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Fall 2011

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/195450

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Browsing Fall 2011 by Author "Skyelander, Kim, speaker"

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    The People's Way Project: how traditional way of knowing the land led to the creation of the most extensive wildlife-sensitive highway in North America
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011-11) Skyelander, Kim, speaker; Unidentified speaker
    For more than 10 years the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (the tribal government of the Flathead Indian Reservation), the Montana Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) tried to collaborate on a project to re‐design U.S. Hwy 93, one of the most beautiful and dangerous highways in Montana. The highway organizations proposed to turn the two lane highway into a four-lane undivided highway with wider lanes and shoulders and straighter and flatter alignments. This is how engineers build safe, cost effective roads. However, the tribal government strongly opposed this plan because of concerns that a four‐lane highway would accelerate non‐tribal development, adversely affect wildlife and wetlands, and damage tribal cultural and spiritual sites. The new highway, the tribes said, should be designed with the idea that the road is a visitor and should respond to and be respectful of the land and Spirit of Place. Finally, after many years of negotiation and stand-offs between the three governments, the project started to flourish. What had to happen for this project to go from drowning in quicksand to becoming one of the most successful culturally and environmentally sensitive highways in the U.S.? Come find out!