Ktunaxa work with youth

Page 4

The Environmental Awareness Program (EAP) at Mount Baker Secondary School is designed to provide students with outdoor experiences that connect certain disciplines. In the past two months, the EAP Grade 12 students have worked with the Aboriginal Education Program of School District Number 5 in conjunction with Kootenay Columbia Fisheries Renewal Partnership on a project titled Across Cultures: An Experiential Approach to Environmental Stewardship.

In this project, students at Mount Baker and members from the Ktunaxa Nation engaged in three one-day workshops that examined the endangered white sturgeon and its historical importance to the Ktunaxa.

The first of the activities included a visit to a white sturgeon hatchery in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. There, participants learned about the Kutenai Tribe of Idaho's white sturgeon recovery project.

In December, Ktunaxa Elder Wilfred Jacobs returned to his old high school to share traditional knowledge with some of the students. Jacobs shared his insight and history concerning the white sturgeon and the use of the unique sturgeon-nosed canoe by the Lower Kootenay people. In this workshop, students not only learned how this canoe was used, but were also guided in constructing their own models.

The culminating event was held in January in the Purcell Mountains. It was at the upper reaches of the Columbia River's headwaters at a remote lake called Blue Lake with a hands-on workshop on making dried buffalo meat. The students experienced and explored aspects of the Ktunaxa culture related to the trading of dried sturgeon and buffalo meat by the Upper and Lower Ktunaxa. Also, they learned about traditional techniques required for survival, as well as tipi raising.