The 23rd annual John White Series
For the 23rd edition of our popular speaker series, we heard from Montana’s Troubador, an ethnohistorian, traditional knowledge keepers, and a storyteller of amazing natural history. Read on for details.
To nominate topics and speakers on Northwest Montana history for 2026, contact us here.
Jan. 5: Jack Gladstone
"C.M. Russell: Heritage and Legacy"
C.M. Russell had deep ties to Glacier National Park and Northwest Montana—and renowned performer Jack Gladstone has deep ties to Russell. A citizen of the Blackfeet Nation, Gladstone descends from both indigenous American and immigrant European traditions, and uses this personal legacy, as well as his unique storytelling and songwriting skills, to build cultural bridges as “Montana’s Troubadour.”
Russell’s works have always been a source of inspiration to Gladstone, especially his 1914 masterpiece oil painting, When the Land Belonged to God, which hangs in the Montana State Capitol. “The purest gift is not of gold,” Gladstone wrote in his song of the same name, “but in art that awakens the soul.” The song is Gladstone's most cherished work, and inspired him to develop a program that explores the role Russell played in the portrayal of the West during the early 20th century.
Gladstone’s multimedia event features images created by Russell that captured the “disappearing West,” and shares stories of the time Russell lived with the Blood Division of the Blackfeet Nation during the winter of 1888, under the leadership of Chief Red Crow, who was Gladstone’s great-great-grandfather.
About the presenter: Jack Gladstone is an award-winning musician and speaker who illustrates American Indian culture through a mosaic of music, lyric poetry, and spoken word narrative. A former college football champion and public speaking instructor, he helped found Glacier National Park’s renowned lecture series, Native America Speaks.
Jan. 19: Sally Thompson
"Northwest Montana Stories and How They Shape Our Lives"
Focusing on several regional stories in her newly published "Disturbing the Sleeping Buffalo," Sally Thompson will talk about frontiersman William Hamilton and his time in the Tobacco Plains; the Glacial Lake and Kootenai origin story; and how Thompson followed the trail of Father De Smet and found a cross that had been installed at the headwaters of the Columbia in 1845.
Where is it exactly?, you might ask. “I’m not telling,” Thompson says as she freely shares the story of the man and the discovery.
The way we share, retell, and integrate stories of the past shapes our view of the now and the future, a principle that intrigues Thompson and keeps her digging for more.
About the presenter: Sally Thompson, who has an academic background in anthropology and archaeology, prefers to call herself an ethnohistorian or cultural heritage specialist.
She ran the archaeology program at Historical Research Associates; served as expert witness for the Taos Pueblo Water Rights case, and for the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes on the ARCO lawsuit regarding pollution of the Clark Fork River; and as director of the Regional Learning Project at University of Montana, where she worked with tribes to develop curriculum resources on history, geography, and culture.
Her first book, "People Before the Park," was published in 2015. In 2024, Farcountry Press published her "Disturbing the Sleeping Buffalo," which was followed by the publication of Thompson’s "Black Robes Enter Coyote’s World: Chief Charlo and Father De Smet in the Rocky Mountains" (University of Nebraska Press).
Feb. 2: Aspen & Cameron Decker
“Our Belongings: Sqelixʷ (Salish) Art and Toolmaking”
In 2024 Arlee-based knowledge keepers Aspen and Cameron Decker completed a parfleche commissioned by the Northwest Montana History Museum. From the hunting of the deer, to the preparation and stretching of its hide, then the folding and painting of the “Indian suitcase,” the Deckers practiced traditional craft in making a new object.
For their presentation, the Deckers will speak about the process of making Salish art and tools, the issues that it brings up in regard to making the objects (environment, sustainability, culture), and what that reveals about the place they are in as contemporary Native American people.
Their presentation teaches holistic Indigenous understandings about native plants, and connection with the land and local ecosystems. This presentation also introduces the science behind these objects, as well as various contemporary Native American artists who influence their work.
Together, both speakers incorporate and speak Salish and Plains Sign Language associated with the making of objects during their program.
About the presenters: Aspen Decker, an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, holds a master’s degree in linguistics and a bachelor’s in tribal historic preservation, has taught Salish for more than ten years, and paints and makes art, often with husband Cameron.
Cameron Decker—a Diné, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, and a descendant of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes—earned a master’s degree in fine arts and, with wife Cameron, has more than 20 years’ experience in tribal education.
Feb. 16 Denny Olson
"Glacier National Park: The Little-known Stories Behind the Grandeur"
When people see Glacier National Park for the first time, the scenery—the big, big picture—is beyond obvious. When park-interpretation veterans see visitors standing slack-jawed, we like to think of the park as "nature's stun gun."
The grandeur is constant and, after 27 years of teaching in the park, Olson is not jaded in the least. Huge mountains, clear azure lakes, giant snowfields, a few active glaciers, and what they carved--so much vertical.
It speaks for itself.
Behind that grandeur are some fascinating natural history stories. Glacier is one of the rare areas—maybe the only national park in the United States—that has always had all of its original species of animals, the ones that have been here for thousands of years.
Olson's approach is this: "I'll bet you didn't know..." His stories of the seldom-seen will make you the trivia star at your next cocktail party!
About the presenter:
From scientific beginnings as an ornithologist and geologist, Olson forged an unlikely union between science, humor, and drama, and established a national reputation as an innovative storytelling performer and educator.
Since he moved to the Flathead Valley 28 years ago. Olson has written an 88-activity Glacier-Waterton Peace Park curriculum, written the "Nature and Science" section for the Glacier National Park website, and continues to guide and teach in the park today.
All John White Series talks begin at 2 p.m. Sundays, followed by social time.
Members
per presentation
- To reserve your space, order online through above links or stop by or contact the museum
Nonmembers
per presentation
- To reserve your space, order online through above links or stop by or contact the museum