Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1956 - 1957

August 16, 1956
Harold Boyd married Marjorie Upham. Their daughter is Jerri Ann.

October 4, 1956
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Kehoe are home from Alberta after nine week’s motor trip to points of historic interest. They visited the Blood Indian Reservation where he did research concerning Indian archeology. Thomas F. Kehoe and Miss Alice Beck were married at 7 PM on Sept. 18 in the Museum Cottage by Robert Scriver, Justice of the Peace. Dr. and Mrs. George Raymond were witnesses for the couple. Guests: Mr.and Mrs. Roman Beck of Hartsdale, NY, parents of the bride; Mrs. Scriver; Mr. and Mrs. George Andren; Mrs. Georgia Hyde; Mrs. Dorothy Overdahl; Mrs. Nora Spanish; Mrs. Katie Croff; Miss Lillian Cook; Mrs. Catharine Williams; Mrs. Helen Chattin; Miss Catherine Williams; Miss Helen Chattin; Charles Burns; Master Edward Hyde; Miss Janice Raymond; Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Big Springs and young Bill.

Oct 11
Artists To Do Series of Blackfeet Paintings
Ace Powell & Morris Blake, painters and photographers from Hungry Horse, are spending a few days in this area in quest of suitable subjects depicting the tue Old Time Blackfeet Indian and the modern Indian of today. They plan to do a series of paintings depicting the transition of fullbloods and whites into a common race.

October 25, 1956
Committee Directing Waiver to Make Changes
Dan Whetstone on committee.

Nov. 8, 1956
LT Aubrey to Attend Fine Arts Meeting at Helena
LT Aubrey will attend a meeting of the Montana Fine Arts Club in Helena on Saturday, Nov. 24 at which time various artists and sculptors throughout the state will be recommended to submit models of a Charles Russell Statue. From this group of entries the committee is expected to pick the one to be used in making the life-sized statue of the state’s famous artist to be placed in the National Statuary Hall of Fame in Washington DC. At the meeting Aubrey will nominate Evelyn Cole of Chinook as one of the competitors for modeling the statue. While in Browning he visited Bob Scriver, whom he is trying to persuade to submit a model.

Wilma Franklin and husband take over Todd’s Steakhouse

Nove. 13, 1956
Dump fire consumed Fred Cobell ranch, also Frank Trombley’s barn and hay.
Averill teachiing art.

November 23
Talbott & Betsey Jennings sold a script for a Western. [They were major league screenwriters. Probably the height of their achievements was the script for “The Good Earth.”]

December 13
Relocation underway. [This was part of the plan for ending reservations: send everyone to the city where they would learn to weld or something. Because the planning and funding was inadequate, the real result was the creation of Indian ghettoes in Western cities, which then bloomed into the empowerment movement most people know as AIM -- the American Indian Movement.]

1957
January 3, 1957
GPCo dumps being closed in hopes of clearing bears away from tourist centers. [The actual unforeseen consequence was increased dangers as hungry bears roamed in search of food instead of growing fat on garbage.]

Jan 17
The doings of “Miss Cook” or “Cookie.” [A public health nurse, Cookie waded into all sorts of dubious situations, scrubbing chldren and rescuing animals. She was an old-fashioned interfering visiting nurse and many loved her for it.]

Jan 28,
Now Herman Lucke is president of the Wildlife Club and Earl Eastwood is the head of the Chamber of Commerce.

Feb. 14
New Cut Bank County library
Highway 2 closed by slides.

April 4, 1957
Photo of Bob’s Portrayal of CMR
Sponsored by the Browning Chamber of Commerce. Like a great many other state artists, Bob was interested in the contest from the start but the controversy and political bickering which developed soon disgusted him and he had all but give up the idea of finishing the small two-foot model shown above but friends who were famliar with his talents urged him to continue with the Chamber of Commerce as sponsor. Casts of the two foot model are $25.

School District 7 is 25 by 35 miles along 2 Med and Big Badger. [This is a loosely coherent community with its roots in the Old Agency.]

April 11, 1957
Mr. Shannon died. Widow is Aline Shannon, son Mac in San Fernando, CA, Ruth (Mrs. Anthony Nace) in Santa Barbara, CA. [Mrs. Shannon later married Jim Ledbetter.]

May 2
Blanket beaver is one over 66 inches.
Proposed Indian Museum and Visitor’s Center at St. Mary.

May 23
Gambles building finished.
Mrs. Irene Little Dog died.
Word has been received of the illness of Hart M. Schultz of Greer, AZ, who would appreciate hearing from friends and relatives in Browning. Mr. Schultz has been hospitalized during the past six weeks.

June 13
Russell Memorial Museum Approves Scriver’s Model
Word has been received from the C.M.R. Memorial Museum of Great Falls that they have accepted Bob Scriver’s model statue of Russell for exhibition and will also handle the sale of the two foot high models in that area. The board of directors paid high tribute to Scriver’s talent and ability as a sculptor, expressing their opinion that Bob’s statue was the most natural and life-like work they had yet seen. ...from all indications it would be adjudged that the contest is not entirely flawless and is a much muddled up affair giving cause to much disgust and suspicion.

June 20
Word had been received that Hart Schultz of Greer, AZ, who has been hospitalized for the past two months has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home, showing daily improvement.

June 27
Judges Named to Select Best Statue of Charlie
Charlie Beil. sculptor from Banff, Alberta
John K. Shermon, art critic for the Minneapolis Tribune
Alex Ettle, president of Sculpture House (art supply co.)

Aug 1
Tom Many Guns brings Margaret back from Canada to be his wife. [She told me once that she much preferred Tom to her first husband, who had a tendency to beat her because he was old-fashioned. )

Aug 15
Phil Ward gets his master’s in Oklahoma.

Aug. 22
Keith Seele visiting. Chewing Black Bone names him “Sits in the Middle.” Ish-tut-sick-taupi.

Sept. 19
Gary Cooper inducted into the tribe. Name: “Chief Eagle Cloud.”

Oct. 3
“Kindergarten Hill” leveled.

Oct. 17
Standpipe fell out of the watertank!
The marriage of Mrs. Lexipar Arias to John Bird Earrings was solemnized by Judge Robert Scriver last Friday evening. The newlyweds will motor to Alberta next week to spend their honeymoon. [Lexipar, who was much younger than her bridegroom, only died recently. To say she was a character would be to understate the case, but she was firmly convinced she was an Indian princess despite the obviously opposite facts.]

Monday, May 30, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1953 - 1956

Oct. 30, 1953
First TV sets arrive in Browning.

1954
January 1, 1954
(Tom Busey, Publisher)
One individual, believed to have been heated up with wine, sought entrance to the Thad Scriver home through the front door. Kicking out the lower panes of a four-pane glass door, the intruder immediately awakend Mr. Scriver. Hearing the crashing of glass, Mr. Scriver came rushing in his pajamas, a shiny loaded revolver in hand. Within five feet of the intruder, who had one foot on the inside of the doorway, Scriver pulled the trigger. But for the fact that the shell “jammed” there would have been either a seriously wounded or dead intruder. Running to the side of the building where Mrs. Scriver from another vantage point could see him peeking through the window, where he hesitated for a moment and then disappeared down an alley.

Janury 8, 1954
Julia Wades-in-the-Water dies. Nora Spanish is her daughter. Mike Madman is her nephew.

February 12, 1954
Albert Mad Plume dies.

February 19, 1954
Termination talk. [Eisenhower was much in favor of closing down all reservations.]

March 26, 1954
KFBB comes online but though many gather at Fitzgerald’s in front of a TV set, there is only the faintest reception.
Talk of the high way bypass again.

April 2, 1954
Joe McCarthy now on his way out -- much scoffing.
Janet Boyd’s sixth birthday party.

May 7, 1954
Bad fire at Fitzgeralds in the pharmacy dept. Suspicious. Insured.

June 4, 1954
Winold Reiss’ ashes scattered on Red Blanket Hill just off highway 89, 2 -3 miles north of Kiowa. Often medicine lodges here. [relationship to the Sweet Pine Methodist church?]

June 11, 1954
Fitzgerald Drug reopens with much hoopla.
Tom Kehoe advanced to curator.
Talk of closing the boarding school, but where would kids stay?

June 18, 1954
First planning for KW Bergan school. (Baby boomers are beginning to hit first grade.)
Eddie Big Beaver Sr. has a baby pet badger which he’s feeding with an eye dropper.

July 2, 1954
Article by Howard Hays about how the Museum of the Plains Indian came about.

August 13, 1954
Last Star is in “The Big Sky,” the movie made from the A.B. Guthrie, Jr. book.

August 20, 1954
John Self buys the Glacier Reporter.

Noted Artists Visit at Local Art Studio
John Clymer & Bob Lougheed, noted commercial illustrators of NYC. spent two delightful days at Scriver’s Taxidermy Art Studio last week. Both artists found Bob’s work much to their iinterest and spent their two days visit sketching and painting his scale model animal figurines and taxicermy work for future reference in their illustrations. Mr. Clymer has done many of the covers for the Saturday Evening Post and Redbook magazine. Mr. Lougheed’s latest illustration can be seen on the cover of the August Reader’s Digest. Before leaving Mr. Clymer gave Bob and Jeanette an 8X10 oil painting of Jim Whitecalf and a pony and Mr. Lougheed gave the Scrivers a black and white sketch of a black bear’s head. Mr. Scriver is very honored and pleased that such famed artists should go out of their way to visit him and his work.

October 8, 1954
Joan Kennerly working at Browning Merc.

October 15, 1954
Move Studio to East Glacier
The building which formerly housed the Scriver Studio was moved this week to its fourth location in about as many years. It seems the studio was originally built at St. Marys. The following year it was moved to Browning next to G.V. Johnson’s. Then in about a year it took up residence between Teeples Market and Todd’s Steak House. This week it was on the road again -- the Scrivers declare this is positively the last tiime -- when it was moved to East Glacier, across from the Mountain Pine Motel. The Scrivers plan to operate it next spring as well as their studio here.

December 3, 1954
Renshaws’s “West of North” published.

Dec. 17, 1954
Big prairie fire east of town.

1956

January 6, 1956
Overview of ‘55
JL Sherburne died.
Morning Gun well.
June 14: Norman Halseth dies.
June 13: Margaret Starr retires from Browning Merc after 25 years.
Both Morning Gun and Mittens (HB) oil wells plugged.
Mary Ground: has her entire family to supper, a thirty-pound turkey. Mrs. Angeline Heavyrunner was a special guest
Fitzgeralds sell to Frank Greco of Lewistown.
Aug. 19: William Kipp dies.
Julia Wades-in-the-Water dies.
Sept. 9: Kehoe announces discovery of artifacts
Sept. 16: Dr. King opens clinic


Jan 20
Les Aubert’s gas station burns.
Marriage license to Eddie Costel and Stella Whitegrass
Mrs. Mamie Hinkel Burns : 280 acres on rez, NW of Babb brought bid of 91,000. Her son is Ted. Parents were Geo & Rosie Candlaur Hinkel. Geo Hinkel was a Union soldier and a POW at Salesburg, SC. He, Liver-Eatin’ Johnson and 2 others came upon a mortally hurt Indian boy and killed him to spare him further pain. Rosie, when not quite 13, rode from Deep Creek to Fort Benton to warn of the Nez Perce coming. Mamie’s stepfather was Joe Cobell. Wanted Bobbie to be a school teacher.

Feb. 10
John Tatsey column begins.

Feb. 24
Joe Boussie, 19, struck and killed by Dr. and Mrs. King. (Three were walking at the edge of the road. Doc King honked. Two jumped off the road, Joe jumped towards the middle. King swerved but hit him anyway. It was night and icy. The doctor tried to save him but couldn’t.)
Town library to be built.

March 9
Victor Pepion (47) dies in house fire at Harvey Pepion home in Cut Bank on March 4. Gas stove exploded. Father: John Pepion; Wife: Lucy Goes in Center (Sioux); bros: LeRoy, Willard, Alfred, Daniel and Harvey, Herbert in Chicago. Sis: Mrs. Geneva Fisher, Mrs. Laura Powell, Coleen Pepion. Buried at Holy Family. Studied for two years with Winold Reiss. Another two years at Art Institute in LA. Murals at the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning; Oglala Boarding School in Pine Ridge, SD; His master’s thesis was a wall mural in a ballroom at Highland University in Las Vegas: “Dances of All Nations.”

Blizzards, high winds, 15 slides by the goat lick!

March 16
City buys a paddywagon (used).

March 30
TV relay finally works.
Work started to overhaul city water system.
June Tatsey teaching at MadPlume School (District 7, Created in 1931)

April 27
Mrs. Ina Childers -- Browning Art Group sponsor. Dan BullPlume #2, Howard Pepion and Gary Schildt.

May 4, 1956
Ernest Gray running for JP.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1952 - 1953

1952

Jan. 4, 1952
Still Smoking awarded a bronze star.
Big blizzard -- 236 inches of snow so far.

Jan 11, 1952
(In 1951 there had been 13 local Indian scholarships)
Four are attending school:
Eugene Running Wolf at State University
Robert Madman at State College at Bozeman
Mae Running Wolf and Connie Pepion at Northern Montana

Jan 18, 1952
The plows are overwhelmed.

Jan 25, 1952
“Miss Ramona Goss Bride of Claire Davis at Home Wedding”
Miss Ramona Goss, one of this community’s popular and attractive young ladies, became the bride of Claire Davis at the home of her mother, Mrs. Mamie Goss, last Saturday at 4 PM, the event being of charm and simplicity with Dr. Homer Magee officiating. The bride was given in marriage by her cousin, Earl Salvis [sic]. Attendants were Edward O’Connell and Miss Carole Pendergrass. Wedding music was played by Mrs. Nick Campbell, the tune being “I Love You Truly,” it being offered as an organ solo. The bride wore a green corded suit and carried an orchid corsage. The bridsmaid wore a brown satin dress and carried a rose corsage. Attending the event were relatives of the contracting parties and a number of friends. A reception was given following the wedding. Later the newlyweds left for Great Falls and other Montana points on a brief honeymoon. They will make their home where the groom is engaged in ranching. The bride is a graduate of Browning High School At the State Normal School at Dillon she prepared for the teaching profession, at present being an instructor at the Pontrasina School.

Contaminated water supply.

February 1, 1952
Yellowstone buff meat was distributed.
Joe McCarthy was speaking about the dangers of Communism.

Feb. 22, 1952
Malcolm Clarke Services Yesterday. 42, died in Bremerton, WA. Widow: Juanita, several step-children, sister is Mrs. Judge in Cut Bank.
Bond issue for new high school has passed.
Calvin Last Star received a Bronze Star.

June 6, 1952
There is no water presssure.

June 27, 1952
Tom Kehoe comes -- degree in anthro, 1951, Beloit College

Grizzly Bear at Scriver’s
A brown grizzly bear, killed by Jimmy Arnous in the Chief Mountain area -- several months ago -- is being mounted at Scriver’s studio. In life a magnificent speciment of its hardy race, it will continue to inspire the admiration of those who appreciate the splendid taxidermy work of Bob Scriver who with his wife, Jeanette, operates the business. In life the bear weighed around 1,000 pounds. Its height was six feet. Its huge claws were sufficient to disembowel a horse or a cow with but several passes. Among the fine specimens of Scriver’s work is a trumpeter swan he mounted for the State Fish and Game Commission last year. In recent months it has been on exhibit in various museums of the country.

July 4, 1952
Mr. and Mrs. L.E. Bell of Roundup are here visiting their sons, Ronald and Donald and her brother, Joe Lewis.

August 8, 1952
Mrs. Theodore Last Star Passes
Mrs. Theodore Last Star, well-known member of the Glacier Park Hotel Indian troupe, died peacefully at her home west of Browning on July 16. Funeral services were held at the Methodist Church July 19, with the Rev. Edgar B. Smith officiating. The meditation theme was taken from the Blackfeet motto “Motokit ki Asakimat.” The church was filled with friends from several states and a delegation from Glacier Park Hotel. Interment was in the Methodist Mission Cemetary.

August 22, 1952
Boil water order.

October 3, 1952
George Montgomery and Dinah Shore are in Heart Butte to see about a movie. Francis Bullshoe and one hundred warriors will be in it.

October 10, 1952
E. Glacier gets telephones. (Also, “the north country” which might be Frank Kerska.)
Browning gets street lights.

Nov. 21, 1952
FHA/FFA Barn Dance
Mr. and Mrs. Phil Ward lead the Grand March. Robert Scriver, Bob Seubert (bass violilnist), and Mrs. Gilpin (pianist) played.

1953
January 9, 1953
Polio shuts everything down

June 5, 1953
John Clarke article.

June 19, 1953
The new high school is being plastered.

July 3, 1953
Bob Scriver’s Taxidermy and Art Studio on Highway #2 in west Browning is proving very popular with visitors these days. It opened for business recently.

Jun 10, 1953
George Montgomery and son are here for rodeo.

July 17, 1953
Mountain Lion Thought Roaming at Starr School
The presence of a mountain lion in the Starr School vicinity is a probability entertained by Mrs. Josephine Whitegrass. She told the Chief yesterday that noise of frightened horses on their ranch early one morning this week, together with some seeming evidence could bear out that a mountain lion was hiding out in that vicinity. Scratched on the hood of the Whitegrass car resembled those of a mountain lion, Mrs. Whitegrass said. Two years ago a huge 300-lb. lion, apparently a predator on young calves on a ranch less than a mile west of Browning was killed. It’s body later become a model for Bob Scriver in the creation of a nation-wide popular figurine.

JULY 21, 1953
RKO “shooting” picture in Park
Portions of a sound-color picture of Western drama is being “shot” at Two Medicine and other sections of Glacier National Park by RKO this week. The cast includes six prominent stars besides a cast of twenty. Since the area is RKO’s workshop, forbidding the intrusion of curious spectators, very little information covering the project is available. Last summer portions of the picture entitled “Powder River” were “shot” in Glacier National Park. Several local Blackfeet, including Theodore Last Star were employed in the cast.

July 31, 1953
Speech by Phil Ward

Aug 7, 1953
First mention of “Glacier Reporter”

Aug. 14, 1953
(The story says that the new movie is called “Glacier Story,” but also sometimes “Stranger in Paradise” but also “Rangers of the North.” The “six prominent stars” are Victor Mature, William Bendix, Piper Laurie, Vincent Price, and Betta St. John. This is probably when Vincent Price -- who was always interested in Indians -- decided to help with the voice-over for the Museum of the Plains Indian show.)

Sept. 18, 1953
Winold Reiss Dies.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1950 - 1951

MAY 26, 2005

Recognizing the importance of historical records in newspapers, an anonymous donor has paid $20,000 to secure for the Blackfeet Tribe a set of ancient copies of the “Glacier County Chief,” the “Browning Chief,” and the Glacier Reporter. These papers will be kept at the library of the Blackfeet Community College where the newer, more durable copies will be available for reading and the older fragile copies will be stored in an acid-free environment. Money will be sought to digitize the material, as well as preserving them in microfiche. If the newspapers are digitized, they can be put online for international use for research by scholars. The papers record the largely unstudied century from 1900 to 2000. Blackfeet Councilwoman Betty N. Cooper has taken a special interest in these materials and personally drove to collect them from storage at the Shelby Promoter.

The Golden Triangle newspapers (online at www.glacierreporter.com) retain another set of the papers. The Montana Association of Newspapers in Helena has another set. The notes below come from microfilm at the Montana Historical Society in Helena, which will sell copies of the microfilm.



Jan 27, 1950
No relief money for Crees -- Joe Hameline is chopping up his floor and burning it to keep from freezing.
Percy Bullchild dies. [Author of “The Sun Comes Down,” which was also his Indian name.]

Feb 3, 1950
30 inches of snow -- 20-30 foot drifts.

March 24
Todd’s Steak House opens.

April 7, 1950
Paper by Claude Schaffer
“Ethnology -- Bird Nomenclature and Principles of Avian Taxonomy of the Blackfeet Indians” published Feb ‘50, Journal of the Washington Academy of Science. List of names of 80 species with interpretive words and expressions. Earlier work listed less than a dozen items --- that short list was by Alexander Henry, fur trader on the upper Sask. River before 1871.


May 19, 1950
“Band Makes fine Showing at Havre” (by Lila Beny)
A group of tired but happy band members arrived home early Sunday morning from the Havre Music Festival which they participated in very successfully. Browining was given the highest rating. The contest numbers were “Largo” from the New World Symphony by Dvorack and “Vistas” by Gillette. After the contest numbers were played, the band played Mr. Scriver’s arrangement of “St Louis Blues March” for entertainment. It was so well received that the band was asked to do a repeat performance at the downtown concert at 2:30 in the afternoon. An outstanding attraction of the downtown concert was five year old Joey Peterson and his rope spinning act. All in all, the Browning band was quite a success.

June 30, 1960
Harold Boyd arrived home from Vandercook.

July 7, 1950
Mayor and entire council QUIT!! Frank Sherburne is the mayor. Jack Moyer, Henry Parsons, Wm. Wright, and Gus Hunsberger.
1674 people in town. More than half are Indians. There are 4,000 Indians on the reservation which is self-supporting with its income from resources. One quarter of a million dollars was spent on various levels of welfare. There is one policeman. When, over 4th of July, he arrested 20 drunks, they broke out of all sides of the flimsy jail -- pushed out or dug under the walls, broke out the ceiling, etc. Drunkenness and violence rampant.

July 14, 1950
Browning Merc. Co. burgled. Two expensive saddles stolen. Box of cigs, beer, etc. left behind.

July 21, 1950
Cloke is the new superintendent of schools.

August 25, 1950
Agent F.C. Campbell’s daughter married LeRoy DeRosier.

Sept. 8, 1950
Eloise, 4, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Polite Pepion, suffered a fracture of the right forearm Tuesday when she fell from a riding pony. With other playmates, she was enjoying a ride at the Pepion ranch. The accident occurred when she fell from her position behind the saddle. She was taken to the local hospital for treatment. [Eloise married Turk Cobell.]

Sept. 15, 1950
Rurals schools: Wren, Starr (2 rooms), Reevis, Pontrasina

October 6, 1950
Glaciers of the Park have been in recession since 1890.

Nov. 17, 1950
Parent struck teacher.

Dec. 8, 1950
Calvin Boy lost 3 year old son.
Rankin Brown police magistrate and US Commissioner.

1951

Jan 5, 1951
Elevation of Browning changed from 4,400 to 4,360.

January 12, 1951
Korean war letters from Webber, Brown and Kuka. Very graphic.

January 19, 1951
Imelda Tucker is marrying Gene Ground.
Filming “The Thing” by Cut Bank.

February 9, 1951
Mrs. Louise Paul is 97 in Anacortes.

February 23, 1951
Roy Buffalo was married to Myrtle McKnight

March 2, 1951
The dramatic story of Calvin Last Star’s braids. He joined the service and went to boot camp knowing that his 2 foot long braids would be cut. They were cut intact and sent home.
Dick Sanderville’s death.

March 30, 1951
Last Star assisting in the filming of Sun Dance.
Etumoe begs for new high school.

April 6, 1951
Iliff McKay appointed to succeed James Welch who resigned as treasurer of Tribal Council. [This is James Welch the father of the novelist.]

April 27, 1951
Indian men urged to practice for the big buffalo hunt in the movie to be made and to improve their suntans, since the old-timers would not have had tan lines.

May 18, 1951
Huge Mountain Lion Killed by Louis Night Gun
Believed to be the largest mountain lion ever taken in this area -- in the memory of older hunters -- a huge male was killed by Louis Night Gun in a coulee of his ranch home four miles west of Browning last Saturday night. The scene was three-fourths of a mile from the Night Gun dewlling. Having missed a cow and newly born calf for several days, he had gone to the coulee horseback in search of them and gotten within a few feet of the animal before he noticed it concealed in a heavy undergrowth. It’s glaring, glistening eyes appeared to Night Gun to offer a deadly challenge. He rode back to his house and returned with his team and wagon and a .30-.30 rifle. The animal had continued in the same place of hiding while he was gone. He drew a bead on the animal, emptying six bullets into its head and body. Later Bob Scriver took the animal to his taxidermy shop and he estimates that at least 500 visited his place in the two days to view it. Scriver removed the fur from the carcass, the firm healthy meat revealing that the animal had been used to living upon “the fat of the land” -- apparently livestock. Scriver judged that the animal was in full maturity and weighed 200 pounds. The fur will be made into a rug by Scriver. However it was impossible to preserve the head, owing to the damage caused by NightGuns’ rifle bullets. It has not been established that the animal had devoured Night Gun’s cow and calf, Scriver said. Theory is that the coulee on Night Gun’s ranch was the lair of the animal and it’s male and that the surviving female is still there. The coulee is a deep winding hollow extending a half-mile or more into the hills. The heavy undergrowth provides an ideal recluse for wild animals. Night Gun has warned Browning children against trespassing in that area, fearful that if a female is there, it might make a deadly attack upon them. A combined reward of $275, it was understood, goes to Louis Night Gun for killing the mountain lion last Saturday. $25 is paid by the state and $250 by the Tribal Council.

June 15, 1951
Herbert Sherburne graduates from the School of Mines.
Betty Wright engaged to Roland H. Hull of Hamilton.

July 13, 1951
Very wet. June: 5.62 in 48 -- 10.14 in 51. 64 iniches of snow.

November 23, 1951
Death Claims Green Grass Bull. Green Grass Bull in youth was a famous warrior. In old age he earned his living by delivering water from barrels on a rickety old wagon followed by a devoted but assorted pack of dogs.

Friday, May 27, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1948 - 1949

April 16, 1948
FFA delegates: Jack Wood, Steve Barcus, Bill McCurdy, Dennis Harris, Kenneth Juneau, Ed Conway, Eugene Kipp, Jerry Show, Lee Wilson, Fred Pambrun.

School Musical Event to be Given April 23 by Jason Devereaux
The annual high school band concert, under the direction of Robert Scriver, will be presented in the school auditorium next Friday evening, April 23 at 8 o’clock. Augmenting the program will be a number by the high school glee club, a group of 65 vocalists. The largest band in the history of the local school and one that approaches in excellent any group groomed at the institution thus far, music lovers of this community will be availed the full inspiration of a melodic performance. A novel character of the project will be three guest conductor-composers -- Paul Whitman, composer of “Rhapsody in Blue,” Mascagni, composer of “Cavalleria Rusticana,” and Strauss, composer of “Blue Danube Waltz.” (June Bullshoe was playing the E flat clarinet, Betty Powers played the B flat clarinet and Bill Byrne played the cornet. Bill McCurdy on bass.)

May 7, 1948
Browinng HS Band in Highest Place. The BHS band, under direction of Robert Scriver, achieved the highest rating of any participating group at the annual District Music Festival held at Great Falls last Saturday. The honor was First division -- Superior rating. The Browning group was entered in Class C, which includes all high schools with an enrollment of 250 or less. The numbers played by the Browning group were “Caravan Overture” by Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol and “Begin the Beguine” by Cole Porter. In 1939, again under the direction of Mr. Scriver, the Browning group received Superior Rating in the annual contest at Missoula, winning First Division Superior Plus rating in Class A. At last Saturday’s event, Gerald R. Prescott, director of bands at the University of Minnesota, was adjudicator of the participating bands. Acclaiming the Browning group, he emphasized their merits of sincereiy of interpretation, spirit and professional feeling in the rendition of their numbers. Offering constructive criticism, he cited that in the group there were a large number of inexperienced musicians. However, he said they held promise of fine musicianship, with the final result that the band should achieve first rating in any class.

Renshaw’s second novel is published. (A vanity press.) “Among Sun’s People” and “West of North.”

Mae Aubrey Coburn Williamson “Many Victories”
Roberta Wood Brewer is married in Chicago where she’s going to NU Dental School.

Aug 20
Bill Show’s wife is Ann Jackson, daughter of Bill Jackson.

Oct 1, 1948
Long piece on Russell

1949
Jan 7, 1949
Fred Stone ice harvesting. Very high quality. Thousand pounds from 2 Med and McDermott. 10,000 for Great Northern from Fresno Dam 16 miles from Havre. Western Fruit shipping and air conditioning for the streamliners.

Jan 7, 1949
“Local Businessman Now a Blackfeet” by Jason Devereaux, Jr.
At the annual Christmas dinner given by members of the Blackfeet Tribe in the high school gym, Walter Brant, local businessman, realized a cherished ambition -- that of becoming a member of the Blackfeet Tribe. Inducted that evening, he was given the name ”Chief Water Bull.” Sponsor was Reuben Black Boy. Others conducting the colorful ceremony were Dick Sanderville (Chief Bull), Charley Reevis (Crow Chief) and Joe Calf Robe. His forebears being of Nordic strain, Chief Water Bull greets the future as a determined Red Skin. However, he became a member of the tribe too late in history to help carve the Blackfeet epic of the West. Yet in one way or another Chief Water Bull can strive to live up to his name.

Jan. 14, 1949
William Marceau froze to death. 29 below.
Cut Bank Hospital opens.

Feb. 4, 1949
Romona [sic] Goss, sophomore, and Mary Ann Edgar, Browning students attending the State Normal College at Dillon, were inducted into the Women’s Athletic Association Jan. 17. Ramona is a daughter of Mrs. Mayme Goss and Mary Ann is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D.S. McConkle.

March 4, 1949
Grace Barnett came out from her winter hibernation. Her survival secret is“plenitude of every thing that contributes towards the good life -- healthful food, fuel, magazines, worthy library ligerature and the companionship of two faithful dogs and a cat.

April 8, 1949
Services for the Late Mrs. Octavia Stone Set for Tomorrow
Funeral services will be held for the late Mrs. Octavia Stone, 82, at the Methodist Church tomorrow, Saturday at 2 PM. The Rev. Edgar B. Smith will officiate. Interment will be in the Browning Cemetary beside the grave of her husband, the late James M. Stone, who died in 1938. Mrs. Stone died Tuesday morning at a private house in Warm Springs, where she had been in the care of a special nurse and doctors of the Sanitorium for the last two years. Born at Fort Benton, she spent her early years there. She had resided on the Blackfeet Reservation for over sixty years. Her husband was a prominent reservation stock grower, the estate at present including the home ranch on Milk River. A generous and kindly soul, Mr.s Stone had inspired through the years a wide and lasting friendship. During the last several years her health rapidly declined. However, her passing was without suffering. Surviving relatives include a half-sister, Mrs. Joe Livermore, residing on the Pacific coast and two stepsons, Joe of Browning and Fred of Babb.

McClintock, Author, Dies in Pittsburgh; Indian Historian
Writing to Claude Schaffer, curator of the Museum of the Plains Indian, John Ewers, former curator of the institution and now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. said that Walter McClintock, author of “The Old North Trail,” died recently at his home in Pittsburg, Pa. Mr. McClintock continued hale and hearty in his advanced years and made his last visit to Browning last summer. “The Old North Trail” is one of the popular and authentic pieces of historic literature dealing with the Blackfeet Indians, the author spending a number of yuears in research in creating it. He was a likeable personality and for many years had continued his occasional visit to this section.

musical achievement since being mustered out of the Army of the late war.

May 20, 1949
Audra Pambrun graduated from Columbus School of Nursing in GF

June 10, 1949
Story on Victor Pepion

June 17, 1949
George Upham now at U of Kansas to become a band instructor.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1947

September 22, 1947
The Blackfeet 50 Years Ago
Edith V. Murphy, Cavelo, CA
By passing on the Browning Chief to Omar Bates of Covelo, CA, I discovered that his first assignment in the US Indian Service had been at Browning, MT, about 1896. Mr. Bates was then about 25 years old and spent a year and a half at the Boarding School about 5 miles out from Browning at Willow Creek as disciplinarian. He would be called advisor now. His duties were to supervise the conflicts and work of the boys and to see that they were neatly and suitably dressed at all times.
There were about 150 children at the Boarding School, more girls than boys. The US Indian Agent was Major Steele. Mr. Matson was the school superintendent and Horace Johnson the principal-teacher. There were about 12 women employees, seamstresses, laundress, nurse, housekeeper, cooks, etc. There was an officers’ mess at which all ate.
At that time there was no hotel in Browning, no bank, no highway, no service stations. Mail came daily by train. There was a Methodist mission and also a Catholic one, the Holy Family. The Methodist minister was named Mr. Dutcher.
Browning then had a population of 125. All the whites were employees of the government. Joe Kipp had the only store, a trading post.
There were very few health problems at that time. Indians were just beginning to leave tepees for small houses with no ventilation and no provision for the escape of smoke, as it in the tepees. They were well-nourished as yet. Beef was issued regularly in amounts commensurate with the size of the families. There was very little eye trouble. TB did not make its inroads until later.
Among the names remembered as pupils was one girl, Mabel Two Guns. Among the boys Owen Heavy Breast, who learned English very fast; Richard Calf Robe, John Calf Tail, Charlie Under Bull, Charlie Many White Horses, Percy Bullchild, Walter Mountain Chief, Jimmy Little Plume, running Crane and Apikuni’s son, Hart Schultz. All these boys were 12 to 16 years of age. There was a Len (?) Burd.
Fish nor fowl was not liked by these people. The buffalo were gone. Their way of life was slowly changing.
Many amusing tales are recalled. It used to be said that the left wing of Price’s Confederate Army was settled in Montana. There was an old veteran, Goss, who bragged that no Indian ever lived that could slip up on him. He took his team and the running gear of his wagon and went out to haul poles. Out on the prairie where there was no shelter whatever, he looked around and there sat an Indian on the back end of the gear.
George Bird Grinnell killed a grizzly bear and wanted to make it seem as large as possible. So some willow withes were cut and inserted in the stretched hide. The hide split right down the back.
Eddie Double Runner was the night watch at the Boarding School. Dick Sanderville was the official interpreter. He always wore a gray suit. There were 35 policemen employed. These were to keep the Crees and Bloods back on their own (Canadian) side of the border, as they wanted to share in rations, blankets, etc. Older women and men wore blankets habitually. Their heavy braids and the elk teeth trimmings on costumes were very noticeable.
The big celebration of the year began about July 1st when all Indians came in and made their main camp northeast of the Agency in a circle. There were no canvas tepees at this time. All were cowhide or buffalo hide and were variously ornamented. One year Chief Crow won the prize for his teepee, which was very large, of buffalo hide, light in color and handsomely painted in crow and other designs.
The wealth of the Blackfeet was shown in the number of his horses and wives. Some men must have had at least 250 horses -- no tally on wives.
The grass was eaten off for 15 miles around the Agency. On 4th of July occurred the two big parades -- the horse parade and the costume parade. In the horse parade the Indian rider rode in the band of his outfit, his family dressed in their best and horses, too, all looking their best. Women and children acted as outriders. As they passed the grandstand in close formation, it was an eighth of a mile before the next band came on.
Many White Horses took the grand prize for his horse herd. They were all white or gray. He led out riding a great white stallion. A man usually kept to one color -- black, brown, gray, or white, not spotted as in Wyoming and Idaho.
The whole celebration was really a horse show as the costume parade was a mounted parade, too. Any one of those horses would make an excellent saddle horse by today’s standards.
There was horse racing all day long. In their rodeo was the best riding ever seen. No saddle or bridle -- bareback with rope around the horse’s jaw. There were no chutes. Horses were roped and mounted in a corral and were ridden until they quite bucking.
Gambling was continuous in the camps. Cards, but the favorite game was the old shill game, under which moccasin is the little shell.
There was much singing and dancing at night. It had been a hard winter and this was a real celebration.
The costume parade was as important as the horse parade to show possessions and pride of wealth. Handsome feathers, bead and shell and elk tooth decoration on buckskin. These are the tallest, handsomest Indians in the US and they wear their costumes well.
The climax of the celebration was the sundance and the medicine lodge held in the circle of tepees. Streamers of bright cloth, medicine rattles of rawhide, sweetgrass, sagebrush, etc. were attached to the medicine pole.

September 26, 1947
Loving Tribute Paid Venerable Indian, Wades
Services for the late Wades-in-the-Water, venerable Blackfeet who died at the local hospital last Saturday, were held at the Little Flower Church Tuesday at 2PM with Rev. Fr. Gerner officiating. Arrangements were in charge of the Beck Funeral Home. Active pallbearers were J.L. Sherburne, Harold Hanneman, Joe Ironpipe, Theodore Last Star and Reuben Black Boy of Browning and Wilbur Werner. Honorary pallbearers, token of the departed’s wealth of devoted friendships, included citizens in various walks of life in this and neighboring communities as well as in various cities in Montana and the country at large. Wades-in-the-Water, a full-blood Blackfeet, attained the age of 76. He was the son of the late Running Crane, one of the last official chiefs of the Blackfeet Tribe. A man of courage, with character as firm as was the environs that molded him as a child of Nature, he was regarded higihly by all who knew him. At the grave service in the Browning Catholic Cemetary, a beautiful tribute was paid the departed by an admiring friend, Warren L. O’Hara, superintendent of the Blackfeet Agency.

Oct. 31, 1947
Dr. Schaffer arrives to take over the Museum of the Plains Indian. BA in anthro from the U of Washington, then post-grad at Yale, PhD at U of Pennsylvania.

Nov 7, 1947
Robbery of DeVoe’s and then Starbucks drugstore. Got $2500 at the latter. Marshall Boyd shot to death by “Rowe” who was an escaped con from Minnesota.

Dec. 26, 1947
John McKay wins a second car at the Altar Society Bazaar!

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1945 - 1947

August 31, 1945
When July 4th comes around in the future, Edward Big Beaver, Jr. will go through them with mixed emotions since his war wound was suffered last July 4 when he was shot through the hip by a “die hard” Jap in the Philippines. “Hell!” shouted Big Beaver the other day, “Getting shot on July 4th in a battle is more sensible than having it happen in peacetime!” Big Beaver put in approximately four years in the service of his country, most of which was in the hot spots of the Pacific. He received a medical discharge.

August 13.
Allen Spitzer’s doctoral thesis at Stanford is on “The Social Organization of the Blackfeet.”

September 24
Harold Douglas, expert electric welder, worked at Hanford and welded the atomic bomb -- blindfolded! [Don’t ask me how he did it. The article didn’t explain -- just that it was the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.]

October 3, 1945
“It was good. It was the biggest thing to hit this valley since the Japs,” said Pfc. Jackie Heavyrunner Jr. of Browning, MT. in an attempt to describe the Carabao Rodeo staged by the 126th Infantry Regiment’s 3rd Battalion near Arctao in the Cagayan Valley, northern Luzon. Heavyrunner, who ended the war on his 538th day of conflict with the 3rd (Red Arrow) Division was one of more than a thousand Red Arrowmen, guerrillas and girls who cheered Carabao #9, “Demobilization,” as he sped across the finish line leading a field of 8, to establish an all-time 500 yards record of 5:25:3. Horse-races, relay races, and other events were climaxed by a battle between the lovely ladies of Deupex and Aritao for the Cayagan Valley Softball Crown while a guerilla band furnished music and ice-cold Coke flowed like water. “The rodeos back in Montana were tame compared to this riot,” said Heavyrunner. “It was the first one I’ve seen since I shipped over here in September, 1943.” He saw action at Sardor and Aitape, New Guinea; Morotai, in the Dutch Indies; and Leyte, Philippine Islands, before going to Luzon. There the Red Arrowmen hammered General Yamashita’s forces for six months, killing 12,000 Japs before the Tiger of Malaya surrendered to the 32nd at Baguio.

October 19, 1945
“The Daughters of the American Indian”
Pres. Mae Williamson
VP: Mary B. Salois
2nd VP Pansy Cavanagh
Sec. Rita DuBray
Treas. Viola Upham
Kate W. Smith, Nellie Buffalo Chief, Lillie Monroe, Elizabeth A. Welch, Irene Salois, Nora Spanish, Jeanette Night, Lucy Sharp, Julia Wades in the Water, Emma Last Star, Maggie Croff, Mary Huntsberger, Sadie Kennerly, and Hildegarde Jessepe.


1946

July 12, 1946
Diamond A Studio opened by Bessette.
The Diamond A Studio, operated by A. E. Bessette, opened today in the building near the Bessette residence north of Buttrey’s clothiing department. The stock features horse models in miniatures as well as those of various wildlife in this section. Other stock includes paintings in oil and watercolors and pen & ink sketches.

July 19, 1946
Ewers gets job in Washington, D.C.

July 26, 1946
Tim McCoy and Wm Hazlett are making a movie.

Oct 1946
The Browning Fire Department early this week received a long-awaited fire pump, order for which was placed last spring. The pump will be mounted upon the fire truck and will enable the use of fog nozzles, the order for which was placed recently. The pump has a capacity of 600 gallons per minute as to throw water in a desired stream.

1947

Jan. 24, 1947
The comics have changed. Now they include a cowboy serial called “Broncho Bill.”
John McKay, because he is a veteran amputee, is given his choice of any new car with the price limit of $1600 value with the government picking up the tab.

January 21, 1947
The winter is very bad and Oscar Thronson is getting publicity from it.

(The story of Joe Kipp being the first Native Indian to buy a car and drive it up from GF in ten hours is revisited. Actually happened 8/3/10)

June 6
Comics have changed again. Now they feature “Mopsy” by Gladys Parker and “Nancy.”

June 20, 1947
Schultz, Noted Writer, Passes; Local Pioneer
James Willard Schultz, 87, now Montana pioneer and nationally known author of stories dealing with the early Blackfeet Indians, died at his home in Ft. Washougie, Wyoming, on Wednesday of last week, the body being forwarded to Browning, funeral services being held Monday afternoon by members of the Blackfeet Tribe. Lying in state at the Beck Funeral Home Sunday and Monday mornings, it was viewed by sorrowing Blackfeet as well as the deceased’s many white friends of older generations. The life of Schultz was perhaps as colorful as any American in pioneer history. Born at Booneville, NY, August 26, 1859, he was educated at Peekskill Military Academy in preparation for West Point. However, he forsook opportunity for a military career to come west and be one of the actors in the drama of Montana pioneering. His trip was by boat from Missouri to Fort Benton. In 1877 he was inducted into the Blackfeet tribe and named Ap-i-kuni, in the Indian tongue meaning “Far Off White Robe.” From then on for many years he was virtually a full-fledged member of the tribe, sharing their joys and sorrows and maintaining his fealty to them to the very day of his death. Learning the Blackfeet language, he launched upon a literary career in the middle 1900’s, among books produced being “My Life As an Indian;” “Bird Woman,” the life of Sacajawea; “Blackfoot Tales of Glacier National Park;” “Signposts of Adventure; “ “Rising Wolf;” and “The White Beaver.” Schultz named many of the peaks in Glacier National Park, including Red Eagle, Going to the Sun, Grinnell Glacier, and Grinnell Mountain. His first wife was Multsi Ahwatan Ahki, a Blackfeet, who died in 1903. A member of the Catholic faith, she was buried in the Holy Family Mission cemetary. To them was born a son, Hart, of Greer, Arizona. In 1931 he married his present wife, Jessie Louise Donaldson, former member of the faculty of the Montana State College amd now engaged as a social worker in the Indian Service at Ft. Washougie.

Noted Artist and Wife Here for Funeral
Mr. and Mrs. Hart Schultz, who were here from Greer, Arizona, to attend the funeral of his father, the late James Willard Schultz, were making their first trip here in several years. Prominent in art circles throughout the United States, Mr. Schultz uses mostly the northern Indians of the United States for conceptions in his creative work, dominant of which is sculpture. Most of his patrons are eastern residents, he said. Born on the Blackfeet Reservation, his early schooling was at the Holy Family Missiona and Fort Shaw. Later he attended the Chicago Art Institute and the Art Student’s League of LA. Several years ago he taught classes at the Agency, instruction being confined mostly to drawiing.

Aged Blackfeet Conduct Rites for White Friend
A living, breathing portrayal of long ago, with the simple, quaint Indian ritual praising him and committing him to the Eternity of Sand Hill, aged Blackfeet in their burial of their adopted tribesman, the late James Willard Schultz, Monday afternoon kept faith with him in death as they had done in life. Where these devoted Blackfeet buried their white friend is where others of this proud nation -- Red Eagle, Walks in the Middle, Diving Around, Strong Wolf, West Wolf, Many Good Trophies, UnderBull and Double Victory-- were also buried in years gone by. The site is upon a barren prosaic spread of mountain plains, two miles NE of Holy Family Mission. And were it not for a little clump of cottonwoods that chose to grow there, in defiance of forbidding things about them, Indians might never have buried their dead there. Hallowed by the dust of departed ones he cared for most, Schultz requested that it be his place of burial, too. In other days when waning robustness had made him realize the eventuality of death, he proposed to Yellow Kidney and Chewing Black Bone that they pray for him at his graveside, should he precede them in death. In fulfillment of a promise, this they did at Monday’s rite. Dick Sandeville (Chief Bull) who had known him since 1878, presented the coup sticks, one at the head and the other at the foot of the casket. Tokens of physical vitality, integrity and achievement attainable only in righteous death, the venerable speaker explained at length their meaning. The ultimate of devotion done, the casket was lowered into the grave, James Willard Schultz, Ap-i-kuni (“Far-Off White Robe”), being laid away with the full glory of a Blackfeet.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1942 - 1945

Glacier Chief, February 6, 1942

Mountain Chief, 94, and last hereditary chief of the Blackfeet Indians, who died at his house on the reservation Monday, was buried Wednesday in the cemetary here following funeral service at the Church of the Little Flower. Mountain Chief, blind and confined to his home for some years, but otherwise in good health, died suddenly after complaining of having difficulty in breathing. He had been about his yard shortly before and succumbed quietly while lying on his bed. Mountain Chief was born on Old Man River in Canada in 1848 and remembered the Treaty of 1855 of which his father was a signer. he was present at the time it was signed. by this treaty all the land south of the Missouri River claimed by the Blackfeet in Montana was given to the United States. He was known as a great warrior and, according to Dick Sanderville, took part in a great many Indian fights during his lifetime. He met also many of the Presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley, Wilson, Taft, and Queen Marie of Rumania. He participated in the sale of land which is now Glacier Park to the government. Mountain Chief was friend of General Hugh L. Scott. In 1930 he had his last visit with the general at the International Peace Conference of the Indian tribes at Browning, when the universal sign language was recorded on movie film under the direction of Scott. He is survived by his son Walter; daughter Rosie Mad Wolf; and four grandsons: Peter Stabs by Mistake, Patrick Marceau and Joe Mountain Chief, all living near Heart Butte, and Aloysious Red Fox. who is in the army in Alaska. There are 14 great grandchildren.

February 20,.1942
A large group of men from here went to Great Falls last week where they took an examination for the army. Among the men who went were Harold Scriver, Les Aubert and Jim Whitecalf.

April 10, 1942
Through the WPA, John Clarke makes 6 figures, 2 sets of three: one on the changes in Blackfeet clothing and the other on preparing a hide. These are in the Museum of the Plaiins Indian.

April 24, 1942
Funeral services for the late John Franklin Bird, 93, venerable Montana pioneer, who passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrrs. L. J. Momberg on Thursday, April 16, were held at the Methodist Church Saturday afternoon with Rev. Allen O. Wilcox officiating. Browning Funeral Home had charge of arrangements. Interment was made in the Browning Catholic Cemetary beside the grave of his wife. The following obituary was prepared by Mary B. Salois: The death of Mr. Bird removes from the community one of the real pioneers. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, Dec. 11, 1848, where he lived until he attained manhood. At the age of 20 he came West and engaged in freighting in the eastern part of Montana Territory, following the route from Bozeman to the Canadian border. His real purpose in coming West was to engage in prospecting. He and Mr. Phemister spent a number of years prospecting for gold in the country that is now Yellowstone Park and adjacent territory. He was among the early freighters out of Ft. Benton, hauling freight to the old government Fort Logan. One one particular trip as he was returning north word reached him that General Custer’s Command had been wiped out by the Sioux on the Little Big Horn. He had been hauling supplies to the old 7th Cavalry. Mr. Bird was a close friend of the late Paris Gibson and well remembered the time when Mr. Gibson, being peeved at the people of Ft. Benton, told them, “I’ll leave this town and start a real town somewhere else.” His statement became true as he started Great Falls. Mr. Bird hauled the first freightload of furniture and supplies to the original Park Hotel in Great Falls. In the year of 1880 he was married to Mattie Mad Wolf Woman, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe. They made their home in Choteau for a number of years and later moving to the reservation. Their first home here was at Old Agency, where he was in charge of the goernment herd of cattle. The family moved to a ranch on Willow Creek which later became the Methodist Mission. Their next house was about a mile down the creek which within a sort time became the Blackfeet Agency of today. Later the family moved to a ranch on Cut Bank Creek where they lived for many years. During his more than 93 years, Mr. Bird saw many changes in the ways of life. He watched and took part in the development of the community. He often remarked he never thought he would see the day when he would watch airplanes in the sky, automobiles on splendid highways which took the place of the old treacherous trails, electric lights that took the place of candles and all the wonders that always thrilled him. He said it was a long way from driving a bull team on a freight wagon to these days of everything modern. His later years were spent in ranching and he and Mrs. Bird lived for many years on what is still known at the old Bird ranch on Cut Bank River. On a trip about seventeen years ago to Yellowstone Park, he was shown many of the well-known sites. when the party came to Old Faithful geyser, he stood looking at it for some time and then remarked, “It looks just like it did 45 years ago. It spouts out just the same.” Survivors include 4 daughters and 6 sons, who are: Mrs. Dave Higgins, Mrs. L.J. Momberg, Mrs. Andrew Keller of Browning; Mrs. Martha Hans of Niobrara, Nebraska; Sampson, Charles, Johnson, Harry, George and Oscar of Browning; 40 living grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren; a sistser Mrs. Mary Odneal of Sprague, MO, and nephew, Charles Moreland of Lewiston, ID.

May 1, 1942
The Sherburne Mercantile burned.
Mary Salois begins to have a War Mother’s Column.
Bill Show donates a yearling steer to the War Mother’s auction.

June 5, 1942
War mothers: We hear from Harold Scriver PFC that he’s undergone basic training and finds army life is alright but no monkey business. He is glad the Browning War Mothers are doing their bit for the boys and says that the boys having no mothers of their own are indeed lucky to find they can call on several mothers to make life in the service happier for them.

June 26, 1942
Footprints of sign-talkers dedicated. Dedication of the footprints on the lawn of the Museum of the Plains Indian which commemorates the historic Conference of Northwest Indians at Browning in September, 1930, called for the intertribal demonstration of the sign languages, is scheduled for 2 o’clock on the afternoon of June 30 on the Museum lawn. A prominent part of the program will be taken by some of those who took part in the original conference. Most of the participants in that council are now dead. However, James Whitecalf, Richard Sanderville (Chief Bull) and Mr. F. C. Campbell of the original group, whose footprints appear in the circle of bronze tablets will participate. Plans are being made for the Indians from the encampment north of the museum to attend in a body.

July 17, 1942
Private Eddie Big Beaver, Jr. was in Australia.

August 28, 1942
Dandy Jim dies. (Jim No Chief -- son of Calf Shirt and Stikes Once)

October 9, 1942
Fred Campbell obituary.

November 6, 1942
Culbertson story.

1943

January 1, 1943
Dick Sanderville organized dance in honor of Browning War Mothers.

February 26, 1943
Miss Hazel Overdahl Bride of Harold Scriver
The marriage of Miss Hazel Overdahl, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Overdahl, to Corporal Harold T. Scriver, son of Mr. and Mrs. T.E. Scriver, was solemnized at a ceremony in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at Cut Bank last Saturday at 4:30 P.M. with the Reverend Y.L. Yivisaker officiating. Family members and a few intimate friends were in attendance. Attending the couple were the groom’s mother and his brother Robert. Later returning to Browning, the couple attended the annual Washington’s Birthday party given by Glacier Lodge No. 147, AF&AM. The bride is employed as bookkeeper for the Browning Merc. Co. Residing since early childhood in this community, she attended Browning High School until 1936 when she entered service of her present employer. The groom entered the armed forces last year and is a non-commissioned officer at Camp Hood, Texas. He is a graduate of Browning High School. He also attended the Montana State College at Bozeman and Kinman College at Spokane. Arriving home last Thursday to enjoy his second visit since entering the service, he began his return to Camp Hood Wednesday.

April 9, 1943
Faithe Sherburne is engaged to Bill Bercovich.

June 12, 1943
Mrs. Alton Lee is visiting -- she is daughter of G.V. Johnson.
Renshaw is police at the air base.

Aug. 6, 1943
“Primitive American Commandos” published by John Ewers.
Mrs. Buzz Lutts is daughter of Elsthehagen.

.Browning Chief, 1944

September 15, 1944
Pvt. John McKay seriously wounded in action in France with heavy artillery. Has been in European war zone for a year.

November 3, 1944
“The lambs of Tom Kipp of Blackfoot weighed approximately 87 lbs. each and were a close second [to Frank Conway’s]. Contrary to the usual situation, the prairie lambs outweighed the lambs that were grazed in the mountains.”

December 1, 1944
Pvt. Eddie J. Big Beaver, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. Big Beaver, Sr. of Browning, is due to arrive soon in the US on furlough from the Atlantic-Pacific war zone. Pvt. Big Beaver has served 36 months in the Army Field Artillery Corps.

1945

February 2, 1945
Norma Ann Elsethagen, Bride. Mrs. Harold Scriver was Matron of Honor, wearing a delphinium gown with sequin waist-length jacket. Five years earlier that was worn by the bride’s sister as attendant to Mrs. Lutz.

February 9, 1945
Marine Private First Class John J. Kipp carried a captured and starving 60 lb. Jap on his back up a 300 foot coral cliff. John is 6’2” and heavily built.

May 4, 1945
Selden Frisbee promoted to Major.

June 15, 1945
Maj. Gen. Wm. H. Gill, commander of the 324 (Red Arrow) Division, announces that the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines has awarded the Philippines Liberation Medal to Private Calvin C. Augare of Browning, MT. Pvt. Augare entered the army in April, 1943, and came overseas in October of the same year, assigned to the 32nd Division, veterans of Buna, he saw his first combat action at Saidor, New Guinea. He participated in four succeeding operations and is fighting at present among the mile-high ridges of the Caraldallo Mountins in Northern Luzon. Pvt Augare is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Augare and the husband of Mrs. Theda LaBuff Augare of Browning, Mt.

July 27, 1945
A 4-article series on oil geology begins.

August 3, 1945
Cptl. James Gerard, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Gerard, Sr., has been given an honorable discharge at Fort Douglas, Utah, according to a PR release. Captain Girard wears bronze stars for three campaigns in North Britain, Luzon, Leyte, and Mindinaos. Incidental to his 34 months service overseas, he is authorized to wear the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbons, American Defence Ribbon, Phillipine Defense Ribbon and Good Conduct Medal.

Pfc. Jack Heavyrunner Escorts Correspondent
Pft. Jack HR, who is with the 32nd Infantry Division in the Pacific, was a member of a patrol that escorted two distinguished war correspondents over the bloody battlegrounds along the Villa Verde Trail in northern Luzon’s Caraballo Mountains. The correspondents, “Doig” Disbrow, nationally known feature writer, and Keo Amelian, owner and reporter for radio station KLEU, Erie, Penn., wanted first hand information on the 120 day battle fought by the 32nd (Red Arrow) Divison to secure the 22 miles of mountain trail through the heart of Japanese resistance to Santa Fe. The visitors also wanted to see action. The patrol spent the day in combing the brush and timber covered canyons and gullies tryiing to make isolated pockets of Japs stand and fight. Towards evening when the party was descending the dizzy curves of the Villa Verde road, a Jap sniper fired on the car carrying the correspondents. Bullets whipped through the air and over the vehicle but no one was injured.

August 10
Big headline: Japs Give Up!

Monday, May 23, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1940 - 1941

January 5, 1940
Law passed that women can serve on juries.

January 12, 1940
Nellie Gladstone, BHS honor student, is a nurse in Seattle, passed a Civil Service test.

January 19, 1940
J.P. Carberry, 84, oldtime railroader of Montana and Canada, was killed on Saturday morning when his house burned to the ground. The charred body was recovered two hours later by his son-in-law, George Taggart. Carberry was born in Waterton, NY, and served several years in Canada, then Big Sandy when it was the end of the railroad. He was the yardmaster at Havre and in 1887 transferred to Great Falls. He and two others opened the first railroad station and telegraph office there. (Margaret Carberry Taggart is the county treasurer.) He was a member of the Masonic Order, the Algeria Shrine at Helena. He was buried at Crown Hill Cemetary.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Gold Saturday January 13 at the Blackfeet Hospital: a baby girl weighing 7 lbs. 12 oz. Wed and Thurs Mrs. Gold was reported very ill but is much improved today. [This baby is today Mary Lee Wiippert, married to Lloyd Wippert. Three of her grandchildren are spending the summer with her here.]
Thornton Burgess story in the paper.

February 2, 1940
The Crow tribe has 600 buffalo.

February 9, 1940
Mrs. Douglas Gold and daughter, Mary Lee, were dismissed from the Blackfeet Hospital Friday.

February 29, 1940
Melinda Wren died February 29, Thursday AM at her Milk River home. [Check the William Farr photo book for her portrait -- she was VERY beautiful.] She was born March 4, 1849, near Fort Benton. Her father was Chas Chouquette, who worked for Pierre Choteau and the American Fur Co. At age 8 her father sent her to Peoria, IL, to stay with her aunt and go to school. At age 17 she returned. She met John Wren and married him the following year. This “daughter of the cordeliers” accompanied her husband trapping and prospecting from the Peace River to the Yellowstone. This is the family that gave Pincer Creek it’s name -- they moved camp and forgot the horseshoeing pincers. But they went back, found them successfully, and always afterwards called that place “Pincer Creek.” She was the interpreter for years at Old Agency. In 1896 she settled on Milk River. When Wren died, Melinda carried on with her eleven children: Mrs. Al Goss, Mrs. William Kipp, Mrs. Matt Lytle, Mrs. Dan Hamilton, Mrs. Dora Cummings, Mrs. Angus Monroe, Mrs. William O’Brien, John, Robert and Willliam Wren. She had twin daughters: Mrs. Louise Aubrey and Mrs. Josephine Grant. Funeral at Church of Little Flower with Father Halligan.

March 15, 1940
Doug Gold story published in the March issue of “Banking.” The story is “Eagle Child Goes to the Bank.” Fictionalized, but “depicting the Indian, his money matters and a sure philosophy of Indian life.”

March 22, 1940-
J.L. Sherburne, T.E. Scriver and Bob Starr go to the State Highway Commission to secure the Two Medicine Bridge.
St. Patrick’s Dance -- Scriver’s Swing Band.
The commodity meat issue is pigs for a change.

April 12, 1940
Mr. and Mrs. Tellefero and Mr. and Mrs. Thad Scriver motored to Great Falls Sunday and took in the big show, “Gone with the Wind.”

May 3, 1940
“The BHS band played concerts on the streets Thursday and treated the townspeople to some high class music. This was the first street concert of the year and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who heard it. the band is sponsoring a dance tonight at the HS gym. The proceeds to go to the band expenses. Don’t fail to help the band out.”
Browning Band takes 2nd in Kalispell. “To Robert Scriver, the director, who painstakiingly and with no regard for personal praise, the thanks of the community are due.” Formal Thank You from Bob and the band to the community.

May 24, 1940
Junior Prom. Punch served by Pickaninnies!
George Upham is Black Bear.
“Lo the Poor Indian.” [ This is a phrase that was not flattering.]
Police Justice Albert Marion turns it over to John W. Kennedy

June 7, 1940
2 short stories by Doug Gold in “Banking” magazine.

June 21, 1940
Postmaster Tellefero and Mr. Thad Scriver arrived home last weekend from a three week’s visit to coast cities. They visited in Portland with Mr. Tellefero’s daughter, Mrs. J.B.. Dodd and also took in the World’s Fair at San Francisco. They report a wonderful trip and enjoyed the fair very much. Mrs. Dodd and daughter Barbara Ann returned with them and will visit at the parental home for some time.

July 26, 1940
“The BMCo has purchased a new delivery wagon. It is one of the panel jobs and has their name painted on each side. It’s a swell outfit."

August 23, 1940
Nancy Russell’s will in probate -- left money to trust fund for promoting art. [This trust fund now funds the “C.M. Russell Center for the Study of Western Art” on the University of Oklahoma campus.]

January 3, 1941
Meade Swingley went to Gonzaga to become a pilot.
Doug Gold at Mayo Clinic for an ear infection, then to new job at Office of Public Instruction.
Wilbur Werner new county attorney.
Julian Weter married Evaleen Levingood of Butte. She is sister to Doug Gold’s wife.

January 31, 1941
Mrs. Amy McCurdy of Babb was a business visitor in Browning, Monday.

March 7, 1941
Mrs. Billy Starr gave a dinner Saturday Evening to which Miss Iris Weter, Miss Hazel Overdahl and Mr. Harold Scriver were invited guests. The evening was spent playing Chinese checkers.

April 4, 1941
John Ewers arrives to be curator of the Museum of the Plains Indian.
Story on the Medicine Wheel.

June 13, 1941
Mr. and Mrs. T.E. Scriver have remodeled the outside of their house and have made much improvement in their grounds. They have also built a boulevard in front of the house which will greatly improve the beauty of the entire street. [Mrs. Scriver had just received an inheritance from her father.]

June 20, 1941
Museum of the Plains Indian Museum to open June 29.
Among the distinguished visitors at the Plains Indian Museum this week was Walter McClintock of Pittsburg, PA, who arrived in this section for an annual outing in Glacier National Park and reunion with his old Blackfeet Indian friends who he has known for several decades. McClintock’s intimacies with the Blackfeet tribe are near-sacred, he being among the first of whites to be adopted into the tribe, his Indian friends having included in years past the most outstanding leaders. McClintock, a Yale University scholar, years ago began his trek of the Glacier National Park as a photographer, his work helping to bring about its creation as a national park. His history of the Blackfeet Indians is considered among the authoritative works by students. He is author of a book callee “Old North Trail,” which teems with historic gems.

August 29, 1941
Jack Holterman arrived last Friday evening from San Francisco where he had been attending school and received his Master’s Degree during the summer session. He will teach at Starr School this year.

October 31, 1941
John Ewers lectured on Indian Art in Bozeman.

[I apologize for not having notes on more families. I was writing down material for a biography of Bob Scriver, so that's what I concentrated on. Maybe someone else will make notes from those microfilm and pick up on the many things I left out.]

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1939

January 27, 1939
Retrospect: Joe Kipp is the first Indian in Montana to own a car (August 3, 1910, Great Fall Leader item) It was an Overland and he drove it GF to Browning, which was 215 miles. It took 10 hours.
Frank Caldwell is visiting Fred, Bob and Charlie Starr. Mr. Caldwell is brother to Mrs. Fred Starr.
“Don’t forget to attend the HS band concert under the leadership of Robert Scriver. The band will play classical and novelty numbers. There will also be musical and vocal solos. Hillbilly Entertainers from GP, twirling exhibition and tumbling and a talk by a prominent speaker. Don’t miss this rare musical treat.”

February 3, 1939
Shirley Temple’s new leading man is Martin GoodRider, age 13, of Browning, a full-blood Montana Blackfeet Indian. The young American redskin, fresh from his tribe’s reservation plays the male hero with Shirley in “Susannah of the Mountains.” Martin is a protegee of Father Egan Mallman, a Jesuit priest. Besides acting, the young Indian warbles Irish ditties with a Cork accent and does Scotch dances.
The concert given by the BHS band last Friday under the leadership of Robert Scriver was enjoyed to the fullest extent by the large crowd attending. Many favorable comments have been heard this past week regarding the concert and this wonderful musical organization. Browning is justly proud of their HS Band.

February 10, 1939
12 Blackfeet went to be in the [Shirley Temple] movie: Albert MadPlume, Chief; Eddie Big Beaver, interpreter; Charlie Iron Breast; Dan BullPlume; Tom Many Guns; Turtle; Yellow Kidney; John Little Blaze; John Night Shoot; Victor Chief Coward; Juniper Old Person; Tom Spotted Eagle.

March 3, 1939
Death of Culbertson’s daughter: Mrs. Frances (Fanny) Culbertson Irvin. 80 yrs old.
Widow of Louis Irvin, pioneer lawyer.
(Culbertson ran a major fur company, competing with Hudson's Bay successfully because of his wife, Natawista, who was Blood. She was a gifted diplomat.)
b. Feb 14, 1858. In 1862: Natawista brought Fannie and Jack on a river trip that included Mrs. LaBarge, wife of the river boat captain and Margaret Karkness, the first white women to see GF. Frances in 1871 (13 yrs old) attended Moravian Institute at Bethlehem PA for one year, then one year at Vassar, then a year at a select girl’s school just outside St. Louis, called Maplewood where she majored in piano. Gov. Stevens came to St. Louis on business and held a reception for Fannie on the boat where he presented her with a loving cup inscribed “To the Second Pocahontas.” (It burned in a warehouse fire with other keepsakes stored there.) She spent her weekends at Chouteau’s home in St. Louis, where the black servants from New Orleans all spoke French. She spent the winter in NY with her cousin, Cornelia, who was born in China, but came to America to attend the Centennial Expo at Philadelphia in 1876. She was engaged to SS McCormick of Chicago. But instead she came to Fort Benton to teach. She married Irvin. and then lived in Browning. Irvin died June 13, 1938, at Browning. He was 82. She had a daughter, Mrs. Louise McGraw of GF; a son, Pierre A. Irvin of San Francisco, and three grandchildren: Mrs. Frances (Fanny) Steele of Browning, Louis Pierre and Stuart Irvin in the Navy, and one great-granddaughter.

March 10, 1939
There were as many marijuana cases as alcohol cases in Great Falls.

March 17, 1939
Al Racine goes to Bacon College in Oklahoma for art training.

April 28, 1939
Blackfeet Ceremonial Committee: Wades in the Water, chair; MudHead, vice-chair; William Fish, Sec. Treas; Victor Chief Coward, and Fish WolfRobe, collect committee; Louis Champine, Juniper Old Person, and Stabs by Mistake, camp committee; John Old Chief, Ceremony Man; Charles Reevis, Yellow Kidney, Rides at the Door, Edward Double Runner, Dan Bull Plume, Litrtle Blaze, Richard Sanderville, Old Chief, members.
Plans for a new modern theatre.
Band to Missoula where participated in a street parade. BHS was the only band recorded.
Alice Snell’s piano students had a recital.

June 2, 1939
“BHS band directed by Robert Scriver will participate in the welcoming ceremonies for Crown Princess Martha and Crown Prince Olav of Norway come through the Glacier Park station on Saturday evening. Scriver will have his band dressed in Blackfeet Indian costumes and the program calls for ceremonial dances by leading Blackfeet Indians. The Crown Prince and Princess of Norway will spend several days visiting Glacier Park before leaving Montana.

June 16, 1939
Premiere of “Susanna and the Mounties”

June 23, 1939
Promo of Monty Montana on “Rex”

June 30, 1939
Eddie Big Beaver played Tonto in a Lone Ranger skit. (Local)

July 7, 1939
“Northwest Passage” is being filmed. Dan and Levi Bull Plume, Eddie Double Runner, Jr. and Tom Dog Taking Gun to play Mohawks. Stockbridge Indians played by Jim Morning Gun, William Mills, Sam Cut Finger, James WeaselTail, Willliam Lewis, Raymond Rattler and John Old Chief, Jr.
New movie house opens 7/20. 25 years now that DesRosiers have run theatres.

July 14, 1939
Martin Good Rider is doing promotions, accompanied by Archie St. Goddard Jr. (“Sa-Poo” -- “The Wind”)
Belt that helps the heart being promoted.

“The Browning Indian Band has been engaged to play at the Northern Montana Fair at Great Falls next week. The band is composed of members of the Tribal Band and the HS Band and has been practising diligently for the past month. They will lead the Grand Parade Tuesday.”

August 11, 1939
Construction starts on the Indian Museum.

August 18, 1939
Jack Starkweather is running the Carberry Shop and writing a book about the Blackfeet.

September 1, 1939
The excavation for the Indian Museum is complete and the forms have been laid for the foundation.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1938 - 1939

January 7, 1938
Mae Aubrey Coburn announced her candidacy for the Tribal Council.

January 14, 1938
Weekly pistol shoot in the basement of the High School. Harold Scriver is the president of the gun club as well as the high scorer.
Marriage license for John Walter and Olive Walter.

February 4, 1938
Doug Gold resigns from Butte where he has been superintendent ‘34-’38. He says he plans to get a doctorate at Columbia in NY.
Marriage license issued to Eddie Big Beaver Jr. and Rosell Bear Child.

March 11, 1938
Jim Stone died. 83 years old.
James Leadbetter, Thad Scriver and Fred Stone motored to Great Falls on business Wednesday. While there they visited with James Stone at the hospital. Mr. Stone is very ill. Thursday noon relatives were called over the radio to come to his bedside as he was slowly sinking.

March 18, 1938
Funeral services for the late James M. Stone were held last Sunday afternoon from the ME church, the Rev. Arthur Wilcox officiating. a large gathering of sorrowing relatives and friends paid their last respects to the departed. The casket and rostrum were banked with floral tributes showing the high esteem in which the decedent was held. Rev. Wilcox paid a glowing tribute to Mr. Stone and spoke words of comfort to the bereaved relatives. Mrs. Barter and Mr. Duncan sang “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere” and “In the Land of Fadeless Day.” Interment ws in the Browning cemetary. James M. Stone, son of M&M Joel Stone, was born in Oswego, NY, May 29, 1855, and died March 10, 1938. When 18 years of age he came West and enlisted under General Custer. Ten years after leaving the army he was employed by TC Powers as stage driver from Fort Benton to Helena. After that many years were spent in freighting from GF to Choteau. He moved with his family 41 years ago to a ranch north of Browning and made that community his home until death came. He was an energetic and successful rancher and an honorable citizen. His home became a center for social events and was well-known for the hospitality there. The community has lost one of its esteemed citizens. His death brought sorrow not only to the members of his family but to a host of friends as well.
M&M Ed J. Stone and Mrs. B.W. Stone of St. Paul, MN., were dinner guests at the home of M&M James Leadbetter last Tuesday evening. M.&M TE Scriver and M&M Am Shannon also were guests at the dinner given in compliment to the St. Paul visitors who left that night for their homes.

April 15, 1938
George Bird Grinnell died.

April 22, 1938
Dedication of the Holy Family Chapel.

May 6, 1938
Daily airplane flights from Great Falls to East Glacier
A marriage license was issued at Kalispell on May 9 to Arthur W. Douglas of Browning and Marion E. Fuqua of New York.
Frank Bird Linderman dies.

May 27, 1938
Band played “Opera Gems” for commencement. Betty June Wright has a solo and soloes just about every time from now on.
Hart and Naomi Schultz are back for the summer.
Mae Coburn divorced John Coburn of Cut Bank, decree at Conrad.

June 1938
Harvey Williamson and Mae Aubrey Coburn, both of Browning, were married at Great Falls last Saturday. They will make their home here. Mrs. Willamson is a member of the Tribal Council and the couple is well-known here.
Helena to have an historical museum.
Jim Welch had a blow-out and wrecked.

July 8, 1938
Doug Gold marries Bertha Levingood at home in Butte. She was his secretary for the past 6 years. They will visit Mary Gold in Seattle, then live in Browning.

July 15, 1938
Mrs. Octavia Stone was a business visitor in Browning Thursday. Her health is slowly improving and by spending a lot of time outdoors she is acquiring quite a suntan.

Sept. 16, 1938
J.H. Sherburne “Passes to the Great Beyond.”

Sept. 30, 1938
Mrs. AM Shannon, Mrs. Thad Scriver, and their guest Mrs. Allison spent last weekend at the Shannon cabin at St. Marys.

November 18, 1938
Merle Magee and Phoebe Pepion married.

December 9, 1938
Story on Shorty Shope, cowboy artist who lives in Helena..

January 6, 1939
Wolf Plume died. b. 1859 (Father, Bull Chief, was from Melted Fat clan. Mother was Shoots Back.) Settled at Little Badger in 1890. When his father died, he got a .44 pistol and his mother told him he would have to provide meat for the family with it, which he did. In 1879 he got a .44 rimfire “Henry Flat” rifle and led a raid in the Cypress Hills. Later in the Moccasin Mountains near Lewistown he found Sioux on the Yellow R. (AKA The Judith) and captured back sixty horses they had just taken from some Blackfeet. in 1889 he was made a policeman by John B. Catlin. In 1896 he became a judge of the Indian Court (appted by Major George McLaughliin). In 1912 he had 137 horses and 278 cows. In 1922 he was the chapter head in the Campbell program.

Approval of Museum of Plains Indian
$150,000 approved by Congress for construction
Mostly this was accomplished through Dick Sanderville (Chief Bull). Gen. Hugh L. Scott came September 1930 for the International Peace Council and the film made from it. There were 15 tribes represented. They took their moccasins off and stood in plaster barefoot, except Scott kept his boots on. There were supposed to be two commemorative circles of feet, one at Two Medicine. They were supposed to be sheltered by a concrete tipi. [That didn’t happen but someone picked up the idea for a service station.] In 1935 Sanderville enlisted the Lions Convention of District 37 International Lions Clubs at Helena. The whole Lions International made it a project. In 1937 Mrs. Stella M. Atwood, Director of the American Association of Indian Affairs in Riverside, CA wrote a propectus. Dr. George C. Ruhle , Chief Naturalist of Glacier Park, helped. Secretary of the Interior Ickes (Big Bear) came through on a campaign train. Sanderville, who had met Ickes, swung aboard and addressed Ickes. Then he told Senator Murray about Jessie Schultz’s “little Craft Shop” with 62 workers and how much help it is to the people who sell work there. (This is how the Craft Shop came to be built into the Museum.) Fund of $5,000 sent for the Craft Shop. Then Sanderville went to local merchants and raised a $200 loan. He gathered 100 items from local people to exhibit. Bird Rattle’s shield handed down from “He Never Sits Still” was among them. J. H. Sherburne gave them his collection, which included a full-length warbonnet from White Eagle, chief of the Ponca Indians, Chief Joseph’s stirrups and WhiteCalf’s pipe. The land was tribal, carved out of the fairgrounds/campgrounds. The building was to be made of native stone.

January 20, 1939
Doug Gold is remodeling the Sherburne ice house into an apartment house -- 8 apts.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Brownin Newspaper Notes 1934 - 1937

[You may remember from yesterday’s post that butterflies were seen just weeks earlier!]

January 4, 1934
Drifting snow so deep that people are using sleighs.
Marias Pass is blocked.

January 11, 1934
Indian courts are suggested

January 18, 1934
Frank Sherburne bridge party .

January 25, 1935
Temp just came up from 15 and 44 below zero

February, 1935
Clay modeling and wood carving classes being taught by Carl Hallig, Jr.

March 8, 1935
Measles going around.

March 15, 1935
Rodney Strang & Harold Scriver visited in Great Falls last Saturday.

Summer, 1935
Robert Scriver leading the Tribal Band for $5 on performance days -- no pay for rehearsal.

April 3, 1936
Bransom Stevenson etchings win prize.
The kids around town have mumps.

April 10, 1936
DeVoe Swank Wedding

May 8, 1936
Robert Scriver, music instructtor at Browning schools, entertained the Music Club at a picnic Tuesday afternoon May 6 at Cut Bank Creek. Despite the cool weather everyone had a good time and the eats disappeared as if by magic. Mr. Bergan assisted in entertaining and the townspeople and students contributed cars for the transportation of the 50 or 60 odd musicians attending. The picnic lasted from 4 to 7 PM.
Fae Hinkle has the mumps.

May 16, 1936
Harold Scriver underwent an operation at the Conrad hospital Tuesday for the removal of his tonsils. Although pretty sick at present, Harold says he’s coming out of it fine.


June 5, 1936
Margaret Carberry Hug filed for County Treasurer.
Chewing Black Bone is the camp cryer for Indian Days encampment. Dr. Rodnick, government anthropologist attending. [His reports were quoted in the Rosier book.]
Jim Stone, 81, is recovering from pneumonia

July 3, 1936
Stan Paul and Mary Augare marry.

Juily 10, 1936
Bad drought

July 24, 1936
Work proceeding on hospital

August 21, 1936
There was a fire started Monday at St. Mary’s near to Hugh Black’s. It was caused by somone dumping some live ashes near the garbage grounds.

October 23, 1936
Monteith, former agent, dead at 83.

November 6, 1936
DeVoe Swank have baby boy.at the GF Hospital.


Glacier County Chief
Jan 1, 1937 - Dec 30, 1938

January 15, 1937
Lots of snow.

February 5, 1937
Members of the BMC staff deserves a lot of credit for their help in giving and securing medical attention and transporation to and from the hospital followng the accident in which Mrs. Tellefero was injured. Every member of the firm assisted.

March 5, 1937
M&M Hirum Upham had a son.
Margaret Carberry who was the guest last week of Miss Kathleen Higgins, left the first of the week for Cut Bank to take up her duties as County Treasurer.

April 23, 1937
Pacific Hide and Fur wants 10 carloads of bones.
Three new cement sidewalks are being laid this week in front of the JH Sherburne, TE Scriver and OA Tellifero homes.

May 7, 1937
Holy Family Mission : steam heat installed in the boys’ building plus a generator and pressurized water.
On Wednesday evening the Browning HS band gave a concert to one of the largest audiences ever to pack the large community hall. Each number on the program, which is the same that will be given at the festival at Havre on Saturday, was played beautifully and received thunderous applause. The band dressed in their natty new uniforms, paraded on the streets before the concert and presented a thrilling sight marching to their own music. The program will be in next week’s issue.
Farmer’s Trading Co in Cut Bank is playing $10 a ton for “dry prairie bones.”

May 28, 1937
Harold Scriver and MIss Hazel Overdahl were injured in a head-on collision last Friday evening, close to the Browning Wye while on their way to Blackfeet following the Junior Prom. The other car was driven by a man named Undermouse. Both cars were badly damaged.
The Orpheum Theatre is showing “Sins of Love” which will be shown to men and women separately. No one under sixteen admitted. See a real Caesarian operation, blood transfusion, an abortion and natural childbirth. “If you faint easily, don’t come -- trained nurses at every show.

June 11, 1937
Browning teachers’ vacation plan.
Miss Hazel Overdahl who was injured several weeks ago in an auto accident has sufficiently recovered to be back at work at the Glacier Drug Co. soda fountain.

June 18, 1937
Baby Paul first born in new hospital -- might be Ken Paul?

July 5, 1937
Sun lodge

July 12, 1937
Walter McClintock of Pittsburgh, PA, well-known author of Blackfeet Indian legends, is visiting in Glacier Park. McClintock came to Montana in the early part of this century and began living with the Indians and studying them for the purpose of gathering material for his stories. He has been back there nearly every year since that time.

Sept 3, 1937
Eddie Big Beaver married Cora Calf Looking on August 30, 1937

Sept 10, 1937
Chas Devereaux Jr., a promisiing young Browning artist, who has been studying this summer with Hart Schultz, left this week for Wichita, KA, where he will taken an art course at the Henry Roe Cloud School. Hart M. Schultz (Lone Wolf), the noted artist, was a visitor in town Thursday from St. Mary’s where he has been painting and doing art work this summer. Mr. Schultz will leave soon for Arizona where he will exhibit some of his work.Victor Pepion, who has been studying art under Winold Reiss will leave soon for an eastern school where he will take a course in art.

Sept. 24, 1937
The Methodist Ladies Aid will meet next Thursday afternoon Septembeer 30 at 2 PM at the church. Mrs. J.L. Sherburne, Mrs. TE Scriver and Mrs. KW Bergen will be the hostesses. All ladies are cordially invited.

October 1, 1937
James Willard Schultz just published “Stained Gold” about Virginia City.
Infantile paralysis around
Stuart Hazlett wrote stinging letter about irrigation and starving, idled Indians.

October 8, 1937
Rita Brown goes to Stanford. She is G Granddaughter of Chief Lame Bull.
Another Hazlett letter about housing.

October 15, 1937
Hazlett is after water rights.
“The BMC have[sic] on display at their store,e a new oil cook range, which is one of the latest ranges on the market. It is called the Duotherm Oil Burning Range and is wickless, just like the heaters. You are invited to come in and look the new range over.”

Oct. 22, 1937
Hazlett addressing work and irrigation.
James Willard Schultz admitted to Maynard hospital in Choteau on Saturday for medical treatment.

November 12, 1937
Bird Rattler dies. 37 raids, eventually became judge of Indian court. retired 1935.

November 19, 1937
Wearing the scalps of two long dead Indian warriors, Mrs. Claire Sheridan, British author and sculptress, sailed for England today on the US liner President Harding. The scalps dangled like epaulets from the bright yellow Indian blanket which Mrs. Sheridan wore as a coat. She explained, "It's no worse to wear these scalps than it is to wear a bit of ribbon on your chest to testify that you have been responsible for killed men in the wars of the white people." The trophies were given her, she said, by a 75-year-old Indian she met while living for the past three months among the Blackfeet Indians of Montana and Canada. The owner had taken them from the heads of enemies when he was a youth of 17.
John Dick of the Liberty Barber Shop has purchased the John Lewis home, located on the highway, taking possession Wednesday. [The house was little more than a shack or cabin. Mr. Dick made violins in his very crowded little place and every day went for an invigorating march up the highway, no matter the weather,. He had saved so many newspapers and other things that when he finally died of old age, they found his body standing up between two stacks.]

December 10, 1937
Trying to keep both Marias Pass and Looking Glass open

December 17, 1937
Hazlett -- irrigation meeting
Jim Stone pneumonia again.
TB around

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Browning Newspaper Notes 1924 - 1934

Feb. 15, 1924
Mrs. Amelia Fox died. She made the buckskin suit that Custer wore into the massacre. Hugh Monroe’s daughter.

February 22, 1924
Presbyterian Ladies’ Aid meeting at home of Mrs. TE Scriver.
Advertisement promoting fur farming.

February 28
Another band already at Boarding School. 27 Indian boys
Last Saturday evening Mrs. CA Churchill & Miss Loraine Halseth entertained a few ladies at a Washington party for Mrs. Bullock and Mrs. George Macfie (of Montreal). The house was beautifully decorated with red and white carnations. Cards were played at three tables.

March 21
Mrs. FP Sherburne and Mrs. CF Hadden were hostesses to a St. Patrick’s party last Monday night at the home of Mrs. Sherburne.
The house was beautifully decorated in green and white. Cards being played at 6 tables. Mrs. Scriver received a very beautiful yellow glass flower basket as first prize. Mr. Bullock winning a gilt-edged deck of cards with a leather case. A luncheon was served with green and white being carried out in the menu.

March 28
Last Saturday evening Mrs. TE Scriver was hostess to a few friends at her home, the occasion being a farewell party for her mother, Mrs. Macfie who departed Thursday for Montreal, Canada. Cards were played at 7 tables until 11 o’clock, after which a delicious lunch was served. The floor being waxed and in fine shape, the rest of the evening was turned over to the ladies as a leap-year dance. Everyone had a delightful time, as they always have with Mrs. Scriver as hostess.
Story about Round Iron Bob Muldrun with Culbertson.

April 25
Old Montana trails -- map.

May 2
Andrew Dawson life story.

May 9
Smallpox story.

May 30
Jim Stone’s 70th birthday

June 6
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s Buffalo Bill statue unveiled.

June 27
Newspaper sold.

July 11
Story about Liver-Eatin’ Johnson
Page of Sheriff’s sales

Aug 29
First Indian vote.

Sept. 5
TE Scriver returned from Great Falls the latter part of last week with a dashing-lookiing new Nash touring car. The car is one of the latest models with 4-wheel brakes and uptodate devices.

Sept. 26 (Paper has expanded to 8 pages)
“Friday Afternoon Literary Club” Percy Salois, Sgt. at Arms

Nov. 21
6 new users added to the City Water in the fall.

GLACIER COUNTY CHIEF
April/6/34 (VOL 4, #1)

Approved Wheeler-Howard
Forest Stone is Agency Supervisor
Franchise granted to Suntana to run natural gas to Browning homes.
Fort Peck Dam
Romance serial (Illustrations often feature long flowing skirts of reclining women) Novel teaser: Altho 50 million Americans can be wrong, one little French girl can set things right.
“Father Halligan has determined to have a perfect lawn surrounding Little Flower and we observed him ordering a new supply of seed from the BMC this week.”
“Yankee Jack” and Capt. Joseph LaBerge -- old Steamboat hands -- story

July 15, 1934
Ad for the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
Oscar Thronson’s dog “Spot” had 6 puppies. by a known father.

April 20, 1934
Browning Merc “Heintz” demonstrator was present to show how to use the products.
Building the hospital
Thomas Meagher story
Bob Kramer’s Wigwam moving to make room at the curve coming into Browning. [This is the concrete tipi that’s been remarkably peripatetic for what appears to be an immovable object!]

April 27, 1934
Commencement: 11 seniors:
Velma Miller (Valedictorian), Frances Vanderpool, Gail Potter, James Welch, Frances Chabre, Mark Cavanaugh, Clarence Bartlett, Jack Kennedy, Charles Thompson (Salutatorian), Charles Sellars, Rodney Strong
Mrs. J. L. Sherburne went to Faithe’s graduation in Salem, OR
Ernest Douglas is President of soph class
BHS band and Blackfeet Tribal band going to Band Festival in Havre.

May 4, 1934
Mrs. Tellefero went to Conrad to the hospital where she submitted to a tonsillectomy. She was accompanied by Mrs TE Scriver and is feeling better since her arrival home. Mrs. McDonald has been filling her position in the PO during her absence.
Ad for Atlantic Monthly.
39,000 Blackfeet in ‘34 census estimate.
Doug Gold has been superintendent in Browning since 1920. Now he goes to Butte where they’re building a new school.

June 1, 1934
John Ground - Chief Eagle Calf
Prohibition is repealed -- big whiskey ads.
TE Scriver & Family will motor to Dickinson ND tomorrow where they will visit their son Robert who will finish his term at the Dickinson Normal. Robert completes a very successful course in music & art and during the past winter has been director of the Dickinson HS Band. He will return to Browning and next fall will go to Chicago where he will continue his studies.
Dennis Ravero, music director at BHS will attend summer school in Missoula.

June 15, 1934
Scottie’s cabins from Glacier Park moved to Browning by J.C. Aubert.
Winold and Hans Reiss arrive.
A lot of measles cases.

July 27, 1934
Son born to Edward McCurdy & wife
Indian Band organized by the Tribal Council in 1931 with 23 members. “Princess Drifting Cloud” (18 years old) is featured. She’s a grad of U of Colorado.)
Robert Scriver and Hiram Upham returned home Monday from a few days visit to the Seawald ranch. They brought back a couple of rattlesnakes which they captured out at the ranch.

August 3, 1934
Franklin Roosevelt coming through.

August 10, 1934
Mildred Walker story in “American” magazine.

August 17, 1934
Whetstone is starting a daily paper in Cut Bank.
Must get rid of water bucket and dippers in stores because they are unsanitary..
Merton Harwood caught albino gopher with a shoe lace three miles SE of Big Badger.
Teaching: Lottie Bond, Blanche Renshaw, Stuart DesRosier
The Winold Reiss Art School had afternoon tea at the Log Cabin Cafe last Wednesday.
DROUGHT
James Welch returned home from the Sweetgrass hospital last week where he has been recovering from an injury to his back, sustained at Sunburst where he is employed. He is resting at his home and expects to be back at work in a short time.

Sept 14, 1934
Jessie Powell is teaching at Babb and driving the school bus.

Sept. 21, 1934
An address “Beauty in Browning.” An essay about improvements and yards, new fences, curtains in windows, and so on.

Sept. 28, 1934
Big snow.

Oct 5, 1934
Measles

Oct 12, 1934
Mr. Liedhe & Mr. Kehoe of Glacier Park called in this vicinity Friday. [This was not a relative of Tom Kehoe.]

Oct 19, 1934
“Frank Bird Linderman” by Grace Stone Coates

Nov 2, 1934
Story on how and why to plant shelterbelts

Nov. 23, 1934
12 babies born.
9 babies die.
Mr & Mrs. Frank Caldwell of Champion, AL, at Fred Starr home. Caldwell is Mrs. Starr’s brother.
Harold Scriver is now driving a new Plymouth car which he purchased recently from Ed McDougall, agent for Plymouth and Dodge cars.

December 14, 1934
So warm that butterflies are seen!