It was our last day in Glacier National Park, Montana.  My dad, sister, husband & I entered the park at the Saint Mary entrance for the third time and this time we committed to stopping at the visitor center.  The four of us walked inside to see ceiling-high windows with mountain views, a movie playing in a dark room, a large timeline with the history of the area, a small room with exhibits, and, of course, a bookstore.  Our party dissipated and I headed straight for the exhibits.

The room wasn’t that large, maybe 30’x20’.  There was a teepee set up in the corner that you could go in to.  Arranged along the walls of the room were six-foot-high signs covering topics of land use, creating a park, creation and animals. Along the back wall were taxidermied animals of species common within the park: a bear, wolf, and moose. I started at the animals.  Each animal had a sign in front of it that was fairly ordinary.  There was the animal’s common name, a picture, cast of its track, and a button and phone to hear a sound of the animal.  But what caught my eye was the animal’s common name printed in three native languages with translations.