Neither Empty nor Unknown
Montana before Lewis and Clark
By Ellen Baumler
Photos courtesy The Montana Historical Society
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Artist John Potter at work in 2005
Montana
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Against a backdrop of unforgettable landscapes, a kaleidoscopic world unfolds where grasses grew tall, stars shone like diamonds, and people lived off the land and prospered. “Neither Empty Nor Unknown” is the most ambitious exhibit the Montana Historical Society has undertaken. It marks a new direction, launching the Society—the oldest historical organization west of the Mississippi—definitively into the twenty-first century by offering the public a state-of-the-art museum experience.
The groundbreaking exhibit is not limited to cultural perspectives but rather also explores the environment. Montana’s topography, animal life, and native plants surround the visitor, immersing him in the natural world while interactive displays and “stations” pack the 4,600 square feet.
“Neither Empty Nor Unknown” comes appropriately on the heels of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. Its purpose is to explain some of the errors Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made as they traveled across Montana in 1805 and back again in 1806. Their primary mistake was thinking that the land was unknown and largely unpopulated as maps of the time indicated.
Historian James Ronda has said that Lewis and Clark expected to find the “Big Empty” when they trekked across Montana, but they did not realize that what they actually found was the “Big Full.” Vibrant, culturally diverse communities lived, worked, and thrived on the land. Places foreign to Lewis and Clark were well known to Montana’s people; what the Corps named in English already had names known to generations of inhabitants. So how could Lewis and Clark have been so wrong?
We don’t usually think of Lewis and Clark’s journey as a seafaring expedition, but that is what it was, modeled on the travels of explorers like the Verendrye brothers and Alexander Mackenzie before them. These voyagers, like Lewis and Clark, traveled by water searching for the mythical Northwest Passage. Thomas Jefferson charged the Corps with settling this question once and for all. In so doing, the men stayed to the waterways. Lewis and Clark had relatively little contact with Indian people because Montana’s inhabitants infrequently traveled by water. The water served as a barrier, isolating the Corps from the people who lived on the land.
Lewis and Clark concluded that all Indians were hunters. They were hunters, of course, but they were also family men with wives and children who had multi-faceted lives. People who dwelled in Montana had rich material cultures, sharply honed survival skills, and a wealth of generational knowledge. Further, each Indian group was uniquely distinct from all the others. There was so much that Lewis and Clark did not see. And what they did not see is what “Neither Empty Nor Unknown” teaches.
The challenges to the museum staff were many — from funding to historical content to replicating artifacts. Funding trickled in from many sources, but the Montana Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission and the Park Service’s Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail grants ultimately helped spur the project forward.
Physically converting the former F. Jay Haynes Gallery into the rich outdoor landscape of Montana two hundred years ago was another hurdle. The result is a natural setting replete with cliffs, caves, mountains, plains, and the suggestion of the Missouri riverbank. These blend into the dramatic paintings and murals of John Potter, Chris Rowland, Robert F. Morgan, and Joe La Fountaine. The art alone forms one important layer in this multi-layered experience.
The exhibit’s layers are the key. In addition to the natural environment and magical artwork, audio elements such as stories and music form another important layer, and the “educator mouse” adds a children’s layer. Throughout the exhibit, primary age children can look for the mouse. Mice are common in Montana, and common in the exhibit, too. A cartoon character mouse at child’s eye level explains cultural practices and offers appropriate information. This multi-layered approach extends to the written information as well, allowing every visitor—from the smallest child to the most inquisitive adult—to take in as much or as little as desired and still experience and learn about the tapestry that was Montana in 1805.
Museum director Susan Near says that the project, begun in 2002, is a nearly half-million dollar exhibit that had to evolve with limited resources and slowly come together in pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. The small exhibit team includes curator George Oberst, designer Roberta Jones-Wallace, education officer Linda Wruck, museum registrar Jennifer Bottomly-O’Looney, and exhibit assistant Vic Reiman. Doug O’Looney and Todd Saarinen have accomplished the near impossible, constructing a landscape rich with twists and turns and hidden recesses that make the interactive displays awe-inspiring. The team has done everything the right way.
A Native American advisory panel assisted in the early planning stages to help tell the story from the Indian perspective. Panel members and exhibit consultants represented Blackfeet, Assiniboine, Little Shell Chippewa, Kootenai, Gros Ventre, Cheyenne, Salish, Crow, and Cree tribes. Advisers included educators and members of tribal culture committees. Together they helped the design team get the story right.
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Replica mocassins feature a keyhole design, a symbol representing the buffalo pound
Montana
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Artifacts are another important layer. Since no tribally specific Montana Indian collections date as far back as 1805, planning the exhibit required extensive research. Not only did staff have to research the historical context, it seemed an impossible task to find artists who could replicate the many parts needed. The Indian advisory panel made referrals to Native American artists and craftsmen, supplying this most critical piece. Indian artisans not only came forward, but also were willing to search their oral histories, research their ancestral traditions, and work with the design team to replicate the most authentic items possible. The result is stunning, with many beautiful period pieces, made the way they should be made, by contemporary Native Americans.
“Neither Empty Nor Unknown” begins with the “All Nations Wall,” panels that show the great diversity of the nine Indian nations in Montana at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis and Clark’s very narrow perspective becomes clear through examples of languages and material culture. The implements the different tribes used for survival, displayed throughout the exhibit, reveal an astonishing diversity and ingenuity. A comparison of baby carriers, crafted in a smaller-than-life scale, shows how style and construction varied from tribe to tribe.
The visitor moves through the different parts of the one-way exhibit as if on a journey that combines real animal mounts and lifelike manikins throughout. The first leg sets the tone as the visitor travels along the banks of the Missouri River into cliffs that open to the prairie. Renowned Montana artist Robert F. Morgan created a mural of animals in their native habitats among native grasses and plants. To Lewis and Clark in 1805, this was like nothing they had seen before. But the scene also illustrates the differences between what the explorers saw and what we might see today. The early nineteenth-century plains overflow with wildlife: fox, bear, elk, deer, and buffalo all share the tall grass habitat as they once did. Wolves fed off the buffalo herds that grazed on Montana’s plains. Today the swift fox is endangered and grizzly bear are found only in the mountain wilderness areas, not on the plains as the Corps found them.
Just around the bend, tucked into a tall recess, a huge grizzly rears up on his hind legs ready to charge. Crawl into a wolf’s den and find the wolf, duck into a buffalo hide tipi. Stories told in native languages are translated into English to demonstrate the importance of oral traditions for the passing and preservation of knowledge. The tipi also serves as a children’s activity area. Children can learn to play hand games that helped Indian children develop survival skills and interactive displays throughout encourage hands-on leaning.
While Montana has some spectacular buffalo jumps, such as Ulm Pishkun at Ulm and Wahkpa Chu’gn at Havre, jumps are geographically limited. The buffalo pound was a more common way of hunting. Buffalo was central to the Plains Indians’ culture, essential to their survival, and the keyhole, symbolizing the pound, was a powerful icon. The long end of the keyhole represents the drivelines that lead into the circular corral. Beautiful quilled moccasins display this powerful symbol while cases of implements show how the women processed and prepared the buffalo meat. The life-sustaining acts of butchering and processing were women’s work. An Assiniboine cradleboard rests at eye level, never propped on the ground, so the mother could always watch over her baby.
Inside the Indian camp, a horse and a dog hitched to travois, created by Indian artisan Ken Woody, illustrate the dog days and the monumental changes that the coming of the horse, or “elk dog,” brought. Along the river, a bull boat, also Woody’s creation, shows how some tribes did navigate Montana’s waterways.
Follow the trail up the mountains to the view from Lolo Pass as Lewis and Clark might have seen it. But Lewis and Clark likely did not see the people gathering camas root and other plants, processing these staples for use now and later. Not until they were west of the mountains did Lewis and Clark regularly encounter native people along the streams and rivers who trapped and speared fish.
As Lewis and Clark’s Shoshone guide Sacajawea hinted, moccasins could identify tribal groups. A colorful display of moccasins visually explains how different people had different needs. There are hard- and soft-soled moccasins for different habitats and beautifully varied decorations include painting, quilling, and beading.
Baskets and harvest implements further illustrate the crucial role of women in Indian culture. Young men did the hunting, while women, children, and elders did the gathering. Pemmican, prepared with berries and finely shredded jerky bound together with animal fat, was the breakfast bar of Native Americans, but plants supplied 60% of the calories in Indians’ diets.
The Sacred Sites area of “Neither Empty Nor Unknown” features a cliff high atop a mountain. Walk inside the domed cave where the night sky opens upward to a shower of starlight, and the spiritual power of the Vision Quest becomes clear. Boulders provide seating for contemplation and appreciation of sacred geography. This section of the exhibit explores the power of sweat lodges, sacred plants, funerary areas, and massacre sites.
Nearing the end of the trail, moving toward the present, it becomes clear that the lifeways of their ancestors have left an indelible imprint on the Indian people of today. Elements of the past breathe a vibrancy into modern Montana Indian culture through visual representation. For example, a pair of colorful beaded Converse hi-top sneakers artistically blends the old and the new.
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Panoramas of Montana's topography, animal life and native plants
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At the end of the journey, four more All Nations panels include the Northern Cheyenne, Chippewa, Metis, and Sioux— tribes not known to be in Montana at the time of Lewis and Clark, but very much a part of Montana’s Native American culture. Jay Laber’s metal sculpture of a swift fox also addresses the modern role of the Blackfeet in environmental issues. The artist collected scraps for his art from the area that was once, and is now again, the habitat of the endangered animal.
“Neither Empty Nor Unknown” is a classy, modern exhibit that literally offers an entire world of information. It is a fitting commemoration for the close of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial and a legacy that will be relevant for a long time to come. Visit Helena, stop by the Society, and see for yourself.
For more information about the Montana Historical Society and its many services, call 406-444-2694; log onto www.montanahistoricalsociety.com; or write to P.O. Box 201201, 225 North Roberts, Helena, MT 59620-1201.
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