Road Trip: Final

There are various Native American museums along Highway 93.  The one we chose to visit was Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana, named after Salish Chief Joseph Ninepipes.

The museum is an attractive collection of all kinds of items as you can probably imagine.

What really fascinated Kim and I were the many wonderful photographs.

This one is labeled:  "Louis Malewolf Kalispel and Eneas Conko Flathead, Omaha, NE, 1898 Delegation Representatives."

"Nez Perce Woman, circa 1880."

"Cecile, a Flathead belle."

"Indian Parade, Ronan, MT, circa 1925 - 30."

This photo has a story:  "Chief Paul Charlo, known in Salish as Palcatnah, was the last honorary chief of the Salish whose Chieftain lineage dates back to Lewis and Clark.  He bitterly opposed the allotment policy on the Flathead Reservation and made a number of trips to Washington D.C. to attempt to change the policy.  Father Taelman first came to St. Ignatius Mission in 1890.  He spoke Salish fluently and was known to say mass in Latin then translate into Salish.  He served as president of Gonzaga University from 1909 - 1913.  Throughout the years he returned to the Mission Valley to work with the Indians.  He died in 1962 at the age of 95.  His last rites were performed at the St. Ignatius Mission."

You can read a short letter on Charlo's thoughts about white people here.  It's worth the read.

There were also photos of some pretty cool looking cowgirls.

The museum ends with a huge diorama and some stuffed animals.

I'd never heard of a story hide before but of course it makes so much sense.  What a great idea.
Beautiful and fascinating.

That's it for the museum.  It was worth the admission price.

Kim and I stopped for dinner on the way home.

Beautiful outdoor seating area.  Lots of rabbits running around, and great food.

Road Trip: Part Two

Missoula was our turn around spot.  Next up was the St. Ignatius Mission.

And we'd always seen the sign for the mission but had never been there ourselves.  Turned out it was well worth the trip.

The church was built in 1891 by Native Americans using local materials and firing the bricks on the spot.

And when you enter;

There are 58 original paintings by the Italian Brother Joseph Carignano, the cook at the mission at the time.  You can read more about the artist here.  He died in 1919.

The artwork was gorgeous.  I'm not a "religious" person but every time I enter an old church or cathedral I swear I can feel the true intent of such a place.  And the intent is love and peace.

I also appreciated the Native American touches.

The Salish Lord's Mother in Native American form:

There was also a painting of the Salish Lord but I didn't get a picture.

Just a lovely church.

There are two historic buildings also on the site.  This log cabin was the home of the first missionaries and was built in 1854.  It was full of Native American relics and photographs.

Next post I'll share our visit to the Ninepipes Museum.

Road Trip: Part One

Kim and I decided to give the cabin work a rest and do some sightseeing.  Kim had heard of an alternate scenic route between Kalispell and Missoula on highway 93.  We've often driven the blue route to and from Kalispell but this time we drove this loop:
(You can see our little town of Marion to the left of Kalispell on this map.)

Our first stop was Swan Lake.  Very pretty.

We timed our trip to coincide with their Huckleberry Festival, of which there seem to be many in our area.

Very pretty setting.

Lots of interesting crafts.

I loved these journals.

They had everything huckleberry, including fudge.

We settled on sharing a cup of ice cream.

Find more info on huckleberries here.
Continuing on Highway 83 South;  lots of pretty scenery:

McDonald Peak at 9820 ft is the most impressive.

More about McDonald Peak here.

This was Saturday.
On Monday we made the decision to put Scarface down.  It was sad but it seemed the right thing to do.  He had developed cancer in a paw and if that had been his only problem it would have seemed bad enough but our new Montana vet pointed out his other issues we'd been overlooking as simply old age so we made the tough decision.  We'll miss that old fart.



On my next post I'll show Part Two of our road trip.