08/05/2024
“Helena This Week” is reported and written By JoVonne Wagner. Send your Helena news and tips to jwagner@montanafreepress.org.
After receiving $50,000 in grants, the Helena Indian Alliance is moving forward with plans to provide food, including bison meat, and nutritional information to local youth and the Native community.
Last month, the Otto Bremer Trust Community Response Fund, through the Montana Community Foundation, awarded the alliance $25,000, one of 36 statewide grants given to organizations striving to address challenges in their communities.
First established in 1969, the Indian Alliance started as a workforce training center and advocacy group for the Native community in Helena. After getting an Indian Health Services contract and becoming a state-accredited behavioral health program, the center offers the community a range of mental and health care services, advocacy classes and an Indigenous food pantry, which directly benefits from the grant funds.
“A lot of it will be used in the Indigenous food pantry that we run,” the alliance’s community resources patient advocate Amanda Lott told Montana Free Press. “One of the things that we did specifically was purchase bison recently. So that will be available through our pantry; we’ll be able to access ground bison meat.”
Lott, who is Gros Ventre, Blackfeet and Assiniboine, said although the food pantry, which provides access to Indigenous ingredients and plants, is for the use of the local Native community, its doors are open to anyone.
Helena Indian Alliance’s administrative manager Katelyn Griepp told MTFP that it saw a need for a food pantry, knowing that its clients often take time from their jobs or may be traveling from out of the city to seek services.
“We are able to bridge that gap and say, ‘Hey, while you’re here, also pick up your food box and make sure you have food that you’re taking back to your family,’” Griepp said. “So we want to make sure that we’re always those advocates and we’re always this place for community.”
About a week after receiving the Otto Bremer grant, the Indian Alliance was notified that it had been selected for another $25,000 award from the First Nations Development Institute through a Native farm-to-school program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Lott, who wrote the grant application, said it was challenging to find ways to utilize the funds and incorporate them with Native youth and the school district.
“It had to tie into the schools and Native youth specifically in providing Native youth with traditional foods and knowledge and traditional teachings behind those foods,” Lott said. “I titled the program the ‘UNITY Gardens.”
Lott explained that the project’s goal is to build hoop houses, similar to greenhouses, at two Helena schools. The project will educate the local youth using traditional Indigenous ingredients and nutritional information.
Determining which two Helena schools will host the hoop houses is the next step.
Public Notice
Lewis and Clark County officials are asking the public for input on development plans for the Northstar Park, 965 Guthrie Rd., and will host an open house on Wednesday, Aug. 14, from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event is a chance for the public to give feedback on potential design plans for the park. For more information about the open house, visit the project’s website.
5 Things to Know in Helena
Helena helping out: On Wednesday, July 24, a severe storm blew through parts of western Montana, including Missoula, leaving the city scattered with fallen trees and without power. Helena urban forestry supervisor Chris Daly told the Helena City Commission during a city meeting last week that Missoula officials asked for assistance on clean-up efforts. Two Helena arborists, Jere Parker and Gabe King, volunteered to travel to Missoula to help the next day. According to Daly, the volunteers remained in Missoula until Tuesday, July 30. Both Helena and Missoula government leaders have shared their gratitude to the city staff for their efforts.
County fire restrictions: Last Tuesday, Lewis and Clark County commissioners adopted some fire restrictions due to wildland fire danger from high temperatures and lack of moisture. Helena officials reminded the public in a social media post that the city has similar fire restrictions in place and to be mindful during any burning and recreating. Visit the city’s fire code webpage for additional information on restrictions and exceptions.
Mann Gulch Memorial at the Capitol: Monday, Aug. 5, marks the 75th year anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire that claimed the lives of 13 U.S. Forest Service smokejumpers in 1949 and influenced future wildfire research and suppression efforts. The U.S. Forest Service, the National Smokejumper Association, the Montana Discovery Foundation and other partners will hold a memorial at the
Capitol on Monday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte will open the event, followed by the keynote speech given by John N. Maclean, the son of John Maclean, the author of “Young Men and Fire,” a historical account of the fire and its aftermath. Visit the Montana Discovery Foundation website for additional details.
Back-to-school bash: Free school supplies will be provided during a back-to-school bash hosted by the Helena Indian Alliance and PureView Health Center on Friday, Aug. 9, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will be in East Helena at JFK Park, 309 Harrison Ave. N., and is open and free to the public. The bash will also include vendors from local organizations, carnival games with prizes and Indian tacos for sale from the Last Chance Community Pow Wow group. For questions or additional details about the event, contact the Helena Indian Alliance at (406) 449-5796.
Lake Helenaalgal bloom: The Department of Environmental Quality and Lewis and Clark Public Health announced last week that algal blooms are present in the Lake Helena causeway. The types of algal species found in the water samples taken from Lake Helena were identified as harmful and could be toxic if ingested. The agencies warn the public not to swim, drink or swallow the affected water and to be cautious for children, pets and livestock who may be exposed to the algal blooms. Contact poison control at 1-800-222-1222 if you suspect you may have an algal bloom-related sickness.
3 Questions For
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new mural at Lyndale Tunnel that pays tribute to the Mann Gulch smokejumpers is on Monday, Aug. 5, at 10:30 a.m. City leaders and U.S. Forest Service officials will attend, and the mural artist, Elise Perpignano, is scheduled to speak. Perpignano, a Helena local, spoke with MTFP about her background, tackling the project and the role the community played. Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.
MTFP: What is your art background and how did you get involved with the tunnel project?
Perpignano: I love portraiture. That’s kind of my main bread and butter. I do large-scale oil paintings and then more recently within the past two years, [I] started doing even larger-scale murals. I’ve changed mediums quite a bit. I went to college over in Bozeman, studied graphic design and then also decided that I wanted to have something more hands-on so I added on a painting major as well.
I did the mural last summer in the Centennial Trail Tunnel that’s underneath Last Chance [Gulch]. It connects the dog park and the memorial park. That all kind of rolled together into this most recent bid.
The Forest Service reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in coming up with a design proposal that would include imagery for the Mann Gulch anniversary. So we did that and I was selected again and now I’m just a tunnel mural girl.
MTFP: Can you describe your style and how it’s incorporated into the mural?
Perpignano: My style is very free-form, and it’s almost curvy and very colorful. I like to add as much color as I can to a design without it overcomplicating the design. I think my style varies with my mural work. I would say it’s more similar to my illustration work with design. So it’s a little bit cleaner, has more solid colors, is less painterly and more bold.
I think a main element of my design is just having some sort of flow that will bring you from one piece to the next part of the piece and through the tunnel in this case. The mural itself is kind of split into three physical parts, where there’s the north side, the interior and then the south side. The north side has kind of the more obvious tribute to the Mann Gulch smokejumpers. It has the airplane that dropped them at the location, it has smokejumpers with their parachutes kind of floating down in the sky and it has kind of like a very colorful forest setting that’s ablaze.
From there you enter the tunnel and inside there is a kind of forest life cycle. It goes from old growth to forest fire, to new growth, to a changing environment and to old growth again through different plants, animals, flora and fauna and all the things that kind of benefit from each part of that cycle. Although we think of forest fires as being very devastating, they open up lodgepole pine cones, and that way they can seed and that way you can have more trees. Then from there, it really sets up the environment for new growth.
MTFP: What does public art mean to you and why is it impactful?
Perpignano: I think public art is a really great way to connect, not just as one whole community, but different parts of the community. This single project has connected the city of Helena with the Forest Service, with the Smokejumpers Association, with the families of the smokejumpers, with firefighters and with all these different parts of our one community, and I think that’s really powerful in just one single piece.
I do enjoy myself. Honestly, the process of painting is great, but I think the best part is just having people there for the whole experience. That tunnel gets used so much more than I ever realized. I have people who are 4 and they’re speaking gibberish about how pretty it is. Then you also have people who’re 80 and they’re a retired smokejumper and they are mind blown that anyone could ever make something that could look like this out of such a tough job.
The community gets to partake in it. I’ve had people come through, and they suggested doing a little memorial for the pilot who just passed fighting the Horse Gulch Fire. They said how connected that all felt and how they would love to see something like that within the mural, and I’m going to take that and incorporate it because I just feel like that is so special and meaningful. I guess public art is also a way for the community to have a say in what they get to express and share.
It’s really amazing the diversity of the community that I get to experience every day, and I think that’s my favorite part.
Might Be Fun
Mansion garden party: The Montana Historical Society’s annual garden party at the Original Governor’s Mansion, 304 N. Ewing St., will be on Saturday, Aug. 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Guests can tour the mansion, and refreshments will be provided. The event is free and open to the public but note that the mansion is not ADA-compliant and has multiple staircases. For additional information, contact the historical society’s community engagement specialist Laura Marsh at (406) 444-4789.
Eye on Helena
