MISSOULA, Mont.
Listed on the University of Montana’s class schedule with English, philosophy and algebra is one you’re unlikely to find on many university course lists.
It’s called the “Pow Wow Seminar,” and its eight students appear to be all business, except when teasing one class member that he is in it for an easy “A” and when he explains that he really doesn’t need the easy “A.”
Easy grade or not, most had notebooks on their laps and pens in hand on a recent Thursday afternoon. Inside a windowless conference room with no desks, they discussed an event that will bring thousands of people to an arena.
“You want to create an image for your reader,” Barbara Henderson, a Native American studies adviser and the course instructor, said as the students took notes on the do’s and don’ts of writing to potential donors.
The scene could have passed for a grant-writing workshop, though it was just one session on how to make an intertribal celebration happen.
During the fall, the homework assignments focus on the main event. From now until the semester ends in mid-December, the class will assist Kyi-Yo, the school’s Native American club, in meeting its $60,000 budget. One of the first items on the agenda is raising $5,000 to pay for a host drum group.
