Bringing the memorial tree project to life, from planning to planting.
Each year The Democracy Project sites hold a culminating event to invite the community to celebrate their project. Last spring, the Democracy Project site at Plenty Coups High School in Pryor, MT on the Crow Nation celebrated their Memorial Tree Planting Project. Each tree planted on the school campus is in memory of a community member.
The Plenty Coups High School campus had no trees before the start of this project. Teens researched different varieties of fruit trees that would grow well in the environment and then traveled to Billings to get the trees. They planted them, watered them and set up a creative protection system using old wood pallets. Each tree is assigned a particular community member to commemorate. They spoke with the family members to create the memorials.
This Democracy Project group presented their plan to the other Project Based Learning groups at the school. Teens visited the RISE Tribal Education Summit in Bozeman and spoke with other teens about The Democracy Project. RISE stands for Resilience is Something Else and is a Native American Youth Leadership program from the Office of Public Instruction office of Tribal Student Achievement and Relations.
The students also traveled to Washington, DC.
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