The Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana - July 29 - August 5, 2006

Click Here to read daily updates and photos from the event beginning July 29.

Click Here to meet the women who are participating in this adventure.

Our project will support the students of De La Salle Blackfeet School, located on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Northwestern Montana. The school serves a 100% Native American population in a very poor part of the United States.There are 59 students at the school, 91% of whom are eligible for the Federal Lunch Program. The school covers Grades 5 – 8, and has an all volunteer staff. Less than 5% of the school’s income comes from tuition with the rest dependant on the generosity of donors and supporters.

De La Salle Blackfeet School has small class sizes with no more than 16 students per class. Emphasis is placed on basic academic skills. Ninety percent of new students enter each year with reading and/or math scores below grade level. Their current 8 th grade started at the school with a reading level of 4.1 but finished Grade 7 reading at an 8.1 level. Highlights in the curriculum are science, social studies and Blackfeet studies classes.

Each program integrates field study in the Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Reservation. In the Blackfeet studies class, volunteer teachers teach the students about their heritage and their language. These programs instill a sense of pride in the students about who they are and the land which has been their home for thousands of years. You can read more about De La Salle Blackfeet at their website www.delasalleblackfeet.org.

The Blackfeet reservation is made up of 1.5 million acres and located in the northwestern part of Montana , that includes most of Glacier County .  On the north it borders the Canadian Province of Alberta .  On the west it shares a border with Glacier National Park. The Badger-Two Medicine portion of the Lewis and Clark National Forest borders to the southwest.  Other natural boundaries include Birch Creek and Cut Bank Creeks.  Elevations vary from a low of 3,400 ft. in the southwest to a high of over 9,000 ft. at Chief Mountain on the northwest boundary.

The Blackfeet Tribe is made up of approximately 15,560 enrolled members of which 8,560 are off-reservation and 7,000 are on-reservation.  You can read more about the Blackfeet Nation at their Official Website www.blackfoot.org.

Our Mission

The Amazon Heart Odyssey Team will work with the De La Salle Blackfeet School to build a bunkhouse for the students at Two Medicine River just outside of the main reservation town of Browning .

Two Medicine River has strong historical associations for the Tribe as a place of healing, and the bunkhouse will be used for cultural studies programs by the students.

Each member of our team will raise funds before the trip to pay for the materials for the bunkhouse, as well as breast cancer support projects.

Working under the supervision of local tradesman our group will aim to raise the walls of the bunkhouse and complete the majority of the building in just 4 days! Each night local Blackfeet elders will visit our campsite to talk about local history and traditions, and the challenges facing Plains tribes today. Local breast cancer survivors will share their specific experiences in their cultural context. The team will camp out in tipis throughout the adventure.

At the end of the construction, the team will travel into the nearby Glacier National Park mountains for a two day spiritual healing retreat led by local Blackfeet women.

Amazon Heart adventure events give women the opportunity to come together and share their experiences, gain support and strength to deal with the changes that breast cancer has brought to their lives, while challenging themselves physically, mentally and emotionally with a life changing adventure.

All Amazon Heart events aim to have a social impact by empowering our participants to engage in breast cancer support or social change initiatives in their home communities or through our events themselves.