Livingston, MT: The Yellowstone Gateway Museum’s final Spring Speaker Series program, “Resilience: Stories of Montana Indian Women,” by Laura Ferguson is slated for Thursday, May 12, 7 PM, at the Livingston-Park County Public Library, 228 W. Callendar. The illustrated program is free, open to the public and refreshments are provided.

In 2014, the Montana Historical Society solicited Ferguson to write the stories on Montana’s Indian women for the Montana Women’s History Matter’s project. Women from each tribe were represented as well as women from different eras and diverse walks of life. Ferguson will be signing copies of the Montana Historical Society Press’s recently released anthology, Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams: Montana Women’s Lives, in which Ferguson’s stories appear.

Included in the collection are contemporary, nationally recognized women like Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet), whose  efforts to clean up the mismanagement of Indian accounts at the BIA are monumental; twentieth century culture keepers like Adeline Mathias (Kootenai) and Oshanee Kenmille (Salish) who revitalized tribal arts and crafts; political activists like Lucille Otter (Salish) and Freda Beazley (Assiniboine) who influenced tribal, state, and national policies; and nineteenth century women (like Kwilqs, a Pend d’Oreille warrior) whose stories are less well-known to non-Indians but very important within their tribal histories. I also strove to bring to light stories of individual Indian women who blazed a trail in their respective professions like Susie Yellowtail, a nurse from the Crow Reservation, and Minnie Two Shoes, a journalist from Fort Peck, in addition to women whose stories illuminate a particular way of life at a specific time and place, like Belle Highwalking (Northern Cheyenne) and Cecelia LaRance Wiseman (Metis).

Laura K. Ferguson has a Master’s Degree in Native American Studies from Montana State University. In addition to writing, Ms. Ferguson works as an Indian Education consultant, editor, and as an adjunct instructor at UM Helena and Carroll College. She lives in Helena with her husband, Mike Jetty, and their daughters.

Please call 406-222-4184 for more information.