By Shaylee Ragar writing for the local Missoulian newspaper’s Legislative News Service:

“A record number of Native American lawmakers are serving in Montana’s Legislature this session, and they’re pushing for bills covering issues from language preservation to missing persons reporting to the reauthorization of Medicaid expansion. Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, is serving for the ninth time this legislative session. When Windy Boy was a freshman legislator and in the Montana American Indian Caucus, it had four members.

Today, caucus meetings regularly draw 25 attendees and Montana leads the nation in the percentage of American Indian representation in a state legislature, with 11 tribal members, roughly 7 percent of the Legislature.”

Read that full article here. According to the Native Languages of the Americas website, Montana currently has seven federally recognized Indian tribes and seven federally recognized Indian reservations. The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians has also been state-recognized. The reservations include the Blackfeet Nation, Chippewa Cree Tribe, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The Native Languages of the Americas website also has lots of other great information including a section called “Montana Language Greetings” where you can learn to say “hello” in many of the languages of the different tribes.