W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A . C O M
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e study was a unique collaboration between university
researchers, Glacier National Park, the Blackfeet Nation and the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. Tribal members helped
survey ice patches and provided important information on place
names, oral histories, trail routes, and traditional use of sub-alpine
and alpine areas in the park.
Although no human-made artifacts have been found in Glacier so
far, the remnants of trees in some ice patches that are above modern
timberline point to a climate that was once warmer than it is today.
"During warmer periods of prehistory, some Native American
groups may have increased their activities in the mountains, escaping
the hot, arid conditions on the plains," says Rachel Reckin, a Univer-
sity of Cambridge Gates scholar researching how humans adapted to
living in the mountains of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Although the climate has shifted in the past, the pace and mag-
nitude of climate change today is unmatched in time which means
In one ice patch,
Lee recovered a piece of plaited leather
more than 1500-years-old.
BLACK TIE 1/2
RACHEL RECKIN
Red Mountain, Lewis Range
CONTINUED
