2024 Grants Awarded

Bringing Coyote Stories to Life for Missoula Area Homeschoolers, Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Missoula, MT, $2,000. This one-day workshop in February 2024 provided by Xʷlxʷilt (Aspen and Cameron Decker) will consist of storytelling and an interactive art activity held at the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula. Xʷlxʷilt will bring their new Indigenous art and cultural education program called “Coyote Stories in a Bubble” to the museum to share their unique perspective and cultural knowledge with our area’s homeschool network. Participants will immerse themselves in the world of Native American storytelling, coupled with the creation of pictographic art using glow-in-the-dark paint under black light. Students will learn Salish language and Plains Indian Sign Language that correspond to the stories they listen to and have the opportunity to explore storytelling, creativity, and teamwork in a dynamic and visually stunning environment. This program is designed for elementary and middle school students and is designed to support IEFA standards and initiatives.

Using Games & Hip Hop to Teach Montana Youth About Cultural Appreciation and Appropriation, Ingenium, Great Falls, MT. $2,000. Ingenium, a nonprofit organization working with Montana youth to raise awareness and interest in STEAM careers and community impact through video game design and entrepreneurship, has partnered with Power Schools in Teton County to host an assembly in March that will teach kids about the differences between cultural appreciation and appropriation through the lens of music and video games. The assembly will feature a performance by Christian Takes Gun Parrish a.k.a. Supaman, a member of the Apsaalooke Nation, dancer, and innovative hip-hop artist, followed by a discussion and Q&A with the artist about how his input shaped the design of characters and music in recently developed video games. The project aims to both entertain students and encourage them to think about how they can respectfully interact with different cultures in the world around them.

“Why Should I Care” Film Screening, Presentation, Panel and Audience Discussion, Hands On Global, Inc., Helena, MT, $1,395.00. Hands On Global’s film “Why Should I Care” about the issue of unhoused people in Helena, features a compilation of interviews with unhoused members of the community, representatives of nonprofits serving them and local government, and concerned members of the public. It offers a comprehensive and informative view of this complex issue. The film screening will take place on March 7, 2024, at St Paul’s Methodist Church in Helena, Montana, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. and will include a facilitated panel discussion with representatives from the city, health care, faith, community service, and unhoused communities. The project aims to provide new information that encourages the Helena community to make informed decisions based on facts and a broader perspective of this issue.

Saakwaynaamah’kaa — Mural Painting Demonstration & Artist Talk with Blackfeet Artist Terran Last Gun, Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, MT, $1,910.80. Coinciding with a new exhibition open to the public from April through June 2024, the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana, features an on-site mural demonstration and artist talk by Blackfeet artist Terran Last Gun, Sah’kwiinaamah’kaa. The project teaches and helps preserve the cultural significance of historic and contemporary indigenous art and traditions.

Alpine Artisans 2 Valleys Stage Supaman Workshops, Alpine Artisans, Inc., Seeley Lake, MT, $1,600. This project is part of an ongoing series sponsored by Alpine Artisans 2 Valleys Stage. They produce five in-school cultural events per year featuring presenters who provide educational and enriching experiences at four local schools in the Seeley-Swan area. Guest performers offer students in rural communities hands-on, creative activities through workshops, lessons, and discussions.

Montana Writers Rodeo, Montana Playwrights Network, Helena, MT, $2,000. The Montana Writers Rodeo, hosted by the Montana Playwrights Network, is a civic engagement-minded conference for writers: fiction/non-fiction, playwrights, and screenwriters from across the state. The conference focuses on the education and development of writers, by professionals, in a relaxed, communal space. This year’s theme is “Montana Inspires Story” and will be held at the Helena Avenue Theatre on April 19-20, 2024. Montana authors Russell Rowland, Debbie Burke, Leah Joki, and several others will join participants to share their expertise through storytelling, workshops, exercises, panel discussions, and author readings. The Montana Writers Rodeo will encourage discussions about writing and challenge attendees to consider deeply their own human nature, and how this nature expresses itself through character, plot, and genre.

The Journey of York: Unsung Hero of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Jefferson River Chapter Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Pony, MT, $2,000. The Jefferson River Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation is bringing Hasan Davis, a York subject matter expert, to Montana this summer as part of the annual speaker’s series at the Missouri Headwaters and Madison Buffalo Jump State Park. Mr. Davis will offer a theatrical presentation titled “The Journey of York: Unsung Hero of the Lewis and Clark Expedition” plus a discussion including a question-and-answer session. The program will bring awareness and appreciation of the story of York (William Clark’s slave) and his contributions to the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

The Man in the Arena, Mission Valley Live, Polson, MT, $2,000. Mission Valley Live, a community performing arts organization in Polson, will host The Man in the Arena, A Celebration of Theodore Roosevelt at North Lake County Public Library, the Ronan Library District, and high school and middle school history classes in Ronan and Polson in March 2024. Derek Evans, a member of the Chicago History Museum and board member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association’s Chicago chapter, will portray President Theodore Roosevelt to educate local students and adults about the 26th President of the United States’ character and his profound and lasting vision for America and what it means to be both an American and a citizen of the world.

Cultural Resurgence: Reviving Traditions, Restoring Lands Presentation, The Roxy Theater – International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula, MT, $2,000. This project will feature two short films, Rebirth of the Range and The Return of Nóouhàh-Toka’na (Swift Fox), and a panel discussion during the 2024 International Wildlife Film Festival hosted by The Roxy Theater in Missoula. The films highlight restoring two specific animals to indigenous lands in Montana and the return of federal land to tribal jurisdiction. The primary goals of this project are to raise awareness, educate, and facilitate positive discussion and include indigenous perspectives in local wildlife management.

In Conversation: Translation and Identity, Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT, $2,000. This translation project and free public lecture will feature thoughtful, engaging dialogue surrounding Crow language and culture. Grant funds will be used to support Tim McCleary, the lead project translator, and an instructor at Little Big Horn College, on the nearby Crow Reservation, along with Vance Crooked Arm and Levi Yellowmule with their translations of the text for Will Wilson exhibition’s object and tombstone labels into Crow. Providing additional labels for the exhibit in Crow will allow for deeper outreach and increased accessibility to the artwork for museum visitors. A public discussion at the Yellowstone Art Museum on May 16, 2024, will engage audiences with Crow culture as well. The Will Wilson exhibition in particular explores traditional representations of Native peoples and then addresses misconceptions in his modern photographs.

BAM presents a Lee Silliman lecture at the MOR on the History of Montana’s Glacier National Park, Bozeman Art Museum, Bozeman, MT, $1,932. The Bozeman Art Museum project consists of a free public lecture on June 5, 2024, at the Hagar Auditorium of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana by Lee Silliman entitled “The History of Glacier National Park”. The lecture expands the depth of the “Glacier Revisited” exhibit (opening April 19) exploring the history from the Native American beginnings to the founding of the park by Congress in 1910. The talk begins by discussing how Blackfeet, Kootenai, and other tribes utilized the natural resources of the park for millennia and then introduces important individuals in the establishment of the park, such as George Bird Grinnell, James Wilard Schultz, and Louis Warren Hill.

The University of Montana Western (UMW) Polynesian Club Spring 2024 spring programs, The University of Montana Western, Dillon, MT, $2,000. The UMW Polynesian Culture Club is a student organization which develops educational presentations of story, song, and dance heritage.  With funding support from Humanities Montana, the club will reach audiences beyond Dillon, bringing the Spring 2024 program to a cultural festival in Missoula and to Plains, Montana Schools. This project will share Polynesian culture and heritage by promoting respect, understanding accurate information, and instilling participants’ and audiences’ desire to learn about one’s own heritages.

Plains Indian Camp, The Montana Living History Program, Helena, MT, $1,950. The Montana Living History Program promotes the preservation of frontier history. Plains Indian Camp, as part of Helena’s Living History Day in September 2024, will re-create a historically accurate Plains Indian Camp that the public may tour, investigate and experience, and include an informative lecture about primitive Native life. The project will depict 1800’s Native American life through hands-on display and expert narration. This project seeks to increase awareness, interest, and appreciation of Montana history through educational experiences that foster understanding about our multi-cultural past and future.

Montana Archaeological Society Meeting Keynote Address, Montana Archaeological Society, Missoula, MT, $1,665. The Montana Archaeological Society, a state-wide voluntary organization of professionals and the general public who have an interest in Montana’s past, will host Dean Nikolai as the keynote speaker at their annual meeting to provide a Native American perspective on the archaeology of Montana. The keynote address will elevate Native American perspectives about how Montana’s past is being interpreted. The annual meeting will be held in Helena May 3-5, 2024, and the keynote address will be recorded and available to view on the organization’s website after the event.