The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

December is shaping up to be a great month over here at the museum! On Wednesday December 6th we put on a “parfleche workshop” for 28 area kids in conjunction with the wonderful folks over at the Blaine County Library. The parfleche workshop was an interactive program where kids were able to learn about the history and importance of parfleche: a versatile and beautiful painted rawhide container used by many Indigenous Peoples. At the conclusion of a short talk and slideshow, kids were given their own pieces of actual rawhide and were able to craft their own mini-parfleche Christmas ornaments. I am quite happy with the engagement and turnout for this program, and hope to make it part of our continuing repertoire of kids programming in the future! If anybody wants a parfleche workshop of their own, call us here at the museum any time!

Work continues on the Gil Horn exhibit, where I have been looking into some of the history of the area units of the Montana National Guard when he enlisted. I have been working on our ongoing project regarding Bear Paw Battlefield as well. Part of that recently has been tracking down some rarely-seen historic photos from the time of the battle held within the collections of the Smithsonian, National Archives, and Library of Congress.

We are also preparing for the next chapter in our Off-Season Speaker Series, and hope to see a good crowd for Jack Mattingly’s upcoming talk on the famous Brother Van and area church history! That will be over at the Chinook Senior Center at 5:30pm on the 13th. This will be the last one for 2023, but we will be ready to go for more after New Years!

-Austin Haney, BCM Education and Interpretation Specialist