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In the early 20th century, in the northeast corner of Montana, newly arrived homesteaders were struggling to make a living in a land where the Homestead Act had attracted them to a place that wasn't delivering on the promise of an abundant lifestyle. As farmers looked for answers to how they were going to survive, a charismatic newspaperman named Charles E. Taylor appeared in Sheridan County, starting a paper called The Producer's News, and he gave people hope.

The Paul Harris and Marguerite Kirk Gallery is located in Belgrade, Montana, and is open by appointment and on the evening of opening art exhibitions. The gallery and storage facility houses over 500 pieces of Paul Harris’ art after they were transported from Bolinas, California. Paul Harris and wife Marguerite adored Montana, and Paul spent the last years of his life here before passing in 2018.

January 2024

November and December 2023

May 2024

Todd Graff of Frank Family Vineyards and Michael Davies of A to Z Wineworks and Rex HillBy Stella Fong for May 20, 2024

In 1897, when tensions were still running high after the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the establishment of the reservation system in Montana, a sheepherder named John Hoover was murdered on the Tongue River Reservation, now known as the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. The murder became a nationwide story, involving a former Senator, who represented two of the defendants, and a donation from the Secretary of the Interior for one of the appeals, as it involved many of the issues that were causing friction between the Native and non-Native communities at the time. Once the crime was solved, the controversy led to some significant legislation to try and improve conditions on the Tongue River Reservation, and try and prevent similar incidents in the future.

15 April 2024

Beginning in the 1870s, the U.S. government created boarding schools for the purpose of assimilating Native American youth into “civilized” life. Hundreds of Native children from across Montana were separated from their families, sometimes without contact for years, and sent to schools like the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories is a travelling exhibit currently at the Western Heritage Center in Billings that details both the generational trauma and isolation caused by this experience as well as the slow reforms enacted on the schools as the graduates themselves became forces for change in tribal politics and Native sovereignty organizations.

Dr. Melissa Ragain is an Associate Professor at Montana State University, where she teaches courses on modern and contemporary art history, specializing in environmental aesthetics and the intellectual history of art.Based in Livingston, Montana, her latest new research considers the importance of environmental emplacement to artmaking in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.