In Missoula’s Lower Rattlesnake neighborhood, an unassuming block of houses sits over what is thought to be the city’s first ever settler cemetery which became the site where Missoula’s then vibrant Chinese population used to bury their own.
Today, an unknown number of remains sit under those houses unmarked. That all changed Friday when an informational plaque was installed.
The ceremony was in partnership with the filmmakers of the 2024 documentary “The Bodies Beneath Us” which explores two forgotten Missoula cemeteries where some of the city’s marginalized populations were buried. The film helped drive the resolution acknowledging that forgotten history and culminating in the new plaque in Gregory Park.
Paul Kim, one of the filmmakers, spoke at the event.
“You hear these sorts of things and you realize it's not just Lewis and Clark that made this place, Kim said. There's a number of people of all different backgrounds. We think of Montana today as a not very ethnically or culturally diverse place, but that is not the history of Montana.”
The plaque shares details of Missoula’s Chinese population and the crimes committed against them following the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, like the murder of four Missoulian Chinese workers in 1892. County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier said it’s important that the city continues to recognize the pivotal role that Chinese immigrants played in building the state of Montana.
“Today is also an act of overcoming the inertia of forgetfulness," Strohmaier said.
“The Bodies Beneath Us” will have a second annual run of screenings at the Roxy Theater in Missoula the week of June 8.