More summer speaker series events coming up at Missouri Headwaters State Park

THREE FORKS – Missouri Headwaters State Park will host two guest speakers this month as part of the park’s summer speaker series.

Both events will begin at 7 p.m. behind the park office. There is no cost to Montana residents. An $8 entrance fee applies at Montana state parks for all nonresident vehicles.

Visitors are encouraged to bring their own chair and bug spray. S’mores will be served afterward.

These presentations are offered through Montana Conversations, a program funded by Humanities Montana through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Montana’s Cultural Trust and private donations. Humanities Montana is funded in part by coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana’s cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund.

Connecting to Land Through an Indigenous Lens

Missouri Headwaters State Park will host guest speaker Lailani Upham on Aug. 5. This Montana Conversations program will discuss how indigenous stories offer a unique way to understand the power of the natural world and our human connections to it. Through discussion about indigenous peoples’ way of life, value systems, tribal languages and stories created long before Montana was established in 1889, participants learn about a personal, soulful relationship to our natural world. Upham will also discuss how these elements sustain our identity through history and in modern times.

Lailani Upham is an Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet Nation) tribal member, and a descendent from the Aaniiih, Nakoda, and Dakota tribes. She is a journalist, educator and business developer in indigenous stories and culture.

Bridging the Worlds

Missouri Headwaters State Park will host guest speaker Buck Hitswithastick on Aug. 12. This Montana Conversations program will present a knowledge-based discussion centered on Salish-Bitterroot history and experience, which focuses on native warriorship and cultural knowledge keeping. With 30-plus years of cultural immersion, language and wilderness experience, Buck Hitswithastick offers discussions on the concept of wisdom, strength and determination, which have been passed down by generations of his ancestors who overcame adversity. Buck makes this knowledge relatable to modern audiences while speaking through the lens of pre-European contact native culture and early reservation history.

Buck is a lifelong student of northwestern Native American peoples. His focus has primarily been his culture, the Bitterroot Salish of western Montana. He has studied with mentors and attended Salish Kootenai College. He has instructed students of all ages, including teaching the Bitterroot Salish language for 13 years at an elementary school on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana. He volunteers his time and expertise with audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Missouri Headwaters State Park is about 5 miles northeast of Three Forks on Trident Road. For more information about the park, please visit fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/missouri-headwaters or call 406-285-3610.