Montana History Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Louis Riel's petition of 1880.

The first female architecture student to study under Walter Gropius at the Harvard School of Design in the Post World War II era, Daphne Bugbee Jones was an accomplished architect who brought the principles of the Bauhaus and Modernist... more

The first female architecture student to study under Walter Gropius at the Harvard School of Design in the Post World War II era, Daphne Bugbee Jones was an accomplished architect who brought the principles of the Bauhaus and Modernist architecture to the state of Montana in America's Inland Northwest. Along with her husband, noted environmental philosopher Henry Bugbee, Bugbee Jones merged her commitment to Modernist design, social activism, and the preservation of wilderness in the urban interphase zone around the city of Missoula.

To start off this session on consumer behavior, this research examines trade and exchange in the drinking spaces in the outer nodes, or frontiers, of American settlement systems. These places are central to understanding North American... more

To start off this session on consumer behavior, this research examines trade and exchange in the drinking spaces in the outer nodes, or frontiers, of American settlement systems. These places are central to understanding North American and Atlantic trade networks because they illuminate the ways that economic and social capital are negotiated within local exchange systems and regimes of value. This project focuses on two frontier sites distanced temporally and geographically: the seventeenth century fishing station on Smuttynose Island in the Isles of Shoals, Maine and the nineteenth century gold mining town of Highland City, Montana. As a comparative study, I situate these sites within the larger anthropological dialogue on trade, power negotiations, and sociability. Through the use of a framework focused on informal economy, I examine how frontier men and women negotiated power, with a particular focus on resource-extraction communities. With regards to the Isles of Shoals and Highland City, I assert that the fishermen and miners at these two locales leveraged their positions at key international nodes in their respective trades for their own political and economic gains. The Shoalers deployed their economic gains to negotiate transactions within an informal economy based out of the tavern on Smuttynose Island. Drawing from current fieldwork, I hypothesize that if Highland City was a similar resource extraction community tied into larger trade networks, then the archaeological data will reveal that the same manner of negotiations within the saloons. However, none of this research could have taken place without the help of the Smuttynose Island Stewardship Program and the USFS.

Coinciding with the centennial of the U.S. entry into World War I, this exhibition catalog examines the lives of four individuals from Montana or closely tied to the western state who served their country proudly and whose lives were... more

Coinciding with the centennial of the U.S. entry into World War I, this exhibition catalog examines the lives of four individuals from Montana or closely tied to the western state who served their country proudly and whose lives were significantly shaped by the Great War. They are: Glasgow-born William Belzer, celebrated aviator and among America’s first flying aces; Great Falls widow Josephine Hale who served as a Red Cross nurse and became a notable painter in France; doughboy Sidney F. Smith, survivor and hero of the infamous “Lost Battalion;” and James Watson Gerard, U.S. ambassador to Berlin until the U.S. declaration of war and husband to Mary Daly of the famous mining family. The catalog essay by UM Professor of Art History and Criticism H. Rafael Chacón addresses the abstract concept of the enemy, both abroad and within.

The Buffalo Soldiers’ military service in the West helped create the United States we know today. Influenced by the United States Colored Troops’ success during the Civil War, Congress created the first all-black regular army cavalry and... more

The Buffalo Soldiers’ military service in the West helped create the United States we know today. Influenced by the United States Colored Troops’ success during the Civil War, Congress created the first all-black regular army cavalry and infantry regiments that aided expansion of the United States western border. They protected vital infrastructure, settlers, and even Native Americans from Americans when necessary. While stationed in Montana they helped put down labor strikes between miners and mine owners, tested the bicycle on its utility in the field of battle, and policed Native Americans throughout the state. They even managed some of the nation’s first national parks. For those that opted to stay in the state after separating from the army, many made Helena their new home and helped to create a vibrant, even if short-lived, black community.

When Montana’s first legislature established a school for the “deaf, dumb, blind, and feeble-minded” in 1893, it became part of a national experiment in large, state-run custodial facilities that began with educational objectives but... more

When Montana’s first legislature established a school for the “deaf, dumb, blind, and feeble-minded” in 1893, it became part of a national experiment in large, state-run custodial facilities that began with educational objectives but morphed into dark, dilapidated dungeons of shame. For much of the twentieth century, the institution was plagued with inadequate funding, overcrowding, run-down facilities, staff shortages, limited oversight, forced sterilization, labor unrest, and little public concern. In the decades after World War II, many Montanans, like their counterparts across the nation, demanded better care. Parents, journalists, health care workers, and ordinary citizens drew attention to the dismal conditions and agitated for change. One of those individuals and the focus of this article was Dr. Philip D. Pallister, the institutional physician from 1947-1975. To understand why some of his patients faced such debilitating ailments, he turned to patient physicals and family histories, autopsies, EEG labs, and chromosomal analysis. His quest resulted in world-renowned discoveries in the genetic origins of diseases, breakthroughs typically associated with large research labs. In his case, powerful firsthand experience with patients led to advances in medical genetics and clinical care. But he did not stop with a medical model of people with disabilities; instead he insisted, “My patients were not syndromes; they were real people who became my friends.” He became a proponent for deinstitutionalization, individual rights, and social change.

In 1870, a band of Blackfoot Indians called the Piegan Indians was massacred by the United States Army as a literal form of punishment against violence and agression of the Indians in Montana. The Army had targeted Chief Mountain Chief's... more

In 1870, a band of Blackfoot Indians called the Piegan Indians was massacred by the United States Army as a literal form of punishment against violence and agression of the Indians in Montana. The Army had targeted Chief Mountain Chief's band of Piegan's for this punishment, but instead massacred the peaceful band lead by Chief Heavy Runner. Around 173 Blackfeet Indians were killed on January 23, 1870 near the Marias river in Montana, including 53 women and children, while another 140 women and children were left without supplies in the -43 degree January weather.

As Manitoba Metis were dispossessed of their land the diaspora moved west, many had moved into what is now Montana and applied to the Canadian government for their land inheritance under the Manitoba Act of 1870 and other legislation. In... more

As Manitoba Metis were dispossessed of their land the diaspora moved west, many had moved into what is now Montana and applied to the Canadian government for their land inheritance under the Manitoba Act of 1870 and other legislation. In Montana they were often called the "Landless Cree".

Building the Minuteman missile fields in central Montana and bringing Alpha flight to alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis was a heavy lift for the United States Army Corps of Engineers and Air Force. Given the urgency the Cold War... more

Building the Minuteman missile fields in central Montana and bringing Alpha flight to alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis was a heavy lift for the United States Army Corps of Engineers and Air Force. Given the urgency the Cold War placed on this weapon system, the USACE had to acquire vast tracts of land from private citizens. Some resisted outright, others acquiesced, but the overall process was long, painstaking, and anything but simple. As construction began, some Montanans revolted against the prime contractor Fuller-Webb because they believed it was hiring too many out of state firms and employees to do the work. Ultimately, this issue resolved itself and the project injected over $300 million into the state economy. However, shortly after construction was underway the US and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics entered a standoff against each other known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a result Strategic Air Command and the 341st Strategic Missile Wing brought the first flight of Minuteman missiles to alert, eventually prevailing against the Soviet Union, but not before both the Kennedy administration and Khrushchev realized these weapons were not good for mankind, let alone their own nations. As a result, the Department of Defense began to pare back resources for the ICBM mission following the Cuban Missile Crisis. These actions from the 1960s, left largely unattended by leaders in the Air Force, provided the foundation for the mission’s post-Cold War problems.

On August 22, 1883, the Northern Pacific Railroad (NPRR) drove the last spike to complete transcontinental mainline at Independence Creek, Montana Territory (Figure 1), which lay about 50 miles west of Helena, Montana and about 30 miles... more

On August 22, 1883, the Northern Pacific Railroad (NPRR) drove the last spike to complete transcontinental mainline at Independence Creek, Montana Territory (Figure 1), which lay about 50 miles west of Helena, Montana and about 30 miles west of the Continental Divide. A group of Chinese, advancing from the west, competed with European and Euro-American laborers from the east to finish the last mile of track. Although there are several mainstream historical publications discussing the NPRR’s construction (, it is clear that the Chinese contribution has yet to be investigated. As noted by Pegler-Gordon (2006), there was an intentional historical omission of the Chinese contributions from the literature in the 1800s, and this may have [unintentionally] influenced recent research on the NPRR. The relative absence of the Overseas Chinese in period illustrations and historical accounts associated with railroads in the American West is ironic given the significance of their role in the construction of the NPRR, as well as other great transcontinental railroads (e.g., the Central Pacific Railroad) in Gilded Age America.

The Chinese immigrants who came to Montana during the 19th and 20th centuries forged a new community. The goals of this dissertation were to create a historical and archaeological context for Chinese Experience in Montana, and to frame... more

The Chinese immigrants who came to Montana during the 19th and 20th centuries forged a new community. The goals of this dissertation were to create a historical and archaeological context for Chinese Experience in Montana, and to frame the interpretation of these results within a social organization framework that highlights the role of Overseas Chinese voluntary organizations such as secret societies. Archaeologists and historians have studied the Chinese in Montana for a little over two decades, though nothing comprehensive has ever been attempted to sew together the various investigations. In addition, there has been no attempt to inventory all the known Chinese archaeological sites in Montana, and how these fit into the broad patterns of history. Between first large-scale gold discovery in Montana Territory during 1862 until 1900, the Chinese engaged largely in placer-mining endeavors and represented the largest ethnic group during this period. Federal Exclusion laws, statewide boycotts, and pervasive racism deeply affected the Chinese experience in Montana, and led to the state’s abandonment by the bulk of this immigrant population in the early 20th century. In overseas communities, the Chinese immigrants relied on voluntary associations to replace the traditional modes of social organization found in China. These organizations provided mutual protection to their members, and helped to organize resistance to the legal and social racism encountered in the United States and other diaspora communities. This dissertation interprets the history and archaeology of the Chinese in Montana in a framework that highlights the role of voluntary social organizations in the success of this population.

During the 2006 and 2007 field seasons, archaeologists from the Lolo National Forest and the University of Montana (UM) investigated a mysterious hand-stacked rock terrace site in Sanders County, near Plains, MT. Local folklore suggested... more

During the 2006 and 2007 field seasons, archaeologists from the Lolo National Forest and the University of Montana (UM) investigated a mysterious hand-stacked rock terrace site in Sanders County, near Plains, MT. Local folklore suggested that one potential interpretation of the site’s construction was related to disenfranchised Chinese railroad workers who sought gold at the site during the 1880s and 1890s. Lolo National Forest Archaeologist Milo McLeod first recorded the site in 1979 with location information provided by Plains Ranger District employees. UM doctoral student Chris Merritt began working on the site in fall of 2006 under the hypothesis that the site was Chinese and dating to the 1880s or 1890s. However, it appears that the site was constructed no earlier than 1905, and most likely relates to a vernacular use of mining waste rock to construct the terraces to supplement miner subsistence during the 1910s.

The creation of the Privatized Housing Resident Advocate in 2020 represents the next chapter in the Air Force’s attempt to provide quality housing for its Airmen. Following World War II, the Air Force grew to approximately one million... more

The creation of the Privatized Housing Resident Advocate in 2020 represents the next chapter in the Air Force’s attempt to provide quality housing for its Airmen. Following World War II, the Air Force grew to approximately one million service members, and many brought their families with them to their duty assignment. This influx of personnel and dependents strained an already tight housing supply on base and in communities around military installations. In response, Congress created the Wherry and Capehart housing programs to build homes on or near installations throughout the 1950s and 1960s. But these programs did not remedy all of Malmstrom AFB’s housing requirements. After the Cold War ended, Congress initiated the Military Housing Privatization Initiative to enhance Airmen’s quality of life and retain its workforce. However, beginning in 2018 Reuters uncovered systemic health and safety problems in privatized family housing across the Department of Defense. Wing leadership instructed its members to conduct a 100 percent review of privatized housing on Malmstrom for any health or safety concerns; they revealed none. The following year the Air Force created the Privatized Housing Resident Advocate position on wing staff, and Mike Ammons stood up the position from scratch. During the intervening year he worked diligently to define the position and advocate for Airmen’s housing needs.

The transition from territorial status to statehood in the third quarter of the 19th century meant that Montanans had to craft a cultural identity for the new political entity. Montana has the peculiar distinction of Spanish name and... more

The transition from territorial status to statehood in the third quarter of the 19th century meant that Montanans had to craft a cultural identity for the new political entity. Montana has the peculiar distinction of Spanish name and motto when its lands were neither explored nor colonized by the Spanish Empire. Still, the fascination with all things Spanish extended to the new state's earliest architecture in which a range of Spanish revival styles were employed to bolster its myth of origin. These trends continued robustly until the Great Depression.

Glass bead sample cards were sent out in the 19th century by bead dealers and producers to illustrate their products and few are known that include small beads of drawn manufacture. One such card marked New York was acquired in 1882 by... more

Glass bead sample cards were sent out in the 19th century by bead dealers and producers to illustrate their products and few are known that include small beads of drawn manufacture. One such card marked New York was acquired in 1882 by Captain Eli Lindesmith, a Catholic priest and Army chaplain at Fort Keogh, Montana. Lindesmith used the card to select seed beads for a cradleboard he commissioned that year from a Cheyenne woman named Flying Woman, the wife of Wolf Voice. This previously undescribed sample card is compared to other 19th-century cards displaying drawn beads in an attempt to determine its origin. Insight into the identity and family history of the maker of the cradleboard is also provided.

This is the story of the short-lived, yet significant School of Mines (1888–1900) in the context of the College of Montana (1883–1916) and in the context of Montana transitioning from territory to state. Future federal geologist Joseph T.... more

This is the story of the short-lived, yet significant School of Mines (1888–1900) in the context of the College of Montana (1883–1916) and in the context of Montana transitioning from territory to state. Future federal geologist Joseph T. Pardee (1871–1960) studied at the College of Montana for three years, two in the School of Mines, before he went to the University of California, Berkeley, for two more years of study.

Surface water access in northern Montana and southern Alberta is an historic political and economic concern that continues to spark contentious debate. It has however also led to several innovative attempts to reconcile differences... more

Surface water access in northern Montana and southern Alberta is an historic political and economic concern that continues to spark contentious debate. It has however also led to several innovative attempts to reconcile differences through regional cooperation in management of transboundary rivers. One attempt—the formation of a Joint Initiative Team (JIT) in 2008 (to 2011) to investigate opportunities for each jurisdiction to improve shared water access of the St. Mary and Milk River systems—failed in its efforts to rescale the Alberta-Montana borderlands water management model. This paper explores this development, and adds to the literature by presenting a study evaluating the JIT’s attempt, and the factors leading to its demise. These lessons will be of interest to scholars interested in similar issues in other border areas.

Namesake of the D’Arcy McNickle Center of the Newberry Library. Métis novelist and historian D’Arcy McNickle is believed to have been the first Métis university professor to teach in Saskatchewan and was a founding member of the National... more

Namesake of the D’Arcy McNickle Center of the Newberry Library. Métis novelist and historian D’Arcy McNickle is believed to have been the first Métis university professor to teach in Saskatchewan and was a founding member of the National Congress of American Indians. He was the son of William McNickle and Philomene Parenteau. Philomene’s parents, Isidore and Judith Parenteau, were involved in the Métis Resistance of 1885 and had fled Batoche after 1885.

These three biographical snapshots demonstrate the range of possibilities for women associated with the United States Air Force. Hazel Lee was one of the nation’s first female Asian American pilots who aided the United States’ allies... more

These three biographical snapshots demonstrate the range of possibilities for women associated with the United States Air Force. Hazel Lee was one of the nation’s first female Asian American pilots who aided the United States’ allies during World War II. She delivered much-needed war material to places like Great Falls for transfer to the Soviet Union for use against the Germans. Geraldine Travis was an Air Force spouse who was elected to the Montana House of Representatives in 1974 and served as Malmstrom’s voice in Helena. During her term in the 1975 legislative session she delivered state benefits to federal employees and base residents. Maj Gen Sandra Finan was one of Malmstrom’s first female missileers in the 1980s who later became the 341 MW’s first female wing commander. In each instance these women were pathbreakers during their respective eras and paved the way for women who followed them.

This battle in the spring of 1873 was one of the most famous encounters between Metis and Dakota hunting parties. The Dakota encountered a large party of about 500 Metis bison hunters at the mouth of Fat Horse Creek on the Rosebud River... more

This battle in the spring of 1873 was one of the most famous encounters between Metis and Dakota hunting parties. The Dakota encountered a large party of about 500 Metis bison hunters at the mouth of Fat Horse Creek on the Rosebud River (present day Montana), near where it enters the Yellowstone River. .

Análisis del modelo económico de la montaña extremeña en los siglos XV y XVI, caracterizado por el déficit cerealista y el desarrollo de un importante policultivo (vid, olivo, cría de bueyes, desplazamientos estacionales). Se desarrolla... more

Análisis del modelo económico de la montaña extremeña en los siglos XV y XVI, caracterizado por el déficit cerealista y el desarrollo de un importante policultivo (vid, olivo, cría de bueyes, desplazamientos estacionales). Se desarrolla una clara complementariedad y comercio con las zonas de llanura

Art was intimately tied to the character of Glacier National Park since its creation in 1911. Artists working in all genres not only visited and worked in the park, but also broadcast its majestic properties to the rest of the nation,... more

Art was intimately tied to the character of Glacier National Park since its creation in 1911. Artists working in all genres not only visited and worked in the park, but also broadcast its majestic properties to the rest of the nation, spurring tourism in the early 20th century. The activities of the Great Northern Railway in commissioning both art and architecture while building the park's infrastructure helped create both a purpose and a propagandistic image of this piece of unsullied wilderness at at the end of America's Gilded Age.

This research focuses on trade and exchange in the outer nodes of American settlement systems, such as frontier outposts. These places are central to an understanding of the trade networks that spanned North America and the Atlantic... more

This research focuses on trade and exchange in the outer nodes of American settlement systems, such as frontier outposts. These places are central to an understanding of the trade networks that spanned North America and the Atlantic because they illuminate the ways that economic and social capital was negotiated within local exchange networks and local regimes of value, as well as the tapering of larger political economies into local ones through trade networks. Scholarship on frontier spaces from over the past thirty years stresses the dynamic nature of frontiers and the need to study these places comparatively across both time and space; however, the realm of anthropological archaeology has yet to follow this trend to the same degree. My dissertation, along with this preliminary paper, intends to fill this lacuna by contributing a comparative archaeological study of two frontier spaces that are removed from one another both geographically and temporally: Smuttynose Island in the Isles of Shoals, Maine and Highland City, Montana. My doctoral project seeks to place these two locales within the larger anthropological dialogue on comparative studies, not just in frontier theory alone. I examine the way that the geographic, ecological, economic, and political processes at work within frontier spaces shape the interactions of the people who live there. I intend to explore these processes through a framework that focuses on trade and exchange networks, especially informal economy and illicit trade. This project will compare the strategies that frontier inhabitants used to negotiate power, especially within resource-extraction communities. I argue that the fishermen and miners at these two locales leveraged their positions at key nodes in the international cod-fishing and gold-mining trades respectively for their own political and economic gains. Further, as argued in my Master's Thesis, the fishermen at the Isles of Shoals, referred to as Shoalers, deployed their economic gains to negotiate social capital and transactions within an informal economy that was based out of the tavern on Smuttynose Island.

Se presenta el contexto cultural y material del sitio arqueológico registrado en la cima del volcán La Malinche en 1994.

The chapter describes the role of a woman in the life of the miners in the Ostrava and Karviná coalfield region in the period from the mid-19th century to the beginning of the First World War. The main topics of the essay are women's work... more

The chapter describes the role of a woman in the life of the miners in the Ostrava and Karviná coalfield region in the period from the mid-19th century to the beginning of the First World War. The main topics of the essay are women's work in the mine and in the household, the hierarchy of women in the workers' colonies, the possibilities of communication, marital and illegitimate fertility, and sexual contacts in the masculine world of work in the coal mining.

Born in New England in the early 20th century and active in New York City's Modernist movements of the 1920s and 1930s, Helen McCauslan became one of Montana's pioneer Modernist painters after 1930. Her style was characterized by sketches... more

Born in New England in the early 20th century and active in New York City's Modernist movements of the 1920s and 1930s, Helen McCauslan became one of Montana's pioneer Modernist painters after 1930. Her style was characterized by sketches of ranch life balanced by epic abstractions of "Big Sky" country. Her career climaxed with the dramatic series of paintings related to the tragic loss of life at Kent State.