K-12 School Resources: Indian Education for All
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West offers many K – 12 programs and resources to help teachers and students meet Montana and Wyoming’s Indian Education for All Social Studies Standards.
2024–2025 Virtual Professional Development
Contact Heather Bender (Native Education Outreach Specialist) at [email protected] for more information.
K–12 IEFA Virtual Professional Development Course
Join us online for a professional development opportunity which will help you meet Indian Education for All Social Studies Standards. During our online professional developments, we connect with Indigenous knowledge keepers, develop a professional learning community, and earn professional development credit.
Fee: $25.00 (participants will receive $25.00 of resource materials upon completion of the course)
21 hours = 1.5 WY PTSB credit or 21 MT OPI renewal units
Ten sessions (including modules, Lesson Labs, and final session share-out); attendance required
Tuesdays from 4–6:30 pm: 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, 11/19, 12/3, 12/17, 1/7/25, 1/21, 2/4, and 2/11
NEW! IEFA Content Intensive: Wind River Reservation
Join us and Indigenous knowledge keepers virtually to identify content resources that focus on the Wind River Reservation, to engage with culturally responsive pedagogical practices, and analyze content resources and identify ways to incorporate them into inquiry-based lesson plans.
Fee: $15.00 (participants will receive $15.00 of resource materials upon completion of the course)
7 hours = 0.5 WY PTSB credit or 7 MT OPI renewal units
Three 2-hour and 20-minute modules; attendance required
Three consecutive days (Tuesday–Thursday) from 4–6:30 pm: 11/12, 11/13, and 11/14
On-site Professional Development
Join us at the museum for an engaging and PLC-building professional development! See the flyer below for an example of how our on-site courses work. Our next on-site professional development will tentatively be in June 2025.
During our on-site professional developments, we connect with Indigenous knowledge keepers, develop a professional learning community, learn in the museum galleries, and earn Wyoming PTSB credit or Montana OPI renewal units. Contact Heather Bender at [email protected] for more information.
Field Trips: On-site and Virtual
The Center offers various Plains Indian culture and history focused programming, both as onsite guided experiences and as live virtual field trips. All experiences are aligned to Montana and Wyoming’s Indian Education for All Social Studies Standards.
Visit the links below for more information or to register for these immersive and interactive experiences for your students.
Guided Field Trip Experiences
Visit the Center on a field trip and schedule Plains Indian culture and history guided experience.
Virtual Field Trip Experiences
Is it too far to visit us in person? We offer several FREE, live, interactive virtual field trips about Plains Indian Cultures.
Additional Resources for Your Classroom
Outreach Trunks
Click on each image for a larger view of trunk contents. Visit our Outreach Trunk page to learn more about reserving and borrowing one of our outreach trunks.
Plains Indian Art Trunk
This trunk fosters an understanding and appreciation for the culture of Plains Indian people. Materials in the trunk include examples of traditional Plains Indian arts such as: bead work; quill work; and painted objects. A teacher’s guide and curriculum are enclosed.
Weight: 51 lbs. Size: 30 x 15 x 15 inches
Powwow Trunk
Music and dance have long been central to American Indian cultures. Today’s powwow is a celebration of that heritage. Learn about powwows in their present form and the history behind them with a video, dance outfits, musical instruments, accessories, a teacher’s guide, and curriculum.
Weight: 56 lbs. Size: 32.5 x 20.5 x 19 inches
Plains Indian Map Project
This Plains Indian Map—created with generous funding from The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston—is a fusion of scholarship and educational interpretation. The map represents 230 years of movement on the Plains amongst more than 45 different Indian cultures. Territorial, treaty, reservation, and state boundaries flow in an animated timeline.
The innovative scholarship and interpretation showcased in this map is recommended for a broad audience, including K–12 teachers and students. Viewers can pause the online animation at any point to study a particular map.
McCracken Research Library
The Center’s McCracken Research Library has extensive primary resources, including photographs of Plains Indian history and culture. The library also offers specialized research for middle and high school groups.
Videos
The Plains Indian Museum
The Plains Indian Museum tells the significant story of the lives of Plains Indian peoples, their cultures, traditions, values, and histories, as well as the contexts of their lives today.
In the words of Plains Indian Museum Advisory Board member and Crow tribal historian Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, the Museum is “a living, breathing place where more than just Indian objects are on display.” Since 1979 the museum has been a leader in promoting public recognition of the importance of Plains Indian art due to its nationally significant collection.
Paul Dyck Plains Indian Buffalo Culture Collection
The 2,000 piece collection consists of objects dating from the late 1700s to 1890s. With many individual pieces of exceptional artistry and historic significance, the collection as a whole includes works from every Plains tribe.
The Paul Dyck Collection includes objects associated with individuals of national significance in American cultural history including leaders such as Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce; great Lakota leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse; the last recognized chief of the Crow nation, Plenty Coups; Mountain Chief, leader of the Blackfeet; and historic explorers, Lewis and Clark. Other collection materials are associated with significant historical events including firearms and other weapons used at the Battle of Little Bighorn and objects associated with Curly and White Swan of the Crow 7th Cavalry scouts at the battle.
To view information on the various tribes represented in the collection, visit the following links:
Researching Plains Indian Tribes
For more information about some of the Plains Indian tribes in our region, please follow these links:
