History museum announces lineup for popular John White Series
This year, the lineup for the Northwest Montana History Museum’s popular John White Series talks will dig into the topics of bears, motorcycle adventuring, indigenous food and Meriwether Lewis’ mom.
For 22 years, the museum has organized presentations on the many facets of Montana history for the often sold-out series. The talks delve into aspects of Montana life and history targeting audiences with a curiosity for learning more about the state and its people.
Ron Brevik will kick off this year’s lineup by sharing about his motorcycle rides on Montana’s roads — logging 70,000 miles over 16 years — in “Riding the Big Sky” scheduled Jan. 7.
At the age of 12, then Missoula resident Ron Brevik started riding motorcycles.
“I was promptly pulled over by law enforcement for not having a driver’s license,” he remembers. “That didn’t stop me."
Decades on, Brevik married this love of motorcycles with love for his native state when he purchased a 100-year anniversary Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Springer in 2003 and devised “the ride of a lifetime” — to cover every mile of paved county, state, and federal road in Montana. Brevik documented the people, places, and history he discovered on his 70,000-mile journey.
Now a Kalispell resident and a retired general contractor and property manager, Brevik maintains that “Montana’s greatest treasures can be found on the back roads.”
On Jan. 21, researcher Kate Kendall will educate audiences in “Bear History 101.” Kendall, now retired in Kalispell after working for the U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service, has spent decades studying bears in Glacier National Park and throughout Montana.
Early in her career as a research scientist, Kendall saw the need for accurately identifying bear populations. She got granular about it, looking to their fur, and orchestrated a five-year operation to collect some 34,000 bear hair samples.
After DNA testing, it was discovered that the previous best estimate for individual grizzlies was off by half.
She will discuss her favorite research topic regarding grizzlies and tell about some of the amusing things wildlife do when people aren’t around.
Storyteller and historic interpreter Mary Jane Bradbury takes on Lucy Marks, mother of Corps of Discovery expeditioner Meriwether Lewis, on Feb. 4 in “A Mother’s Journey.” The story of Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery is engrained in the history of our nation. The story of Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks — the mother of Meriwether Lewis — remains largely untold, yet it offers critical insight into understanding of her intrepid, exploring son.
Mariah Gladstone wraps up the series with “Cooking Up Indigikitchen” on Feb. 18. Gladstone, a Blackfeet-Cherokee resident of Babb, founded Indigikitchen and indigikitchen.com to revitalize indigenous food knowledge.
She founded Indigikitchen online to provide tools, recipes, and guidance in how to re-indigenize diets while also strengthening cultural ties and supporting healthier ecosystems, bodies, and families. Gladstone grew up in urban areas in Montana but spent summers with her family on the Blackfeet Reservation and 40 miles from the nearest grocery store. She observed diet-related health problems, and thus began working toward food sovereignty through hunting, harvesting, and growing, then decided to feed the need for indigenous foods with Indigikitchen, which teaches about cooking for simple nutrition that is affordable, sustainable and accessible
All presentations begin at 2 p.m. at the museum, 124 2nd Ave. E., Kalispell. Tickets are $15 for members of the museum and $20 for non-members. People may also purchase tickets to see the entire four-part series at $40 for museum members. Tickets may be purchased online at nwmthistory.org or at the museum. People may also reserve tickets by calling the museum at by calling 756-8381.
The John White Series is a fundraiser for the nonprofit and its mission to preserve and present regional history.