The Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art is hosting WITHIN: Louis Still Smoking & John Isaiah Pepion. WITHIN artist discussion on Oct. 26.

The event is drawn from the artists’ belief that the strength and success of Native American identity and culture is internally inherited and created inside of their communities.

As artists, Still Smoking and Pepion aim to help reclaim, reinform, and redefine what it means to a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana today. By looking within, they themselves and fellow indigenous communities become whole again, according to the museum.

The artists will collaborate to create a mural inside the museum with integrated individual works. The exhibition has a time-based element as the mural is temporary and reflects on the history of cultural erasure, while the combined individual free-standing works reflect continuity and resistance, according to the museum.

Together the artists investigate the varied meanings of being indigenous, with art and culture being at the core of indigenous education and identity.

“WITHIN offers the possibility of opening dynamic conversation with the public about the current state of indigenous art, education, and life in Montana. The creation of the mural at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, originally a public school built in 1896, is integral to the conceptualization of the installation because the visual subject matter encourages a discussion about education and cultural resilience. The artists aim to root their project in the hope and positivity of their people and culture but are also poignantly reflective about the trauma inflicted on indigenous communities resulting from the seizing of their land and the enactment of forced assimilation programs. Ultimately a complex conversation,” according to the museum.

Pepion is a Plains Indian graphic artist from the Piikani Band of the Blackfoot Confederacy based out of the Blackfeet reservation in north-central Montana, where the Rocky Mountains meet the plains. He is best known for his ledger art, which is an art tradition that developed in Plains tribes, as the buffalo hide traditionally used for painting became scarce, Plains people were forced to adapt by making artwork on ledger paper from accounting books. Pepion comes from a family of artists, and ledger art has been in his family for hundreds of years.

Still Smoking was born and raised in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation. Still Smoking worked as a stone sculptor and educator and returned to college to focus on painting. His artwork is influenced by the Impressionists, Lucian Freud, and research on the history of the American Indian Movement.

“The exhibition and lecture series echoes the museum’s core value initiatives to provide to support justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, in a space where all voices are heard. The museum is as a platform to provide and expand the reach of indigenous work in the arts and humanities by strengthening opportunities to provide educational outreach to the Great Falls and Montana community. The museum is hoping to build a better and more fortified relationship with local, regional, and statewide indigenous communities. We are aware that all indigenous voices and communities are different, including languages, experiences, history, and culture. It is through indigenous expertise and guidance, coupled with our own museum initiatives, research, and learning, that we aim to provide a positive space for future generations of indigenous artists and scholars to thrive in Montana,” according to the museum.

The events are free and open to the public.

• 5:30 p.m. Oct. 26: Artist Reception and Discussion for WITHIN: Louis Still-Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion. Join featured artists Still Smoking and Pepion in discussion with Nicole Maria Evans, the museum’s curator.
• 5:30 p.m. Nov. 17: Hiding in Plain Sight: Expanding the Canvas. Jennifer Woodcock-Medicine Horse will explore the history and social purposes of painted Blackfeet tipis and the transition to contemporary murals examined through Still Smoking and Pepion’s body of work. Woodcock-Medicine Horse is program director for IndigenEyes: Contemporary Native American Art of the Rocky Mountains and Plains.
• 5:30 p.m. Dec. 8: After years of being defined and designed to be something other than an indigenous people, Sean Chandler will illustrate the significance of indigenous lifeways as the foundation of indigenous education in contemporary life. He will present a brief background on the federal government’s policy to alter and control American Indian identity. Specifically, he will discuss how Aaniiih Nakoda College has been driven to counter those past assimilationist policies to define itself as an institution grounded in Aaniiih and Nakoda Lifeways for the people of the Aaniinen and Nakoda Nations. Chandler is president of Aaniiih Nakoda College located on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

For more information, contact Evans, curator, at [email protected]; 406-727-8255.

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