Industry sign banking montana medical history myself
hi everyone thanks so much for coming tonight i know there's a lot going on in town tonight and i appreciate you being here very much i'm going to talk to you tonight about a radio show that I've been doing for six years in Bozeman called the Montana Medicine Show it does air here in hell and i'm curious whether anybody has heard the show before okay great i'm going to play a sample of the radio show but then i'm going to read some scripts from the show as well and the concept of the show is essentially that Montana history would be entertaining and in a short snippet delivered to the public in a easily digestible form so if you know the program Christie the wordsmith which airs all over the country that also originated at cage LT in Bozeman and this show is sort of modeled on Christie only the ideas let's tell a Montana history story in about two minutes I want to say thanks to the Historical Society first for letting me be here there's been so many people here that have been friends over the years and that have inspired me in terms of focusing on Montana history and their work is really what's informing the information that I'm going to share with you tonight and so it's I'm almost I have a little fear and trepidation being in these hallowed halls because there's such incredibly talented people that work here and that have done work over the years and their work has inspired me immensely k g LT is the radio station in Bozeman that that airs this show but we also now are here in Helena and it's just been picked up by public radio in Billings and Missoula so within the next year or so we'll probably see the Montana Medicine Show covering most of the state which is really something that I'm pleased about very much the show the radio show is funded by a number of different entities and over the years we've we've gone here and there to get money and I just want to thank these fine folks for hell helping us out humanity's Montana Corporation for Public Broadcasting greater Montana foundation in the guild house and family foundation I thought it might be fun for us to start with the hell in a focused piece and I just want to give you hi Tom I just want to give you a sense of what the radio show sounds like and then hopefully you can kind of imagine that or hear that as I'm reading these scripts to you tonight so the first clip is that I want to play for you is of the radio show of the hell on an earthquake of 1935 and this is just a one sample of about 250 or 300 scripts that have been written so far welcome to the Montana Medicine Show I'm Derek strong on an October night in 1935 a severe 6.2 Richter scale earthquake slams Louisiana's capital city resident Gill Alexander wrote violently uncontrollably Helena rocked with the shuddering earth the ground rolled like waves bricks and mortar fell building swayed roofs felled in businessman Fred buck recalled it was like being jostled about like a lone marble and a tomato can old Mother Earth reminded me of a dog full of fleas shaking himself to get rid of the dirt a bozeman paper wrote the capital is now simply called Lena because the quake shook the hell out of it a couple of weeks later just as people started to rebuild another massive tremor hit historian CR Anderson wrote people jump to places of safety and waited the end but instead the trembling increased the violence became terrific walls crashed which had been weakened by so many previous shakes more than 1,200 aftershocks hit Helena in the next few months the quakes killed four injured dozens and destroyed some 300 buildings the Boston Post reported living there must be a nightmare one can get used to just about anything except the solid earth shaking constantly only the pioneering spirit of the early founders that is still retained by the present generation keeps the city from becoming a wilderness if congressional medals of Honor were given two groups for outstanding courage this community would deserve one from kg LT studios I'm Derek strong so that's the gist of it it's a two minute story about Montana history and the challenge for me in embarking upon this program was trying to to just not right very much it's so much easier to write a lot than it is to write very succinctly and to try and tell a story and it's actually about a minute 36 seconds that I have to sort of relate some story is really a challenge and something that caused me to completely rethink how I write history and and what's important in history and so forth so what I want to do tonight is share with you some examples of all of this and give you a sense of of what I've been up to and my hope is that my hope I guess is that you will not only be entertained which is really the fundamental point of the the show but also that maybe by connecting the dots in these 16 pieces that I'm going to share for you tonight you can get a bird's-eye view of Montana that's that's maybe the the whole is somehow greater than the sum of the parts if that makes any sense so what I'm hoping to do tonight is uh just sort of march through time and I decided the radio show emphasizes people places and things and it's going back as far as possible and all the way up i think the most recent piece I've done is 2009 so it's a primarily 19th century 20th century but what I'm trying to do tonight I guess is just give you a overview of Montana history through 16 people and I don't intend for this to be comprehensive or detailed in any way I'm just hoping that you'll be entertained okay so here we go I actually learned about this woman brown weasel woman also known as running Eagle by stumbling upon this work of art which I just thought was beautiful and interesting it's a contemporary American artist by the name of Terrence garda p that created this work and I just I was struck by it so much that I decided to sort of investigate who the woman was and to learn a little bit more about her so this first piece is called running Eagle Brown weasel woman later known as running Eagle was the joan of arc of the Blackfeet people born about 1820 she soon expressed a dislike for traditional female duties her father a noted warrior raised her as an in a walkie or manly hearted woman according to Professor Lisa aldred they were characterized by assertiveness independence property ownership and leadership the ideal Blackfoot woman of the night early 19th century was quiet submissive and private but Brown weasel woman preferred killing Buffalo and single-handedly stealing horses in an act of great bravery she saved her father from certain death when enemies shot his horse historian Hugh Dempsey wrote after she killed an enemy in battle she was given the man's name running Eagle she was said to have been the only woman in the history of the tribe so honored running Eagle joined a warrior society and became a war chief on the warpath ignoring the objections of her fellow male followers she cooked and repaired moccasins stating flatly I am a woman men don't know how to sew in the 1840s fur trader John Rowland likely encountered running Eagle in creek country he described quote a war party of a thousand men who had at their head the queen of the plains Salish warriors killed running Eagle during a horse stealing raid in about 1850 author James Willard Schultz later immortalized her life and his dramatic novel running Eagle the warrior girl a waterfall in Glacier National Park bears her name marching through time on the next person I'd like to talk to you about is Jim Beckworth Jim Beck work Jim Beckworth was the Big Sky countries African American mountain man extraordinaire describing the adventurer and Explorer historian Eleanor Wilson wrote he was suited to the making of a Western legend he stood six feet tall was muscular and strong quick and live his vitality was remarkable and his knowledge of Indian ways superb an educated mulatto Beckworth was born into slavery about 1798 at 25 he gained his freedom and hired on with the rocky mountain fur company ascending the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains in the West Beckworth said there was room to wander without any man to call your steps into question Montana's crow Indians adopted Beckworth he became a warrior and earned the name bloody arm for his bravery in battle in the winner of 1833 trappers dennis leonard reported Beckworth has acquired the crow manner of living speaks their language fluently and has become quite a considerable character in their village he assumes all the dignities of a chief for he has four wives with whom he lives alternately the gold rush lured Beckworth west there he blazedd a popular mountain route to California's Gold Fields founded the town of Pueblo Colorado and escorted soldiers to the infamous Sand Creek Massacre Beckworth eventually reappeared in crow country and died among his adopted people in 1866 the National Park Service concluded he was a man who learned to straddle cultures bridging the traditional divides of race and ethnicity to become one of the most famous frontiersman in American history I'm guessing that some of these folks you've heard of before some maybe not I have tried to mix it up a little bit to provide a range of individuals some well-known some less so and I've tried to cover what I consider to be some of the key elements in Montana's history though by no means everything this is a we zoom John also known as pigeons egg head or also known as the light we zoom John was a young proud handsome and graceful warrior of the Assiniboine people in 1831 he was invited to travel to Washington DC and thus became one of the first of Montana's Indians to witness the splendor of urban America historian Brian dippy wrote he was impressionable curious and determined to remember what he saw on his eight thousand mile trek east we zoom John also known as the light beheld the buzzing din of civil life he toured Baltimore Philadelphia New York he met President Andrew Jackson historian John ewers noted he was shown the white men's forts their ocean-going ships their railroads and balloons all the material wonders of the white man's civilization we zoom John returned to Montana on the very first steamboat up the Missouri River during the long journey as one passenger observed he wore an ornate blue uniform and high-heeled boots that make tint that made him step like a yoke tog he carried a small keg of whiskey under his arm we zune john told fantastic tales of his adventure but is disbelieving people concluded that he was a disturbing disciple of an alien way of life artist George Catlin observed he sank rapidly into disgrace in his tribe and refuted worthless the greatest liar of his nation in 1835 a fellow Assiniboine loaded a musket with the straightened handle of an iron pot and murdered we zune John later when some st. Louis doctors requested some Indian skulls to study his head was cut off his corpse and shipped downriver to the civilization that had been the cause of his undoing I want to talk just for a minute about the painting how many of you have seen this painting before anybody else is a very famous George Catlin painting probably one of his most famous Catlin was an artist who about the time of Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal policies decided to document Native American life and especially in the West but in the Midwest as well he was on that first steamboat that came up the Missouri and traveled with we zoom John he had met him on the way back east in st. Louis and painted the first half of this portrait and then as a way of comparison documented what the Assiniboine looked like on his way home and I think Catlin is making a pretty clear statement here about civilization and its effect on on Native people you can't really tell the story of Montana history I guess without talking about Virginia City and there are a whole heck of a lot of people that possibly could be talked about in a presentation like this some very interesting folks because this is a radio show the sensational tends to be a the focus often of my presentations not too long ago I wrote a story about Boone helm who was a cannibal that was lynched in Virginia City and this fall my 10 year old sons and I took a field trip to Virginia City to go up to boot hill and see Boone Helms grave my wife was not too crazy about the idea she stayed in the minivan while we took photos around Boone's grave but this guy is another example of that kind of sensational Montana history that plays well on the airwaves Jack Slade was Montanans Montana's drunken devilish desperado Virginia City newspaperman Thomas Dimmesdale admitted from Kearney Nebraska west he was feared a great deal more than the almighty born in 1829 Joseph Alfred Jack Slade committed murder and fled west from Illinois while working on the Overland Trail he earned the reputation of a first-class fighting man during a drunken brawl stationmaster Jules Rennie shot Slade five times but Slade escaped then he returned to torture and kill Renny removing his ears which he carried as souvenirs for the rest of his life Slade came to Virginia City Montana in 1863 when sober he was a soft-spoken and hardworking gentleman when drunk Slade became a bloodthirsty ogre rumored to have killed 26 men author Mark Twain called him the pitiless scourge of the outlaws the raw head and bloody bones the nursing mothers of the mountains terrified their children with the alcoholic Slade terrorized Virginia City screaming profanity trashing saloons and wildly threatening the citizens after a particularly violent episode vigilantes cornered the outlaw and gave him time to ride his wife and then hanged him before the new Slade prayed and wept lamenting over and over oh my God my God must I die oh my dear wife newsman Dimmesdale pronounced Slade's hanging the protest of a society on behalf of social order and the rights of man general Nelson miles the Indian Wars definitely big part of Montana story lots of colorful people to talk about miles is someone that is incredibly significant I think and maybe not as well known as some others i could have selected Montana's greatest Indian fighter was arguably general Nelson miles General William Tecumseh Sherman once admitted I know of no way to satisfy his ambitions but to surrender to him absolute power of the over the whole army with President and Congress thrown in miles earned a Congressional Medal of Honor in the Civil War and then transferred to Montana to kill Indians and help avenge Custer's death he believed he was quote going to meet the enemies of civilization and that it was a delightful enter general miles as men built Fort Keogh and were in constant pursuit of the Indians author Michael Punk wrote no one did more to prosecute the Indian Wars to their bloody conclusion miles fit the total warfare policy like a sword to its scabbard miles waged the severus of winter campaigns against thousands of hostile Lakota Sioux in Northern Cheyenne in 1877 his troops clashed with crazy horse at the Battle of wolf Mountain they seized hundreds of horses teepees and most of the Sioux food supply Crazy Horse soon gave up then miles intercepted chief Joseph's Nez Perce band just 40 miles from Canada years later he accepted Geronimo surrender miles boasted I have fought and defeated larger and better armed body of bodies of hostile Indians than any other officer since the history of indian warfare commenced historian Elliot West called him a preening chest puffer relentlessly and insufferably self-serving miles eventually became commanding general of the army he died of a heart attack at a Ringling Brothers Circus in 1925 Montana's miles city bears his name lots of powerful capitalists in Montana's history and I really debated on who to talk about but for sheer colorful copy I don't think that there's anyone that fits this the goal of the radio show more than James J Hill James J Hill was a scrappy hot-tempered Canadian nicknamed the Empire Builder historians Stuart Holbrook characterized him as the barbed wire shaggy headed one-eyed old son of a of Western railroading he'll sense that Montana's abundant resources could support a second transcontinental line the Great Northern Railway he bragged give me enough Swedes and whiskey and I'll build a railroad through hell Hills nine thousand workers invaded M
ntana territory on june thirteenth 1887 covering as many as seven miles a day they raced up the Missouri in milk river valleys writer Charles Dudley wag Warner gushed those who saw this army of men and Teams stretching over the prairies and clashing up this continental highway think that they beheld one of the most striking achievement achievements of civilization by November Hills crew had reached Helena and laid 643 continuous miles of track in just seven and a half months by 1893 the Great Northern had linked st. Paul to Seattle no railroad had ever been built so rapidly historian Mike Malone described the Great Northern as one of the best constructed and most profitable of the world's major railroads it was the first transcontinental built without public money and one of the few to never go bankrupt when we were all dead and gone Hill once said the Sun will still shine the rain will fall and this railroad will run as usual lots of cowboys picked from as well and Montana history one of the most colorful writers was this guy Edward Charles Teddy blue Abbott who rode the Chisholm Trail from Texas into Nebraska when he was just 10 years old which is pretty incredible Montana seldom saw a range rider as colorful as Teddy blue Abbott biographer Helena Huntington Smith described the legendary cowboy as tough as a whip cord and boiling with energy he was the history of the cattle trail in the open range born in England Edward Charles Abbott came to the United States in 1871 at just 10 years old he helped drive a herd of Texas cattle to Nebraska he said it made a cowboy out of me nothing could have changed me after that Abbott recalled the cattle run wild while the men was away fighting the Civil War here was all these cheap longhorn steers over running Texas here was the rest of the country crying out for beef and no railroads to get them out so they trailed them out from that time on the big drives were made every year and the cowboy was born during the heyday of the open range Abbott drove Longhorns north from Texas to Montana in his 1930s memoir we pointed them north he describes stampedes vicious 50 degree below zero snowstorms and getting knocked off his horse by lightning twice Abbott later settled down to raise a family on a ranch near Lewistown Montana summing up his colorful life he said only a few of us are now left and they are scattered from Texas to Canada the rest have gone ahead across the big divide I hope they find good water and plenty of grass but wherever they are is where I want to go nanny Alderson is very representative I think of women's experiences in the homesteading era and someone that is that has left a memoir which is really helpful on getting to understand that experience nanny Alderson and her husband Walt rode the way it rails to Miles City Montana in 1883 the newlyweds homesteaded on lame deer creek hoping to quickly capitalize on the beef bonanza and then return east in her memoir a bride grows West Alderson recalled at first we didn't mind the hard things because we didn't expect them to last Montana was booming and the same feverish optimism possessed all of us it looked so easy and we could figure it all out in no time we all would be cattle Kings alderson's hopes soon faded in the spring of 1884 the very day her first baby was born Northern Cheyenne warriors burned the Alderson cabin as punishment for unwittingly trespassing on reservation lands Alverson recalled it was then that she began to pioneer in earnest no longer borne up by the belief that our trials were temporary the Alderson's relocated to the tongue river those years were in nany's words the hardest of my life for I had nothing to cling to you had to keep up or go under and keeping up made such hard work ten years after coming west to get rich the alderson's abandoned ranching and moved to Miles City summing up their travails and those of their contemporaries author William Bevis observed it was a beginning for Montana that finally rewarded not dreams of open space where a poor man can grow rich but endurance and then there's beaut what do you say about butte uh-huh that's tough I had the pleasure for a few years of working on the national historic landmark designation for Butte I was a chief historian on that project and fell in love with the place my wife's family on her dad's side is from Butte one of he used to tell stories at Thanksgiving you know after he'd had a glass of wine or two about growing up in Butte and one of his first earliest memories he was probably three years old or something like that was his older brother clinging to a chain-link fence during a strike screaming you got damn scabs he told stories about dribbling a basketball home and on a rainy day and how the rainwater had so much acid in it that he would have blisters on his hands by the time he got home and and so beaut became a place of fascination for me and there's an awful lot that can be said about Butte I've tried to narrow it down to just two personalities one who you probably know and one perhaps who you don't how many of you have heard of mary mcclain before yeah she is so outrageous and her writing is so colorful that it really lends itself well to a minute 36 seconds on the radio uh here we go Mary McLain was the wild woman of Butte born in 1881 McLain was raised in Butte Montana she called it a pungent little place that devours feminine youth with the jaws of a monstrous in Satan's a shi'ite diamond in 1902 at age 19 McLain published the story of Mary McLain in it she openly discussed her hunger for fame her bisexual passions even her desire to marry the devil McLain confessed my head broke out in brains and i wrote my way love adolescence the mainstream press was horrified but McLain quickly sold a hundred thousand copies anthologized Elizabeth pruitt wrote she captured the fancy of millions was elevated to near mythic status in her own time was gossiped about incessantly imitated constantly and condemned mercilessly McLain took her royalties to Greenwich Village there she lived a decadent bohemian life as a journalist gambler and prize fight reporter she wrote and starred in her own silent movie men who have made love to me then faded into obscurity asked what would happen if she ever reached the age of 25 a young McClain boasted I don't care but I shall not be forgotten I am one of the great ones of Earth when at 48 McLain died penniless a Jazz Age magazine the Chicago in remembered her as the first of the self Expressionists the first of the flappers another boot personality who I've grown quite interested in is Lewis Duncan how many of you have heard of mr. Duncan before yeah an interesting fellow he was honest he was fearless because he stood for what was right he was persecuted he was maligned he was ousted from office that's beauty worth describing the city's former mayor Lewis Duncan a socialist in 1911 Butte Montana's Gibraltar of unionism became one of the largest American cities ever governed by socialists their leader was Lewis Duncan a prominent Unitarian minister and Shakespearean scholar also had quite the fashion sense I think he called on buttes workers to cast a class conscious ballot and unite on the political field under a socialist banner Duncan started successfully Louis towns Montana news called him a great favorite with the Union men of Montana and a splendid orator the Missoulian wrote Duncan has managed that unruly city with remarkable skill until today even the political even his political enemies admit openly if reluctantly that his administration is the best that Butte ever had but in 1914 rioters destroyed the Butte miners union the powerful amalgamated copper company charged Duncan and his supporters with a spirit of fanaticism and hatred for American institutions pro company judge roy ayers found duncan guilty of tolerating lawlessness and not doing enough to protect property the mayor was impeached and removed from office to which Duncan declared today my political scalp decorates the Wigwam of the Amalgamated but my record is clean and my spirit is unquenched I have been ousted not because I neglected my duty but because I had the courage courage to act by a higher principle than is approved by the capitalist class I have regarded human life as a greater value than property uh I started have a crush on Maggie Smith Hathaway she's someone I've just gotten to know recently and really found find her to be quite an impressive person great representative of what we would call the Progressive Era in Montana history Maggie Smith Hathaway was Montana's champion of women as helenas first female county superintendent of schools she demanded equal pay for male and female school employees in 1905 the redheaded and feisty Hathaway then went on to fight for women's suffrage and temperance as one of the first two women elected to the Montana House of Representatives in 1916 she declared we hope to do much good for the women and children of the state in the Statehouse the persistent hathaway was nicknamed mrs. has her way she pushed for an eight-hour workday for women introduced a law to compel men to care for their abandoned children strengthen the mother's pension law and pressed for a federal women's suffrage amendment headlines across the nation red Montana woman fame by having many state bills passed one legislator admitted she's the biggest man in the house yet she only weighs but a hundred and fifteen pounds during World War one Hathaway vowed to serve as an example for the patriotic women of Montana she then proceeded to run her 600-acre manless ranch near stevensville with an all-female crew declaring i am not ashamed of any honest labor done with my head or my hands i have little use for a lazy person and very little respect for a non producer during her three term ten-year hathaway a Democrat rose to become minority floor leader a national first for women she later served as the first woman Secretary of the Montana Bureau of Child Protection Hathaway died in 1955 at age 89 one nice thing about writing these two minutes niffet of history is that you don't have to hang out with these people for that long if you don't want to you know whereas if you're writing an article or a book you might invest years of your life staying with these people and in some cases I think I would like to get to know them better in other cases perhaps not so much and this guy might be an example of the latter this is Senator Henry Meyers of Montana and prior to my getting involved in this project I knew nothing about Meyers I'd never heard of him before he's an interesting fellow the grandfather of hysterical anti-communist Crusades was to term Democratic Senator Henry Meyers of Montana author Robert Murray called him a most vociferous anti radical spokesman born in Missouri Meyers moved to Hamilton Montana in 1893 voters sent him to the US Senate in 1911 during World War one he was swept up in what her story and Curt Wetzel called the emotional wartime burst of patriotic fervor that engulfed Montana and made loyalty a high priority Meyer saw labor unions as hotbeds of socialism he branded them the greatest menace facing this country today after the Russian Revolution Meyers predicted unless the Congress suppresses labor unrest the nation will see a Soviet government set up within two years time Myers helped lead America into its first Red Scare he declared we whipped the Redskins to obtain possession of this country we whipped the Redcoats to achieve its independence and we must not let the red hearted and red handed over throw it down the Reds has been our practice it should now be our motto foreshadowing the Cold War accusations of Senator Joseph McCarthy Myers warned this country is reeking and seething with the masa nations of disloyalty sedition and Bolshevism their proponents are becoming bold they have defenders and sympathizers in high places by the time he left the US Senate in 1923 Montana's fear mongering anti-communist champion had condemned Hollywood and even his own political party uh I'm a graduate of Montana State University and since we're a neutral territory here and not west of the do I though I thought perhaps I would we throw in a university story and this one has a personal a personal connection for me when I was growing up and my family first moved to Montana I was 10 and we lived in Gallatin Canyon about 6 miles north the president big sky and this man here max Worthington was our next-door neighbor and he kind of took me under his arm taught me how to fish and was really an incredible guy he was a member of this this basketball team later became associated with MSU was a Dean down there for a long time today me know max is a real gentleman and today in the field house down in Bozeman Worthington arena is named for max in the 1920s bozeman's montana state golden bobcats where college basketball's wonder team sports writer rail cummings described them as perfectly suited for the Jazz Age stylish and frenetic the golden bobcats pioneered the fast-break gaining national attention with their thrilling full court passes and snappy backward tosses historian Ellis Roberts Perry noted they revolutionized the game by averaging over 60 points per game when most teams at the time scored in the high 20s or low 30s the Miami News dubbed the montana montana state the point and a half per minute team adding this seems like about the human maximum unless a couple of howitzers are installed to fire the shots standouts cat Thompson brick breeden and Max Worthington racked up a hundred and two 211 record between 1926 and 1929 their aggressive style of race horse basketball won the golden Bobcats three state Rocky Mountain conference titles one year they outscored their opponents by more than a thousand points to become collegiate national champions one sports writer noted all Montana was nuts about their bobcats and so was the nation tremendous crowds paid fantastic prices for tickets to see them perform their feats with a basketball the Helms Athletic Foundation voted the 1929 golden Bobcats college basketball's top team for the first half of the 20th century they are enshrined today in ms use atletic Hall of Fame brick breeden field house and Max Worthington arena brick breeden Yeah right Breeden was also on this team yeah and Worthington is the guy that I mentioned and I'm who which one is uh yeah Burlington is three and from the top breeding I'm not does anyone know from the left okay so just a couple more folks and then I'll be happy to take some questions uh Bob Marshall just someone that I've admired for a long time and thought he would fit with this this presentation if ever there was a man for whom a wilderness should be named it was Bob Marshall the Forest Service assigned the 24 year old Marshall to Missoula northern Rocky Mountain experiment station there he regularly explored Montana's backcountry on marathon 30 to 40 mile a day hikes and concluded wilderness is melting away like some last snow bank on some south-facing mountainside during a hot afternoon in June in the years that followed historian Roderick Nash observed that Marshall became a legend in his own time prodigious hiker Explorer of the Earth's far corners best-selling author millionaire PhD one of the most colorful figures in forest history in his time most Americans saw the land is merely a supplier of natural resources for Marshall it was much more he wrote in a world overrun by split-second schedules physical certainty and man-made superficiality it is necessary to preserve a certain precious value of the timeless the mysterious and the primordial in Marshall's view the enjoyment of solitude complete independence and the beauty of undefiled panoramas is absolutely essential to happiness while the Forest Service chief of recreation and lands Marshall added 5.4 million acres to the nation's wilderness system in 1934 he helped found the Wilderness Society for the purpose of fighting off the invasion of wilderness and of stimulating appreciation of its emotional intellectual and scientific values Marshalls convictions were strong but his heart was weak he died in nineteen thirty nine at just 38 two years later the federal government created one of the first designated wilderness ar
as in the nation Montana's million-acre Bob Marshall wilderness another Montana senator that I really didn't know before I started this project was James Murray and there's a lot that I could say about Murray he is the author of both the Alaska and Hawaii statehood bills among other things but I was really drawn to his role during World War two in his efforts to help European Jews while most Americans remain silent during Hitler's Holocaust Democratic US Senator James Murray of Montana spoke out in defense of the Jews historian Raphael meadow throat Murray had little to gain and much to lose by taking an interest in rescuing European Jewish refugees who then constituted barely one-third of 1% of Montana's population prior to Pearl Harbor most Montanans were isolationists burton k wheeler the state's influential senior senator campaigned against intervention others like republican congressman jacob for Coulson railed against communists accuse and Jewish international finance ears from the floor of the US House of Representatives but Murray defying all political logic condemned Hitler as a ruthless dangerous maniac he was among the first in Washington to condemn the Holocaust calling it a terrible problem which is too long been evaded FDR's preference was rescued through victory but Murray demanded saving the helpless Jews of Europe who were facing quote a purposeful annihilation on a scale the world has never seen he warned we dare not wait any longer for every day of postponement means death the thousands of innocent victims if we wait until the war is won there may be only corpses left to enjoy victory Murray helped convince FDR to establish the war refugee board liberating two hundred thousand Jews in the final months of the war then Murray again took the lead advocating for a free and democratic Jewish state in Palestine in 1948 the United Nations General Assembly approved the creation of the modern State of Israel and the last person I'd like to talk about someone who just recently passed Eloise kebbel commenting on Blackfoot elder activists Eloise cabela's groundbreaking legal challenge on behalf of native peoples everywhere the great falls tribune predicted she will go down in history as the woman who won recognition and respect for her people and who had been cheated by the federal government since the late 1800s she was the great-granddaughter of famed warrior Mountain chief and grew up on montana's Blackfeet reservation as the tribes treasurer kebbel also known as yellow bird woman uncovered quote a shocking pattern of deception the US government had underpaid indian nations billions in royalties for oil gas timber and grazing leases she said it's just such a wrong that if I don't do something about it I'm as criminal as the government in 1996 kebbel filed one of the largest class action lawsuits ever after 15 years of grueling let litigation she and her attorneys won a 3.4 billion dollar settlement benefiting nearly 300,000 Native Americans judge royce lamberth called the case a story shot through with bureaucratic blunders and peppered with scandals dirty tricks and outright villainy kebbel said I never started this case with any intentions of being a hero I just wanted to give justice to people that didn't have it Cabela given up her post as president of Montana's Elvis Presley fan club to pursue the lawsuit when she died in October of 2011 she was buried with a rosary abrade of sweetgrass and an Elvis doll a writer Montana history writer that I really like is a guy by the name of Joseph Kinsey Howard and Howard once said that Montana has lived the life of America on a reduced scale and at a breakneck speed its history has been bewildering Lee condensed a kaleidoscopic newsreel unplugged and unplanned I would like to think that these little snippets of history that the Montana Medicine Show has has produced our an expression of what may be Joseph Kinsey Howard is talking about here that it's possible to distill down Montana history into digestible little segments that are I think potent and meaningful and if we can connect the dots somehow I think we get a bird's-eye view of Montana history that is is perhaps greater than looking at each of these stories individually so thanks for your time tonight I really appreciate it I'd be happy to answer some questions if you have any
