Ninepipes Museum opens with new exhibits
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
News from Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana
CHARLO – The doors to the Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana reopened for the 2016 season on April 1. The museum will be open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, through Nov. 26. Visitors can look forward to two new exhibits as well as a schedule of events planned throughout the year.
In the first hall, a group of 20 flat bags dating from 1880-1940, representing various Northwest Plains tribes, are on display. These bags differ from the possible or parfleche bags in that they are more ornamental than serviceable for storage or carrying. The flat bag was a relatively new form of apparel in the 19th century, possibly developed from the influence of the European “purse” used by settlers. One of the contour-style beaded bags features a blue jay, a bird the Salish and Pend d’Oreilles believe has special medicinal powers, and is also beaded on the reverse side. This is one of several bags from the Art and Charlotte Powell collection. Art Powell’s father, Dr. T. M. Powell, was a doctor in the Mission and Flathead valleys from 1910 to his death in 1929, and he often received Indian artifacts in lieu of cash for his services. Charlotte, a 1932 Ronan High School graduate, married Art in Kalispell in 1934 and they spent 58 years together in the Mission Valley.
Another bag is loom-beaded and was made by Chief Joseph’s granddaughter from the Nez Perce tribe. The bags feature stunning beadwork with challenging pattern-less designs on cotton, buckskin and velvet backings made in various sizes and shapes. Visitors should note the strung brass beads as a carrying strap and cowry beads for ornamentation. One bag is made from the hide of a longhorn calf embellished with dewclaws dating back to the 1880s.
The museum is celebrating the 100th birthday of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church at the D’Aste townsite with a picture display in the third hall. The historic building is located on Dublin Gulch Road, just east of Highway 212 south of Charlo.
“Many of the early D’Aste settlers came from Ireland, looking for a new home where life would be easier and they would be happier,” wrote Vi Herak in 2006 in the notebook assembled to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the area. Many of the settlers were miners from Butte who moved to the Mission Valley in 1910 when the federal government opened the reservation for homesteading. The “little community” of D’Aste was named after a Jesuit missionary, and the church was built by Catholics and Protestants. The church closed its doors in the 1970s when a new church was built in Charlo. The building was later restored and used as a community meeting venue and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
We invite everyone to visit the museum and enjoy these displays, as well as the ongoing exhibits. The museum is planning a Cultural Art Fair on July 9, so stay tuned for details. Please call 406-644-3435 to schedule group tours.
