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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.

On this episode of Field Days, Shane Strecker of Stecker Farms in Bighorn scouts his fields for signs his sugar beets have sprouted.

Photographer Todd Forsgren lives in Billings, where he is an Associate Professor of Art at Rocky Mountain College and also serves as the director of the Ryniker-Morrison Gallery.

On this episode of Field Days, rancher Lynn Ashley of Ashley Quarter Horses in Forsyth shoes one of his ranch horses.

Most people are familiar with Chief Joseph and his epic journey across much of the northwestern US to escape capture by the US government. But as with many Montana stories, what's even more fascinating are the events leading up to that moment in our history, as well as what happened to Joseph and his tribal members afterward.

19 June 2024

April 2024