METHODIST BLACKFEET PARISH HISTORY

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Weasel Feather, Buffalo Hide, Running Antelope (Rev. Edgar B. Smith), Old Chief, Eagle Calf

In some ways the World War II years were the best the reservation ever had. The young men were proud warriors and there was no doubt that the “old bulls” were chiefs. Likewise, churches were full and the Blackfeet War Mothers paid little attention to what race those mothers were. Divisions are were minimized and categories went unquestioned for a while.

1956-58 George P. Cox (intern) Babb, Heart Butte
George was born on April 16, 1923 and passed away on Sunday, September 24, 1995. George was last known to be living in Alder, Montana. This is the only info I could find and I’m not entirely sure it’s the same person.

1958-59 Charlotte Bridges

I know nothing about these people and have heard few say much.

1959-67 James E. Bell Babb, Heart Butte

Jim and Mary Bell were the pastors in residence when I came to Browning, Montana. A tall rangy Texas man along the lines of Randolph Scott or Gary Cooper, Jim Bell was a missionary who believed in pluralism. Though he was a strong Christian and a dedicated Methodist, he had great respect for indigenous ways and sought to bring them into the life of the congregation, though the Browning congregation saw itself pretty much as a white church and were more willing to welcome any Indians assimilated, that is, pretty much like them. The perennial problem was solved again by creating a ring of more “Indian” churches around the reservation in the small communities and leaving the major congregation in Browning to be more conventional.

The hammer blow suffered by the Bell ministry was the Flood of 1964. It swept away the little Apistotoke church, known as Swims Under, out near Heart Butte, and lost homes out there meant that much of the population moved to Browning. Coincidentally, the Methodist church in Babb burned down at the same time. The parsonage was not much damaged, but topsoil on the flood plain was stripped off the underlying gravel. There was suddenly huge need and trauma as people tried to cope with loss and change. That year had been meant to celebrate the Centennial of the Territory of Montana and no one could even understand whether to cancel events. Bell and other townsfolk had grown whiskers of various sorts and Bob Scriver was inspired to portray some of them in a diorama sculpture of a poker game, but Jim Bell is seen as a tall, thin cowboy rather than as a parson.

I was not part of the Bell’s personal circle. They lived in a new ranch-style house on the flood plain of Willow Creek just west of the Indian Days campground. The house was meant to accommodate Indian children who needed emergency care or fostering, but I’m not sure exactly how many or which children those included. Once we responded with the rest of Browning to a fire in the barn that had been set by children playing with matches. The major grief of the couple was losing in infancy their twin sons and the chimes in the church were donated in the name of those children. The Bells were beloved but controversial. The final quarrel was over a pair of urban Black young people the Bells took in for the summer.

1963 - Harry E. Pearson Blackfeet United Methodist Parish (lay)

“Papa” Pearson was a retired volunteer social worker rather than a pastor. He addressed the mounds and mounds of used clothing and spent much of his time wrestling around boxes of donated stuff. Twice we lived on the two sides of duplexes, first the Halseth apartments now under the Blackfeet Trading Post and second Wessie Scriver’s duplex across the street from her. In both locations his stacks of boxes would occasionally topple, sometimes sounding like a body falling, and we’d worry over what had happened to him. In a few minutes his habitual humming/singing would start back up and we’d know he was all right.

1965- 68 Conrad Himmel
Conrad and Gayle Himmel were hard workers who had agreed to split the double-yolked egg with the Bells by taking up the mission side of things, but the Bells left. The last I heard they were in Africa. The major contribution of the Himmels was acquring the decommissioned Air Force building that became Day Care. This was just before Heart Start, but made much the same contribution by allowing parents to work and providing both protection and education to the kids.

1963-64 Richard D. Fiero Heart Butte
This was probably also one of the mission arrangements that came and went in Heart Butte, which was the most remote and -- in some opinions -- the most backward of the territory. It was where the old people settled and depended upon the leadership of Dick Sanderville, “Chief Bull.”

BROWNING UNITED METHODIST PARISH
When organizations are struggling to find a new identity, they often start with a new name.

1974-1981 Walter F. Mason
This pleasant and competent man settled things down. I don’t know much about him, because I left in 1973.

1981-83 F. Richard and H. Marine
Another couple that is remembered with affection.

1983-1985 James R. Bentley (PM)
Some said that Jim Bentley was brought in to straighten out the books. I believe it was during this time that Brent Warrington was commissioned to create a stunning set of stained glass windows, though it may have been earlier. Brent had taught at the Blackfeet Free School and Sandwich Shop and also did the stained glass windows at Holy Family Mission on Two Medicine River.

1986-87 Ron Barr
Barr was the person who installed the quonset hut church at the Heart Butte location across the graveyard from the Catholic Church. It never quite jelled as a congregation and was nothing like the replacement for Swims Under that Bell had promised. It became the inevitable repository for old clothes and a location for sporadic mission visits. Barr had a tendency to overreach and that evidently overwhelmed his family, which shattered. He left suddenly.

1987 - 88 Mary Scriver
I had just left a Unitarian Universalist ministry in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Jacobson had been called to be the next Methodist minister, but he was retained for another year in his previous calling as a Navy chaplain in Florida. I agreed to serve the congregation by preaching and living in the parsonage in lieu of wages, which meant it would be exempt from taxes. Otherwise the choices were renting and paying taxes, or leaving it to stand empty in a place where it was likely to be vandalized. We didn’t do any mission work but I dearly loved the year.

1989 Richard (Jake) Jacobson
Jake was only in residence a matter of months before he realized he’d made a huge mistake and left.

1989 -90 Peggy Salois
Everyone speaks very highly of Peggy, who was a lay interim, I think.

1990- 1994 Donna Lee Martin
Donna had a strong service ethic, which was supported with dedication by her husband, who upgraded the parsonage. People found Donna “very emotional,” which was a plus to some. She did a lot of work with groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and was a senstive one-on-one counselor.

1994 - 1998 Rowland Freeman
Rowland had a strong pentecostal bent and introduced much of that to the congregation. As usual, strong personalities make controversy. Under his guidance, more stained glass was installed in the bell tower windows. The funeral of Mike Swims Under, the wise old man of the original Apistotoke church that was swept away, was guided by Freeman and included many Blackfeet old-timers even from Canada.


After Rowland I have no list to guide me and events are recent enough to be not quite history anyhow. The same problems persist today, though Browning is dominantly Indian now and the congregation is almost entirely of mixed blood.