A recent trip home to Pierre, SD brought me to a 3rd grade classroom full of youngsters eager to see and hear. I spoke with them about ecosystems and showed them a short slideshow of a few of my travels. During my visit, I had them scratch down a few words about the Missouri River and what they thought of it.

Below are a couple quotes from the students, note the deep inspiration…

“I like the Missouri River because it is pretty on the sunset and it makes me feel cool because I always wonder if Lewis and Clark were in that spot.” Robert, 9

“It looks like the best river in the world. It is clear. It looks cool when it’s the sunset.” Jacob, 8

“Lewis & Clark traveled with the Indians up & down the Missouri River. Paul Bunyan also went up & down the river.” Ali, 8

“It is muddy and rocky. Lewis and Clark went across the Missouri River. They traveled across mud bars in the Missouri River. I like it because I swim in it.” Emily, 9

“The Missouri River is fantastic. The beautiful river is good for boating, tubing, fishing, and swimming. The river is like warm glass. I think the river helps our ecosystem because it has fish, water, and animals needs. The big river has a lot of big fish!” Jace, 8

I believe that this short amount of text from our future leaders has the incentive for all of us older people to start changing our actions and to start looking into the eyes of our future generations. 

"The Missouri River is the ecological backbone of the Great Plains; our actions will determine its future, which is inevitably our future"


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