Seventh grade students at Yelm Middle School present Nisqually Indian Tribe projects to fourth grade students at McKenna, Southworth and Fort Stevens elementary schools. (photo courtesy of Cody Colt)

Yelm Middle School teacher Cody Colt’s seventh grade Washington state history class keep the legacy of the Nisqually Indian Tribe alive by presenting to younger peers.

It is a state graduation requirement to enroll in Washington state history, a class that teaches students about the history of the Pacific Northwest from Indian tribes to the Northwest Passage. Colt’s project prompts students to study one aspect of the Nisqually Indian Tribe from hundreds of years ago including housing and medicine. Students are then tasked with creating a project based on that one aspect of native living.

“There’s a lot of good things come from this,” Colt said. “The class can see what a local tribe looked like before white settlers came here and they get to work on presentation skills by presenting to fourth graders and they will show it to their parents at conferences.”

When the projects are completed, all 700 students at Yelm Middle School vote for the best projects. The best projects are selected to present to fourth graders at Fort Stevens, McKenna and Southworth elementary schools.

“It gives them skills for future presentations and shows what the Nisqually tribe had to go through which is really cool,” Colt said.