The Bison: American Icon, Heart of Plains Indian Culture

FAIN: MI-50093-07

C M Russell Museum (Great Falls, MT 59401-1426)
Anne Morand (Project Director: January 2007 to September 2010)

Implementation of a permanent exhibition with a web site and public and school programs about the history of humans' interaction with bison and how the bison became a symbol of Native American culture, the American West, and our national identity.

The C.M. Russell Museum is requesting NEH funding for the fabrication and installation of a new permanent exhibition, The Bison: American Icon, Heart of Plains Indian Culture. The exhibition addresses the crucial historical and cultural role of bison for both Indians and non-Indians on the Northern Plains between 1750-2000 and examines the emergence of the animal as an American icon. Using the bison as a gateway, visitors are immersed in a distinctive experience about the cultural history of Montana and the Northern Plains region, and the ongoing relationship between the American West and American identity today. The exhibition is an important opportunity to bring recent scholarship about the American West to bear on the study and interpretation of the American Indian collections featured in the exhibition to the benefit of a nationally based visiting public. The project will take place between October 2007 and September 2008.