Ninepipes Museum grants fuel Heritage Explorers

The Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana recently received two grants, which complement a multi-year project funded through the Foundation for Montana History.

A $5,000 award from the Lower Flathead Valley Community Foundation and $3,000 from the Burroughs-Holland Education Fund/Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance support Heritage Explorers. This ongoing cultural field trip program offers immersive, curriculum-aligned experiences that blend tribal and non-tribal perspectives for students and groups visiting the museum.

Heritage Explorers connects youth directly with the histories, especially those rooted in early Montana, as well as landscapes and living traditions of the Flathead Reservation. 

The program will provide guided tours, cultural demonstrations and hands-on activities for K-12 students, with downloadable content for educators, developed through collaboration with tribal and non-tribal educators. Students will explore how Indigenous knowledge and Western exploration intersected to shape the region’s natural and cultural heritage.

These new grants augment the $10,000 Montana History Grant Award, a pilot multi-year award through the Foundation for Montana History, which funds “Resonance, Voices that Shaped the Ninepipes Museum.” 

Now wrapping up its second year, the project involves pairing and recording elder voices as they connect life stories with the museum collection to create podcasts and student curriculum, which will be incorporated into the Heritage Explorers program. Museum visitors will also be able to listen to the podcasts by scanning museum gallery cards with QR codes. 

The museum is working with Aspen and Cameron Decker of Xwlxwilt (Alive and Well) LLC for content and curriculum creation. The podcasts will ultimately be made available to the public through the Montana State Library.