News & Events

Good afternoon all,

I am happy to share that Montana FWP’s grant application to the National Park Service’s Semiquincentennial grant program was successful and that Pictograph Cave has been awarded $75,000. This award will be used to hire a geotechnical engineering specialist to review the previous reports on rock conditions at the park, assess the current condition of the site’s sandstone walls and rock shelters, and create a site plan, which will include construction documents and a rockfall mitigation strategy to protect both the visiting public and the park’s cultural resources.  

The Semiquincentennial program is focused on hands-on historic preservation projects that will restore and preserve sites that embody important aspects of our nation’s history and identity. Typically awardees are expected to apply twice with the first grant award covering project planning costs and the second covering implementation costs. Hopefully we will be successful in the next round as well so we can implement the plan and ensure that visitors can enjoy the park and learn about Montana’s unique history for many years to come.  

Your letters of support were instrumental in our application’s success so I want to express my deep gratitude to you for taking the time to submit them on behalf of this project. Thank you so much for your support.  

More information and a press release will be issued soon but I wanted to reach out directly to share this exciting news and to thank you. Please let me know if you have any questions!  

All the best,
Brenna 

Brenna Moloney
Heritage Specialist
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Cell: 406-594-4322
brenna.moloney@mt.gov

50^th Annual Montana History Conference

Get ready for Building on the Past, the 50^th annual Montana History Conference, September 28-30, 2023 at the Delta Hotels Colonial in Helena – the same location as the first conference in 1974. MTHS librarian Harriet Meloy, archivist Brian Cockhill, and the Council to Preserve Montana History organized the first Montana History Conference, naming it Montana and the West: New Directions. Then, as now, the conference endeavored to explore underrepresented facets of regional history and to recognize that the past is a continuum—not a dividing line—and its people, events, successes, and failures perpetually impact our present and future.

We’ll be building on 49 years of gatherings to talk about Montana history with a stellar line-up of workshops, tours, lectures, and discussions, including:

Keynote Lectures by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Elizabeth Fenn on the history of the early West; Apsáalooke curator, writer, and cultural consultant Nina Sanders on her recent exhibit Apsáalooke Women and Warriors at Chicago’s Field Museum; retired MTHS curator Kirby Lambert on 50 things he knows about Montana history; MSU Billings professor of history Emily Arendt on the 1977 Montana Women’s International Year Conference; and University of Notre Dame associate clinical professor Mark Johnson on the changing status of Chinese women in Montana, 1860s to 1950s.

Workshops for educators, writers, and historic preservationists

Tours of the new MT Heritage Center (under construction), Made in Montana historic sites, Sieben Ranch, Fort Harrison, and the Last Chance Pow Wow

Concurrent sessions on Indian Education for All, dark history, architecture, public health, African American history, conservation, agriculture, renaming landmarks, Helena history, Montana heroes you don’t know, film censorship, F. Scott Fitzgerald, women’s history, communism, and more!

Mark your calendars for the 2024 MAS meeting!

The MAS meeting will be held in Helena, May 3-4, 2024.

Although the details are still be worked out, the meeting will fall back to our traditional schedule:

The MontanaArchaeological Society (MAS) is back in the saddle after a three year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All were excited to be back together as a group at the MAS 2023 Conference at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.

The meeting kicked off on Thursday, April 20, with two field trips. Connie Constan led a group to Yellowstone to view the flood damage from the devastating Yellowstone floods of summer 2022. In Bozeman, Crystal Alegria led a group tour through the Sunset Hills Cemetery and shared the colorful histories of various famous Bozeman icons who are buried there.

The Museum of the Rockies venue was inspirational and welcoming. Curator of History Michael Fox led tours of the Museum archives on Friday morning. See the photos in the gallery below. The meeting warmed up at a Friday evening Social at the historic Story Mansion with good cheer and tasty hor d’oeurves.

A number of great talks filled the Saturday Morning session in the Hagar auditorium. The afternoon started with an archival film, The Changing Dawn, produced by Richard McCallum from 1976. The film was shot on location at the Schmitt Chert Mine as Les Davis brought his spring archaeology classes to work the excavation for 17 years. Then the feature presentation, Les Davis and the Search For the First Montanans, partially funded by MAS and produced by Dan Smith. The film followed the epic career of Les Davis, the longtime Montana archaeologist who put Montana archaeology on the map.

Finally, awards were presented to two long-time Montana archaeology figures. Ann Johnson, former Yellowstone National Park Chief of Cultural Resources and Editor of Archaeology in Montana, the journal of the Montana Archaeological Society, received the  MAS Lifetime Acheivement Award. And, Pamela Bompart, widow of Les Davis and owner of the MacHaffie Archaeological site received the 2023 MAS Conservation Archaeology Award for her long association with Montana archaeology and preservation of the MacHaffie Archaeological site.

Shannon Gilbert finished her term as President of MAS in fine form, Sara Scott has taken the reins as Editor of Archaeology in Montana, and Marv Keller was sworn in as the new President of The Montana Archaeological Society.

View the Awards:

Ann Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award

Pamela Bompart 2023 MAS Conservation Archaeology Award

You can download the program for the 2023 Montana Archaeological Society annual meeting that was held in Bozeman in April.

The Saskatchewan Archaeological Society is pleased to announce that we have just published “Points of View: A Guide on Saskatchewan Projectile Points with Indigenous Perspectives”.  The projectile points featured are found throughout most of the Northern Plains and Boreal Forest.  

The book retails for $29.95 CAD plus GST.  See the attached poster for a description and more information.  We’d appreciate it if you could share the poster with your organization’s members to help spread the word!  

If anyone is interested in bulk purchases (10 or more copies), please let us know.  We can offer a 40% discount on these.  You can order individual copies from our online store here:  https://thesas.ca/store/points-of-view-a-guide-on-saskatchewan-projectile-points-with-indigenous-perspectives/.