By Donna L. Miller

BCJ News

In Great Falls on February 10, 24 cowboys were inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame (MCHF). One of the Legacy Inductees for 2024 is Clarence Basil Cuts The Rope of Hays from District 4.

The MCHF Mission honors American Indian cultures, the cowboy way of life, and collective Montana Western heritage. “We exist to serve as a resource to all who wish to see this way of life passed forward to the next generation,” states their website.

The biography submitted in support of the nomination of Cuts The Rope describes a man born on April 12, 1935. From a large family, he was an enrolled member of the Gros Ventre Tribe and grew up learning about his people and culture from his grandparents.

“His grandfather received the name Cuts The Rope when he and a friend attempted to steal Crow horses. His friend was captured, but Clarence’s grandfather stole into the Crow camp, cut the rope that bound his friend, and they quickly escaped. Cuts The Rope became the family surname when Clarence’s father Frank was given his English name while in school,” the biographer writes.

While attending the Mission School in the Little Rocky Mountains, the Franciscan sisters, as well as Clarence’s classmates, began to notice Clarence’s artistic ability. The nuns encouraged Cuts the Rope to enter art competitions. After graduation, he attended Haskell Junior College in Lawrence, Kansas. Eventually, he went on to military service. Upon his return home to Hays, he once again began to paint and draw.

Over time, and following a car accident that left him hospitalized for four months, Cuts The Rope focused on art full time and took up the practice of painting. Around this time, he met Margaret Hickey of Massachusetts. The couple was married in 1972 and made their home in Hays. Clarence continued to paint and draw and soon found that he was establishing a career as a professional artist. He worked with a variety of mediums, including oil, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, pen and ink, and sculpting in bronze.

“Clarence signed his artwork with a drawing of a Native pipe by his name, for he saw it as a representative logo and a sign of communication between man and the Creator. This affinity with nature was something Clarence gained from his Native culture, and all Native Americans from the past. One of his marketing brochures read: ‘There are few works of Cuts The Rope that do not have a mood of warm alliance with nature … Cuts The Rope doesn’t just paint a horse – he interprets that horse. His realistic style never looks like a photograph,’” the biography reports.

In addition to incorporating his Native heritage into his work, Cuts The Rope applied his knowledge of Montana’s landscape – especially the plains, mountains, and Missouri River Breaks representative of the region.

Like most artists, Cuts The Rope used his art to tell a story. Although he and his wife traveled to local and national art shows, he sold many of the paintings from his studio through word of mouth. His art pieces are now part of private collections both nationally and internationally.

Just shy of his 65th birthday, Clarence Cuts The Rope died of congestive heart failure on March 29, 2000 in Great Falls, Montana.

The application biography reports: “Although his talent will forever be immortalized in beautiful tableaus of Western heritage and landscape, particularly the Native American culture and the traditions of his people, he was able to capture these old ways in form and color, and in his own words, felt that he depicted ‘the real Indian, the wildlife of the prairie, and a history of those who lived there.’”

According to the MCHF website, most of the inductees in the Hall of Fame are not individuals who have made headlines or would be considered famous. Rather, “many are organizations, places, animals, and other relevant symbols of an extraordinarily diverse culture that makes Montana truly ‘the last best place.’”

About the MCHF, a spokesperson states: “By celebrating the contributions of those who have directly impacted our Western way of life, we have preserved these stories for future generations to cherish and learn from.”

The MCHF accepts nominations from the public. Annually, the Board of Directors of the MCHF issue induction criteria that establish submission requirements as well as the number of inductees per class. All nominations are grouped geographically into twelve districts, and each is assigned to the district where the nominee’s contribution was most notably made. In this manner, district trustees, who review and elect the nominees to the hall of fame from their district, can evaluate each nomination through the lenses of the local community where the contributions made their greatest impact.

To nominate or to make inquiries regarding a nomination, interested individuals should contact the MCHF at christy@montanacowboyfame.org or by calling the field office at (406) 653-3800.