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Canada and the United States share the longest undefended border in the world. Since the War of 1812, the two nations have been at peace. Although the stepwise establishment of the present international border through agreements in 1818 and 1846, and the initial survey of the 49th parallel in the 1850’s and 1860’s were political struggles, the issues were resolved peacefully. Common language and custom, economic similarity, traditions of democracy and principal trade partnerships have led to (for better or worse) the two countries taking each other for granted most of the time.
The languages of Native Americans on both sides of the border are also nearly identical. Canadians and Americans watch the same TV shows and eat very similar foods. We are far more alike than different, yet there still exists the straight-line swath of clear-cut along the 49th parallel, the international border. Customs stations on the roads remind us that sovereignty is still an issue. Political systems, both tribal and neo-European, are somewhat different. We have different views on international relations, and our currency is similar but valued differently. Today, tolerance and respect regarding these slight differences is a given.
The Peace Park
Waterton Lakes National Park was established in 1895 and Glacier National Park was designated in 1910. To celebrate peace and goodwill along the border, Waterton – Glacier International Peace Park (WGIPP) was chartered in 1932 through the diligence of farsighted Rotary Clubs in Alberta and Montana. It was a unique idea -- the first International Peace Park of either nation, or for that matter, anywhere in the world.
The legislation was only a recognition of the obvious. Along the “backbone of the world” as the Blackfeet called the great divide, the relationships between North and south were always stronger than east-west. To the Bloods, North and South Piegans, the Kootenai, Salish and Plains Cree, the “border’ was irrelevant. To the wolves, grizzlies, Clark’s nutcrackers, fungal mycelia and thousands of other species it is still a figment of the human imagination. Hypothesize then, its lack of relevance to the fossilized algal mounds, the mammoth slab of rock called the Lewis Overthrust, the mountain-sized glaciers which carved mountain-sized rocks, or the great herds of mastodons and wooly rhinos -- which mark eons and epochs instead of years.
In this larger context, the existence of the Peace Park is a statement about human stewardship and cooperation within the relatively intact ecosystem we call the Crown of the Continent. To most everyone, it is one place.
Even during the early white history of the parks, the first rangers routinely circumnavigated the entire area on snowshoes, visiting their counterparts on the other side of the border and Native American Friends on the way. “Kootenai” Brown, Waterton’s first ranger-warden and “Death-on-the-Trail” Reynolds, his counterpart at Goat Haunt on the American side, were the first to hatch the idea of a “peace park”.
“It seems advisable to greatly enlarge this park (Waterton). It might be well to have a preserve and breeding grounds in conjunction with the United States’ Glacier Park.” - Kootenai Brown
“ The geology recognizes no boundaries, and as the lake lay… no man-made boundary could cleave the waters apart.” - Henry Reynolds
The idea of a peace park reflected these first warden-rangers’ intimacy with the natural processes and ancient history of human life here. They lived with the internationally shared climate, geology, animals and plants, and the recognition of those connections was obvious to them.
In fact, the two parks were functioning as a unit, long before the political designations. In their entire histories, Waterton and Glacier have coordinated such things as predator policy, bear management, fire policies, back country use, scientific findings – even the telling of the parks’ stories through interpretation.
Joint projects between the two National Parks include: population studies using grizzly bear DNA from hair samples, bull trout genetic variability, archeological indexing, and the influence of exotic plants. Park employees work with the implicit assumption that no project is done in isolation.
Work is ongoing to expand cooperative efforts. A few examples are: the elimination of the clear-cut border swath through the park, resumption of longer-term staff exchanges, standardization of management policies, solving revenue division problems and explore a possible joint entry permit, joint funding proposals, joint interpretation and education projects (such as this teacher’s guide), and expanding the roles of Native Americans in staffing and interpretation of the WGIPP.
Two Parks as One Park
To function as Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, an awareness of the similarities and differences between Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park is the natural starting place. The similarities are the natural “glue” of an international park, and the differences are the modifiers of cooperation efforts.
Some similarities:
1. The parks share an undisturbed, contiguous natural landscape – geology, species of plants and animals, ecological biomes and systems.
2. Most visitors and employees share common cultural values.
3. Park philosophies, mandates and management are more similar than different.
4. Recreation opportunities are similar.
5. They often share visitors.
6. Native American history is independent of the international border.
7. Both operate under federal mandates.
8. Continued high interest by Rotarians on both sides of the border.
9. Common roads and trails.
10. Similar use problems – over-use in summer, under-use in winter, introductions of exotic species, decline of large carnivore populations, strained and out-of-date infrastructure, financial cutbacks, user conflicts with wildlife, etc.
11. Shared air and water (relatively clean by world standards).
12. Common “peace” theme.
13. Similar political relationships with surrounding communities.
14. Both are Biosphere Reserves (world recognition for unique ecological features).
15. The combination of the two national parks as a Peace Park is a World Heritage Site.
16. Both have adjacent wild areas (e. g. Bob Marshall, Great Bear Wilderness and Akamina-Kishenina Provincial Recreation Area
17. Both are dealing with changing public attitudes and demographics
18. Both parks deal with issues regarding concessions inside the parks
19. Waterton townsite is within WLNP and GNP has communities both inside and just outside the park (Apgar, Many Glacier, West Glacier, etc. – bringing similar development issues.
Some differences:
1. Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP) has a primary mandate of ecological health protection and Glacier National Park (GNP) is mandated to balance between protection and use opportunities.
2. WLNP is much smaller than GNP.
3. GNP has private ownership in-holdings, WLNP has lease-holders.
4. The International Peace Park designation is non-controversial in Canada.
5. Provincial/federal relationship in Canada is somewhat different than state/national in U. S.
6. National Parks are more autonomous in the U. S., more centralized in Canada.
7. WLNP operates under the metric system of measurement and GNP under the English system.
8. WLNP has a multilingual mandate (French and English), GNP does not.
9. Canada and the United States have different systems of taxation.
10. Slightly different English spelling and pronunciation of a few words (color/colour, center/centre, recognise/recognize, etc,)
11. GNP places greater emphasis on research and monitoring.
Clearly, the International Peace Park designation goes beyond symbolism to practical, everyday actions and considerations. This is “peace” in action.
Peace and Place
On a hike from the Yukon to the southern end of the Wind River Range, we simply wouldn’t notice anything but incremental changes in climate and flora. We would see fewer caribou as we hiked south, but would take the same grizzly precautions everywhere we camped. Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is a small acknowledgement of the futility of attempts to impose politics and economics on something far bigger and far older than us. The magnificence and intricacy of “the shining mountains” is beyond question.
Just as cultural and biological connections north to south are there for the observing, connections between the remote areas of the divide and the peopled valleys are just as intricate and powerful. Bear management policies in the Peace Park affect the real estate developer in the valleys below. The reverse (bear – human conflict in newly developed areas) is often displayed in valley newspapers. These connections, north to south, continental divide to valley and plains, are the primary reason for this guide.
The concept of a peace park has expanded the definition of “peace”. The Rotarians envisioned a tangible statement of peace between nations. But in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (WGIPP), humans are at peace with an intact ecosystem, and visitors find peace and solitude in the far reaches of the continental divide. There is an instinctive peace we humans feel when we understand our connections, our oneness, with the place where we live. Perhaps there is no peace like the kind we feel when we know we belong somewhere. This is the kind of peace we want to help you provide to your students.
Peace, Place and Teaching
When we teach, we are very competent at teaching the components of this vast place. We teach math, science, social studies, language, art, physical education, etc. with the best in the world. But the context of these courses of study – the fabric of processes and relationships which give real meaning to our education is held hostage by the disciplinary structure of schools, hyper-busy teaching schedules, the school building itself and our post-European way of thinking. We have forgotten something in our quest to meet state and national standards and raise test scores. We live here. We operate our lives in the shadow of the Backbone of the World. We look through educational equipment catalogs for hands-on activities and tools imported from New Jersey – and we have arguably the most spectacular laboratory, playground, concert hall, art studio and classroom on the planet right outside our doors. The two member parks of the WGIPP are Biosphere Reserves (1976, 1979) and together are a World Heritage Site (1995), designations which are characterized by their “outstanding universal value” to the world.
This guide is about thinking globally, nationally, and provincially – but teaching locally. Our home is the ultimate in relevant hands-on experience, because we are a part of what we learn. But the major reason we don’t teach our subjects in the context of our home is that we never learned about it ourselves.
That is the reason for this guide. It will allow us to teach to the “standards” and teach students about living in their home – simultaneously. It helps address the severe problems of motivation and disengagement by students which we witness every day. It can function as a motivational safety net for those students who have fallen behind, and as a creative outlet for those who are highly skilled and bored.
But it is not a panacea. It is intended only as an early example of how to teach relevance and interconnections between everything. It begins with an assumption that everything is connected to everything else, and everything is modified by everything else. There is no political dogma or agenda in this document. Students make their own value decisions throughout. We have done our best to cross-reference the learning to local, provincial, state, and national standards. The assessment processes herein are addressed toward multiple intelligences and learning styles. They are “authentic” in the contemporary jargon, but will also reflect well on more traditional test scores.
Perhaps equally important to you, you may like teaching better, possibly because you get to learn about your “home” in the process.
How To Use the Teacher’s Guide
In this guide, we have attempted to balance two important considerations for you as a teacher: (a) thoroughly and adequately explaining a place-centered K – 12 educational scope and sequence, and (b) the time and energy constraints of you as a teacher.
The guide is organized into the following components:
A Resource Guide that provides you with basic background information on the natural and cultural history of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Your knowledge of the Peace Park will greatly enhance your ability to teach the units. This resource guide is not meant to be definitive. For more detailed information on the Peace Park, contact park staff with your questions.
A developmentally appropriate sequence of activities which will form a K – 12 program of WGIPP and Crown of the Continent “literacy”. There are three versions: a grade K – 3 version, a 4 – 6 version or a 7 – 12 version. To see the “big picture” look at all three versions (see: “Activity Sequence” in this section). These activities have been drawn from a large list of resources which already exist, and in some cases written entirely from identified need. With “yet another curriculum,” in most cases, it is up to you to make some sense of the sequence, match the objectives to your particular state, local and national standards, find the time to read the activities, and justify changes to your administration and parents. We have tried to do much of this work for you by including categories for each activity in the sequence which shortcut some of your practical concerns.
Each activity includes most or all of the following curriculum sub-headings, in order to place them in the same context:
- A teacher’s background and/or narrative story-line introduction to the natural history, cultural, historical, economic, political, or aesthetic “topic” from the WGIPP. You may wish to use this narrative as background for yourself or integrate it into the activity for your students. These “stories” focus on the interrelationships between the WGIPP and surrounding areas. In primary grades, these stories are much more general and lay the conceptual groundwork for increasingly complex studies later.
- Specific developmental levels which are appropriate for this activity.
- List of key topics of study
- Time requirements
- Materials list
- Procedure(s)
- Safety considerations
- Variations and extensions for multiple intelligences (logical/mathematical, linguistic, interpersonal, intra-personal, musical, spatial/artistic, kinesthetic, naturalistic) and learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)
- Suggestions for cross-curriculum integration and team-teaching
- A list of questions which extend discussion into the connections between the activity and other aspects of daily life
- Assessment (ongoing, final, teacher and student) for multiple intelligences and learning styles
These activities are about the International Peace Park, the surrounding areas, your students, and you! All activities are local case studies and have real-life context, showing relationships between the WGIPP and your students. They also emphasize connections to larger communities, both natural and human (the larger context). The activities will supplement a case-study “theme” which can be followed over a period of time.
These themes fit different developmental levels of students in different ways. A simplified example on a geologic theme could be (a) sorting local rocks and soils by color, size, smell, texture, etc. in the primary grades (examination skills), (b) introducing local sedimentary, metamorphic, glaciers, landforms, etc. in the 4 - 6 grades (slightly more abstract) and (c) examining the relationships of local rock and soil types to human economic and political systems (through maps) at the middle school and higher levels. These developmental divisions reflect current brain development research about processing. Obviously the content of 7th grade material will be less sophisticated than the 12th grade, but the ways they can process these different content levels is similar.
There are opportunities for primary grade field trips to Waterton or Glacier Parks, but the basic issues of park connection can be approached in the classroom, the schoolyard, at home, in the ditches and marshes on a child’s way to school, on the TV or in the computer.
The development of awareness and attitudes about links and connections is critical at early ages. We all develop our thinking “patterns” early in life. The activities in the primary section lay the groundwork for the later concept of a “Peace Park”. (The relationship between nations through a joined park is a hopeless abstraction for 2nd graders, but learning about cooperation and relationships in an immediate sense is appropriate.)
The content of all activities fits into the “context” of the Crown of the Continent bioregion and the Peace Park. Cross-references to local (when possible) Montana, Alberta, United States and Canadian educational standards have been included for every activity in the Appendices. We feel that you must make the decision to substitute (as opposed to adding) pieces of this suggested sequence for activities already entrenched in a very crowded curriculum. The least we can do is ease the process.
Activities Sequence
The Activities in this guide work best as a sequence through all grades. That said, the problems of adopting an entire sequence of activities are daunting. A K – 12 sequence demands wholesale curriculum substitution by individual teachers, coordination between teachers at a particular school, coordination between schools which may have different curriculum expectations, and regular communication between all participants after a sequence is adopted. With this in mind, it is more realistic to suggest either piloting the sequence with a few key teachers, or a gradual adoption of the units and activities, working toward a customized sequence which fits the needs of individual teachers and schools.
The role of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park in facilitating your long-term goals regarding this Guide is to coordinate initial training through workshops, assist in the coordination and communication processes by promoting the Guide in teacher and administrator meetings, and by being constantly available to you for informal assistance.
The activity sequence is not linear. Rather, each unit in the earlier grades prepares students for as many as three or four units later. The following chart outlines the most direct relationships between units in each of the three versions of the Guide:
K – 3 Unit prepares students for 4 – 6 Units
1 (Your Are Here) 1 (Geog. of Me), 7 (Climate Lab.)
2 (My Home’s in the Park) 3 (Our medicine Our Food), 4 (Shared Spirits),
5 (Winter Wanderings), 6 (Skyscrapers…)
3 (Rottenly Beautiful) 3 (Our Medicine…), 6 (Skyscrapers)
4 (3 Bears) 4 (Shared Spirits), 5 (Winter Wanderings)
5 (Rock Park) 2 (Ice Spirits)
4 – 6 Unit prepares students for 7 – 12 units
1 (Geog. of Me) 1 (An International Park), 5 (A Park Not Alone)
2 (Ice Spirits) 2 (Serious Economics Nut), 3 (Aspenlands),
4 (Land of Giants),
3 (Our Medicine…) 2 (Serious Econ. Nut), 3 (Aspenlands)
4 (Shared Spirits) 2 (Serious Econ. Nut), 3 (Aspenlands), 5 (Park Not Alone)
5 (Winter Wanderings) 2 (Serious Econ. Nut), 3 (Aspenlands), 4 (Land of Giants)
6 (Skyscrapers…) 4 (Land of Giants)
7 (Climate Lab.) 2 (Serious Econ. Nut), 5 (Park Not Alone)
We hope that you share our enthusiasm about where we live. Giving our children a sense, and a knowledge, of place could be our best gift to them. A sense of place is not a piece that passes all understanding, but it can be a foundation for cognitive and affective development which shapes a healthy future for our children and our place.
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