UPDATE: This event has been postponed. Stay tuned to New Media Broadcasters for updates.
CHINOOK, Mont. (NMB) – This weekend, the Bear Paw Battlefield and Blaine County Museum in Chinook will be hosting a Nez Perce Elder to come speak with the community. Lead Ranger at Bear Paw Battlefield Casey Overturf says Silas Whitman will be speaking at the Blaine County Museum on Saturday at 10 AM and 3 PM, and then on Sunday at 1 PM.
“He comes with a lot of traditional knowledge of plant use, used for medicine and for spiritual purposes that he comes ready to share, but I’ve also heard he’ll talk about a lot more if you know the right questions, such as being a descendant of a survivor of the Bear Paw Battlefield. And those are the personal stories I’m really curious about myself.”
Overturf says Whitman is from the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho.
“Not only does he have a lifetime worth of knowledge and he’s really open to questions, so you can get whatever out of it that you want, it’s all free. Silas is got a background in Plateau culture. And there’s a lot of overlap between Plateau and Plains, but for people who are familiar with the Plains culture, they might be interested in seeing where the subtle differences are between the Plains and Plateau.”
Overturf says that they’ve been trying to get a speaker to come to Chinook for a while through Big Hole National Battlefield. The event is free and open to the public.
