Northwest Montana History Museum speaker series begins Jan. 5

The Northwest Montana History Museum's annual John White speaker series begins Jan. 5 featuring Jack Gladstone.\

On Jan. 5, Jack Gladstone presents “C.M. Russell: Heritage and Legacy.” Gladstone is an award-winning musician and speaker who illustrates American Indian culture through a mosaic of music, lyric poetry, and spoken word narrative.

C.M. Russell had deep ties to Glacier National Park and Northwest Montana  — and renowned performer Gladstone has deep ties to Russell. A citizen of the Blackfeet Nation, Gladstone descends from both indigenous American and immigrant European traditions, and uses this personal legacy, as well as his unique storytelling and songwriting skills, to build cultural bridges as “Montana’s Troubadour.” 

Russell’s works have always been a source of inspiration to Gladstone, especially his 1914 masterpiece oil painting, When the Land Belonged to God, which hangs in the Montana State Capitol. “The purest gift is not of gold,” Gladstone wrote in his song of the same name, “but in art that awakens the soul.” The song is Gladstone’s most cherished work, and inspired him to develop a program that explores the role Russell played in the portrayal of the West during the early 20th century. 

Gladstone’s multimedia event features images created by Russell that captured the “disappearing West,” and shares stories of the time Russell lived with the Blood Division of the Blackfeet Nation during the winter of 1888, under the leadership of Chief Red Crow, who was Gladstone’s great-great-grandfather.