Recipients: Mission Grade School

Fort Belknap is a small Indian reservation located in north central Montana and is home to the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes. There, students at Mission Grade School had the opportunity, through a Las Casas Grant, to see beyond the boundaries of their own region.

The teachers, parents and staff believe that education requires attention to the whole child: mind, body and spirit, so the school administration initiated Project Learning. This project took the students on a three day field trip to Bozeman, Montana where fifth and sixth graders visited the Museum of the Rockies and attended a program at the Taylor Planetarium. They experimented with dry ice and simple machines at the Children's Museum.

"We want our children to be able to break many of the negative cycles that often develop on our reservations. We hope that in the future, they will have the freedom, knowledge, values and skills to make good choices and to grow to their fullest potential. Las Casas helped us accomplish part of that goal."

Christine Ferrar, OP (Sparkill)
Mission Grade School
Hays, Montana