind from Indian Country Today.  These guidelines were written for visitors to powwows, but some of them could be appropriate for visiting any Native community:  “Dress modestly…. It is not appropriate to wear hats, swimsuits, extremely short skirts or shorts or halter tops. Do not wear T-shirts or other items of clothing with profanity or inappropriate slogans. If you plan to participate in dances that are open to the public, keep in mind that some tribes require women to wear a shawl or cover their shoulders.”

  • GIFTS

Gifting is an important tradition in many indigenous communities. To present a gift to a tribal elder who speaks to our group is a way to honor that host and to show respect for intruding upon their territory. Our director will be providing honoraria (in the form of salary) to our speakers, but also gifts (abalone shells, sweetgrass braids, northern sage bundles, for example, which are said to be fitting for the tribes of the regions through which we will pass). Those who wish to take a turn at gift giving are invited to ask the Director to present the group’s gift to a given speaker or host as the Institute progresses.  Please know that you are under NO pressure to bring additional gifts at your own expense.  The Director will also be tipping the bus driver, although you could each give a modest donation toward one final tip for the driver on July 17th, out last day with the bus.

  • FAMILY AND PETS

We are not insured to include your family on our bus or at any NEH-funded or organized activities. Rather, we ask that you devote yourself to integrating with our group of NEH Summer Scholars in every way possible, which would be difficult if you had family nearby.

As a compromise, you might consider a family road trip just prior to our Institute, taking in perhaps Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, or the Grand Tetons. Alternatively, you might plan a family trip as you depart from Bismarck, perhaps visiting sites in South Dakota (e.g. the Oceti Sakowin camp where the DAPL protests took place). But, please remember, you would need to take such a decision into account when making air travel reservations and when considering your stamina for our three-week Institute.

Finally, please leave your pets at home. We love them, but they will not be appropriate to have on buses (where other travelers might have allergies), in university settings, in Native communities, in parks, and so on.

 

 

This institute is being funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this web resource do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.”