“The buffalo furnished them meat, robes for bedding, skins for teepee coverings, clothing, foot gear, sinew for sewing, bone splinters for sewing awls, and many other items they required.” — Dominic Michell, Salish Tribal Elder, Circa 1942 While precise numbers are impossible to determine, most authorities estimate...
As we leave Crow Agency in his Tribal Fish & Game pickup, Benito Morrison hands me a foil-wrapped globe the size and heft of a pool cue ball. “The original trail mix,” Morrison, a Crow game warden, says with a laugh. We’re going to view...
The Seeley-Swan Valley, located in northwest Montana, is nestled between — and populated by — giants, both topographically and botanically. No peak in the region eclipses 10,000 feet in elevation, but the Seeley-Swan is bordered by the Mission Mountains and Swan Range, which collectively encompass...
I’ve killed many deer, and I’ve eaten them all, including one I accidentally killed with my car. It was February 2018, nearly midnight in Montana, a few miles west of the Continental Divide. The muley appeared as I curled around a bend where U.S. Highway...
It’s August and somewhere out beyond Big Sandy, behemoth machines crawl across the landscape. It’s harvest time in Montana. In late summer, the “Golden Triangle” of central Montana is alive with men, women, and machines bringing in the summer’s crop of wheat — the iconic product...
Montana’s Lones Wigger was, unquestionably, among the finest competitive shooters in American history. While his fame exists mostly in the marksmanship niche, Wigger’s name belongs alongside the legends of the Old West when it comes to rifle skills. Wigger — who died in 2017 at age...
For the past eight years, I’ve followed a passion for photographing Native American tribes throughout Montana. Initially captivated by Montana itself — its majestic landscapes, stunning scenery, rural communities, and, of course, expansive Big Sky — my photographic intentions shifted after a conversation with my...
Architecture N2 Architecture Construction MKD Construction Interior Design Michele McCarthy Interiors Architecture projects can be driven by a host of factors. A project’s pace might be set by a hard timeline, its scope determined by a particular program, or its structure dictated by the characteristics of the site. Some projects might...
When Dugan Coburn recognized an opportunity to enrich the lives of Indigenous kids in his community, it jolted him as electrifyingly as a lightning bolt. At the time, he was working with the public school system in Great Falls, Montana as a talent search coordinator...
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing,” observed the 19th-century Danish-French painter Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro. That quote, shared recently with Western artist Beth Loftin by a close friend, impacted her greatly, validating her devotion to depicting...