Montana
1948

Presented By:

Juliana
Martine
z

Lourdes
Olivas

Fernando
Ramirez

Maggie
Dexter

Montana

David and his horse Nutty

Sheriff Wesley Hayden

Sheriff’s Gun

Dr. Frank Hayden

Julian Hayden

What would you do if you saw someone being hurt and couldn’t speak up for themselves? Marie Little Soldier
Would you…

Tell someone or look the other way

MONTANA 1948

SETTING

Plot
The novel Montana 1948 is divided no into chapters, but into three sections, part 1, part 2 and part 3. Each section symbioses David’s developed from being a child, to his loss of innocence. The main characters in this novel is 12 year old David (narrator), his father
Wesley, mother Gail, Wesley’s brother Frank, his two parents Julian and Enid, Marie Little Soldier (she stayed with David’s Parents, she was a Native American) and
Gloria, Frank’s wife.

Part 1
Part 2
P3art

This year is shortly after World War II; people were still recovering from the war, doing the best they could to survive and flourish.
This year is some time before the Civil Rights movement.
(Truman is president, re-elected over Thomas Dewey, and two more presidents served before Johnson came and passed the Civil Rights Bill)

Because of this, 1948 was a time when civil rights amongst minorities were ignored, and this was true with many Native Americans. In 1948, a lawyer really wouldn’t defend a
Native American in court. In Montana during this time, a court would probably not even accept a case involving a Native American.
The book was set in 1948 because it was a time when discrimination and oppression happened freely; with no law in place to stop it. It was also a time when the law was not developed enough to really prosecute for the kind of wrong doing addressed in the text. If it was set today, lawyers would be involved, along with harsh sentences, politics, money and ethics. There would be provisions in place to ensure that family members are not in a position where they need to deal with each other on a professional basis (as Wes and Frank did). MONTANA
• Located in the middle of the North
American continent.
• Huge state with contrasting regions; flat, treeless plains and unrelenting winds sweep its Eastern parts, while the Rocky Mountains tower over the
Western part.
• Extreme climate

BENTROCK
• Fictional community (Larry Watson says: “Bentrock is a town that exists only in my imagination. I grew up in North Dakota and had family in Montana, so Bentrock resembles the small towns on the prairie that I visited (and lived in) as a child”.
• Small town – controlled in many ways by the Hayden family
• Town of Bentrock described as “hard country-the land is dry and sparse and the wind never stops blowing. The heat and thunderstorms in summer can be brutal, and the winters are legendary for the fierceness of their blizzards and the depths to which temperatures drop”.
• This description of the town could be seen as symbolic of struggle. The setting mirrors the struggles the Hayden family have to deal with throughout the course of the story, paralleling the experiences shared and the emotions felt by the central characters.

Key scene in text: Don’t blame
Montana (p175)
• When David’s wife Betsy asks Wes and Gail at
Thanksgiving dinner about the ‘Wild West’,
Wes slams his fist on the table and yells “Don’t blame Montana...don’t ever blame Montana!”
• Even after all the years have passed, Wes still suffers greatly with what happened in 1948.
However, it is not the State which is to blame, it is the people and he is one of the people.
The wounds are still deep and tender.

THE YEAR 1948
• This year is shortly after World War II; people were still recovering from the war, doing the best they could to survive and flourish.
• This year is some time before the Civil Rights movement.
(Truman is president, re-elected over Thomas Dewey, and two more presidents served before Johnson came and passed the Civil Rights Bill)

• Because of this, 1948 was a time when