BILLINGS (LEE) - Attempts at implementing Indian Education for All in Montana will get a boost from the Montana Historical Society at its annual conference in Billings Sept. 28-30.

The society will be offering several sessions featuring American Indian history and culture, as well as advice on how to teach it.

First on the list is a three-credit workshop for middle school and high school educators. Project Director Francine Bear Don't Walk has put together a program that gathers and interprets Crow and Northern Cheyenne history from tribal perspectives. She also has compiled classroom resources. Montana State University-Billings Professor Emeritus Hap Gilliland will discuss teaching American Indian students and Helena High School teacher Joe Anderson will focus on American Indian literature and techniques for engaging students.

"We want to have a clear role to play," Richard Sims, new director of the Montana Historical Society, said Monday. "We are still working with OPI to see how we can assist."

Sims, who moved into his offices in Helena in July, came to Montana from the Prescott, Ariz., Historical Society. Many Montana historians will get their first chance to meet him during the conference at Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Billings.

He's intrigued by Montana's legislative mandate to provide all students with a better understanding of the state's American Indian heritage.

"I'm very impressed that it actually exits," he said of the legislation. "There was nothing on such a grand scale in Arizona - nothing so inclusive or well funded. We want to be a significant partner."

After about three months on the job, Sims is still in the process of introducing himself, trying to reach both professional historians and others with an interest. He's been traveling the state "having a conversation with Montana," he said.

"I want to see what's on people's minds about how we can best serve them," Sims said. "This isn't the Helena Historical Society. This is the Montana Historical Society."

He has two basic questions for the people he meets : "What can we bring to your town?" and "When you come to visit and walk into our new building, what do you want to visit? What do you want to see?"

Sims will oversee the historical society's plans for a new, larger facility. Part of his conversation with Montana will be to gather ideas to use in planning the society's future. By next summer, he hopes those ideas will come together and fundraising can begin.

He's likely to pick up some suggestions during the Thursday-through-Saturday conference.

Montana teachers will also get the chance to pick up as many as 15 credits at workshops that will offer thoughts on how to teach history. Among the workshops is an archaeology session aimed at helping third- and fourth-graders study the Plains Indian Culture by analyzing a real tepee ring site. One features the economic and cultural impacts of historic preservation and another emphasizes 20th century Montana people and events.

There are credits for sessions on influential ranch women, coal-bed methane development, rabies, cowboy chroniclers, Montana historical photographs, Crow ethnobotany and astronomy, Plenty Coups, Pompeys Pillar and the Yellowstone Valley.

Individual registration for the conference is $150, $75 for students and teachers and $125 for members. An additional $20 will be charged for some workshops and tours.

Register online at www.montanahistoricalsociety.org.