Greetings from the Treasure Valley

Kiki Aru and I arrived here in Caldwell this afternoon after a bus ride down from Kellogg. We are here for Idaho History Day, which will be tomorrow at the College of Idaho.

Kiki Aru has created a documentary on May Arkwright Hutton to present tomorrow. Other students are presenting plays, essays, websites or exhibits. The theme is An Individual in History.

May Arkwright Hutton

To find out more about the National History Day competition, go here.

We went out do dinner tonight with BN and her daughter RN. We rarely get to see them when we come down, because it always seems the timing is wrong, so I contacted them to see if they could come meet us for dinner. And they could, so we went to Red Robin and had a great time catching up and visiting. It was really fun.

Update on RP: The last I heard on RP was he was still in the hospital, but doing much better. He may be out by the weekend. Just keep praying!!

Thinkin' Back Thursday--Invasion of the White Man

My daughter Z2 and her friends are researching informatin for a documentary they are creating for their National History Day project this year.

The National History Day theme this year is Conflict and Compromise.

Their subject matter is showing how the invasion of the "white man" changed the culture of the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe.

It was fascinating talking with them today about their subject, and helping them realize that one of the things they want to show in this documentary is the fact that this group of people lived in this area, including the Silver Valley, for thousands of years. But it only took less than 100 years for another group of people to come and invade their land, take away a majority of their land, and almost completely wipe out their culture, a way of life and they had known for hundreds of years.

It has been interesting learning how the Coeur d'Alene Tribe dealt with this conflict. Their compromise was to send a group of their tribal members to Walla Walla, Washington to ask the Sisters of Providence to send some nuns to start a school for their girls, because the priests were already teaching their boys.

They were smart enought to realize that the white man and his ways were here to stay, and they needed to compromise their traditions and language by bringing in teachers to show their children the ways of the white man. So the children were taught English, and domestic chores, and the Catholic religion, among other subjects.

But one of the unique things about the Coeur d'Alene Tribe was they made this choice for their people. Their school was ran by the Catholic Church. It was not a government boarding school like many were around the country.

Desmet, Idaho in the early 1900's, the site of the boarding school where Coeur d'Alene Tribal members sent their children to attend school.

And it was something the tribe initiated themselves. The boarding school was located in DeSmet, Idaho. The girls have gathered much research, and are working on their script for the documentary, which will be presented in competition at Kellogg Middle School on March 15.

Once the documentary is finished, I will post it for all to enjoy.

National History Day is a wonderful program, and the students involved learn critical thinking skills, research techniques, besides learning about a historical topic.

Z2 Advances to National History Day and Carries on a Family Legacy

Don't these three look excited!! It is because Christina, Sheila and Z2 placed second in the Junior Division Group Performances category, receiving three superior ratings which means in June they are going to the National History Day in Washington D.C.



Their peformance was on "The Triumph and Tragedy of the Sunshine Mine Disaster". They wrote a script based on research they did on this subject. They did a very good job. So Z2 and I, along with Christina, Sheila, and their parents, and GT Facilitator Marcia Wall and Brianna Wendt, who received first in the Senior Division Individual Performance will be traveling to the Nation's Capitol in June. Here they are doing their performance.

Another exciting part of this whole History Day experience is the fact my daughters are carrying on a legacy. My mom developed the Gifted and Talented program in the Kellogg School District in the early 1980's, and started helping her students develop projects to go to the History Day competition. She traveled herself to Washington D.C. at least one time. Now her granddaughters are carrying on the History Day tradition.



It always excited Mom to help her students work on the different projects. Just the other day she mentioned one of her former students, and can recall who they partnered with and what their project was all about. She always enjoyed helping her students find research on a particular topic and to develop their research into a viable project.



I also enjoy doing this with my girls. It was so exciting for me to work with both of my daughters on their projects, and I loved the fact they both had local history topics. I learned alot about both topics, and learned a lot about the strenghths as they worked on this project.



I always told Z2 and Kiki Aru that they were my ticket to get to go visit Washington D.C. And Z2 has 5 more years to go, and Kiki Aru has 7 more years to participate, so who knows, I may have more trips in the future!!



If anyone wants more information on History Day, go here.



Students can begin participating in fourth or fifth grade, up to their senior year. There are many cash prizes and scholarships given out. One of our seniors, who also made it to nationals, received a $5,000 scholarship from Albertson's College of Idaho. It is also a wonderful learning process of research, process, writing a bibliography and annotating research.



Students can participate in exhibits, documentaries, performances or write essays. They also added a new category this year of developing a web page. Or email me at pkrbywed@juno.com and I will give you more info as well.