Megan and I flew into Kalispell, Montana on Thursday afternoon, to get a headstart on preparations for our amazing adventure this week.  The drive from Kalispell through the GlacierNational Park was every bit as stunning as we had remembered – beautiful mountains, forests, crystal clear mountain streams with the railway line flying over tall trestle bridges and plunging through tunnels in the rock.

We stayed in East Glacier that night as accommodation on the reservation is limited.  The next morning we drove on another 10 miles into Browning, out of the mountains and into the great plains, past fields full of horses and the buffalo herd of the Blackfeet Nation. 

Browning, the heart of the Reservation, hasn’t changed since we last visited.  Unemployment among the Blackfeet is around 75%, and all the signs of poverty are side by side with monuments and displays of their proud heritage.

Two Medicine River, another 6 miles past Browning, is the centre of our project.  Two Medicine holds an important place in Blackfeet history, being a central place for gathering healing herbs, the location of ancient buffalo jumps, and also the site of the first meeting between the Blackfeet and the explorers Lewis and Clark, a meeting that left two Blackfeet dead and which was commemorated just the day before we arrived.

It was great to see our worksite again – on our last visit it was an empty field, and now the foundations were laid and the forms for pouring concrete into the lower walls were in place.  Megan and I arrived just before the concrete truck arrived, and as they were a few workers short we spent the next two hours pouring, shoveling and troweling concrete into place!  It was good to see our building skills honed in Sri Lanka last December hadn’t faded away!  We also met Charlie, a local Blackfeet builder who will be our master builder and supervisor this week.

The weather here is hot, hot, hot, and concreting in the middle of the day in 110 degrees F was tough work.  Once it was all poured, we walked down to Two Medicine creek and jumped in the fresh mountain water – clear, cold and the perfect reviver!

Our tipis are in place and look fantastic, awaiting the group’s arrival tomorrow!  Our campsite is beautiful – with the river just a hundred yards away, a beautiful field around us, and a famous buffalo jump bluff on the other side.

Tomorrow we pick up our group from the airport in Kalispell and bring them out to Two Medicine for our first introductory night.  On Sunday we are going to take a trip up into Glacier National Park along the famous Going to the Sun road, and for a short hike, and then back for a tour of Browning and the reservation.  It will be the perfect orientation before our guest speaker that night from the local Blackfeet who will talk about their history and the realities of life on the reservation today.