Beyond the Edge was created by Coast Salish artist, Susan Point, in 2015. This piece was carved from red cedar and painted. It was inspired by spindle whorls Coast Salish women used to spin wool. It was on display at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon in February 2026.
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Joe Feddersen baskets at the High Desert Museum, Bend, Oregon
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Early 1900s Woman’s Leggings at the High Desert Museum, Oregon
Wordless Wednesday (WW)
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I am calling this post “Before Edmonds Part 2.” I previously posted about another mural located in this same alleyway in downtown Edmonds, Washington.
These murals include amazing details, and they took 18 months to paint. The murals feature depictions of Indigenous people who lived here long before the city of Edmonds was created. For more details on these murals, read this article.
Monday Mural
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Beautiful beaded gloves & bags at the High Desert Museum, Oregon
Wordless Wednesday (WW)
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This Before Edmonds mural is located in downtown Edmonds, Washington. It shows a view of Puget Sound with the Olympic Mountains in the background. The canoes of Native Americans can be seen near the shore.
I couldn’t get the whole mural in one shot, so I took another one. Here you can see a raven at the top of the mural and a closer view of the heron.
One of the things I liked best in this mural was how the artist painted the clouds. If you’ve looked at very many posts on my blog, you’ll know I love dramatic skyscapes like this one.
The Before Edmonds mural was created by Andy Eccleshall, in collaboration with Ty Juvinel (Tulalip tribe). It was installed in August of 2020. This mural, and the one facing it in an alleyway, took 18 months to paint. The Art Walk Edmonds website has more details on this and other murals in the vicinity.
Here is a dog travois sketch I drew based on a display at the Plains Indian wing of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Wyoming.
Before the introduction of horses in North America, people relied on dogs to pull loads up to 75 pounds in weight. After the use of horses became commonplace, dogs continued to carry lighter loads.
This quick sketch was done for the Inktober challenge in 2024. The prompt for that day was “nomadic.”
This beautiful display at the Buffalo Bill Center shows a woman walking beside a dog travois. A man on horseback leads the way. Native people have relied on dogs as guardians, hunters, and companions for hundreds of years.
I’ve used saddlebags on my dogs in the past, but travois carry much heavier loads. Here’s a historical photo of dogs pulling travois in Alaska in 1897.
Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.
Three Things Challenge (TTC) – people
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Bear with Humor by Rick Bartow (Mad River Band of the Wiyot Tribe, d. 2016) at High Desert Museum
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This photo showing arrowheads up close was taken at Petersen Rock Garden & Museum. This unique roadside attraction is in Redmond, Oregon.
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Headdresses at High Desert Museum (HDM), Bend, Oregon
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While camping at Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenns Ferry, Idaho, I visited the Oregon Trail History & Education Center. Many pioneers traveling on the Oregon Trail crossed the Snake River on their way west at this site. Settlers learned to overcome the emotional and physical obstacles they encountered along the Trail with resilience and perseverance.
Near the center’s entrance, you’ll pass a couple wagons beneath a shelter. A reader board refers to them as “Motor Homes Without Motors.” They had to be lightweight, yet sturdy enough to survive the 2,000-mile journey across the country. The wagons carried many tools and treasures, but more importantly, the hopes and dreams of settlers looking for a better way of life.
This visitor center’s interactive and informative displays impressed me. I liked how it highlighted this area from different perspectives in the past and present.
Crossing here was dangerous, but it was shorter than the South Alternate route. The southern route passed through dry, rocky environments that were difficult to endure. There was also less potable water and feed for livestock along that route.
Though fur trappers and early explorers traveled this route beginning in 1811, most pioneers took this route from 1841 to 1848.
Pioneers used this route until 1869, when Gus Glenn constructed a ferry crossing two miles upstream. This display describes Ferryman Gustavus (Gus) P. Glenn. He was a colorful local, known as a rugged individualist.
Glenn married a Native American woman named Jenny and turned down the possibility of marrying a Euro-American when more settlers moved into the area. He noted, “She was good enough for me then and she’s good enough for me now.”
The original Oregon trail began in Independence, Missouri, and ended in Oregon City, Oregon. This map shows the various routes settlers traveled west after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Several of the displays featured artifacts related to the lives of Native Americans. One of the first displays shows the hunting and gathering way of life experienced by Indians of the Snake River Plain.
Indigenous people have lived in this area for thousands of years. The local environment is challenging, but they learned how to be resilient.
The figure shown below is of a woman with a digging stick.
Native peoples often dug up and collected camas bulbs.
Bulbs, seeds, and other food items were ground with stone mortars and pestles.
People wove baskets for different purposes. The photograph in this display case shows a tightly woven basket used for carrying water.
People used loosely woven baskets to gather things like roots and berries.
This display shows a spear and net used for catching salmon.
Once horses became available to Native people, hunting and trading practices changed dramatically. Horse ownership became a status symbol, with wealthier people collecting large herds of horses.
I liked this quote from the local Northern Paiute tribe.
This display shows a cutaway view of a teepee and describes the many hardships Native Americans endured on reservations.
Other displays in this center focus on settlers moving west as part of their “Manifest Destiny.” This 19th century belief stated that American settlers were destined by God to claim lands across North America. Its purpose was “to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent.”
Unfortunately, that often meant forcing Native Americans off their ancestral lands. Thousands died from starvation and disease after being forcibly marched to distant reservations.
The U.S. population rose dramatically from 5 million people in 1800, to over 23 million by 1850.
Newspapers described an easy route with “no obstruction in the whole route.” Journals of those who traveled the route described a far different situation where “hills ware dreadful steep” and “the desert is very hard on the poor animals.”
I found this packing list interesting. If travelers lost the ox pulling their wagons, they abandoned many items shown on this list beside the road.
Since the oxen used along the route were so valuable, travelers would do anything they could to save them. This scene shows three people trying to pull a downed ox to its feet.
This is a typical covered wagon, shown with the back down as food is prepared.
These two cases show some toys and tools of children traveling the trail. They were expected to help with chores, but also had time to play games, go fishing or target shooting, and to collect wildflowers.
At first, relationships between Natives and settlers were friendly. They traded valuable items. Native peoples helped them along the route. “The Indians helped us a great deal, raking over the carts, swimming the animals, &c …” As more settlers flocked to the area, the relations changed. Native American, Hispanic, and non-European residents suffered greatly during this period of expansion.
These photos are of contemporary residents of Glenns Ferry, Idaho.
Daryl Kirk commented on past competitions between cultures and said we need “to get together and do things together and to forget about the bad part of the past.”
Donna Carnahan remembered how her grandfather, who settled there in 1890, spoke of often playing with the resident Indian children.
Terry Gibson noted how his people comforted the emigrants. The people and their animals were in bad shape after all they had suffered along the trail. He said, “Our people were here to help them, and our children need to learn that. I think with the Crossing here, there’s an opportunity to provide healing for both cultures.”
The Oregon Trail History & Education Center is small, but worth a visit. It has a nice gift store near the entrance.
To learn more about the Oregon Trail, consider visiting the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City, Oregon. After being closed for four years, the Center recently reopened following significant renovations and updates. I posted about this attraction prior to the renovations.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Resilience
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Museum of the Rockies (MOR) in Bozeman, Montana, is a place I’ve always wanted to visit. I had known about their impressive dinosaur fossil collection for years. In June 2024, we visited this museum on the Montana State University campus.
A huge Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton sculpture greets you near the entrance. The Big Mike bronze sculpture, created by research Casting International of Ontario, Canada, is based on T. rex bones found in Montana.
MOR features several primary exhibits inside the main building.
The Living History Farm, outside of the entrance, gives glimpses of what farm life was like from 1890 to 1910. Programs on a variety of topics are shown in the Hager Auditorium.
No visit to MOR is complete without viewing the Seibel Dinosaur Complex. It is this museum’s star attraction. The collection is one of the largest in the world and features examples of Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex, and Allosaurus.
These and other dinosaurs are on display in the Dinosaurs Under the Big Sky exhibit area.
A generous donation by Thomas and Stacey Siebel tripled the exhibit space.
Jack Horner, paleontologist, and former director of paleontology at the museum, played a pivotal role in the design of this space.
You can observe preparators working on excavating encased fossils in one section.
Prehistoric mammals that once lived in parts of Montana are on display in the Cenozoic Corridor. These include mammoths, rhinos, and bone-crushing dogs.
This section focuses on the lives of American Indians of the Northern Plains and the Rocky Mountain region. Native peoples have lived in this region for thousands of years. When Euro-Americans moved into this part of America, conflicts followed. Despite being forced onto reservations and having much of their culture stripped away, Natives worked hard to maintain many traditions.
Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-1806) were among the first non-native people to explore this area. After their expedition, waves of outsiders flooded the area in search of gold and furs for trade. The Homestead Act brought thousands of settlers there. Limited resources affected the Natives’ way of life.
As more settlers and trappers established themselves in this part of the country, Native culture changed. However, they preserved elements of their culture that have existed for generations.
Since I have a deep appreciation of beadwork, I aimed my camera at several beaded artifacts in this exhibit.
Examples of quillwork were also displayed in this exhibit.
In this hall, the journey from early exploration to the mid-20th century is illustrated. The displays in this hall show elements of cultural and social change.
Murals, photographs, and numerous artifacts pull visitors into this area’s rich history.
I was drawn towards the line of carts and carriages in this section. The shock absorbing parts of these vehicles have always fascinated me.
An original homestead, built in 1889, is at the heart of this exhibit. Visitors are taken back in time to 1890-1910 by a series of buildings, recreated to look authentic. These buildings include a milking barn, blacksmith, root cellar, granary, shed, chicken coop, and outhouse. Gardens of flowers, vegetables, and grains contain examples of heirloom plants. Activities such as barn-raising, sewing circles, and quilting bees were an essential part of the communities.
Another section at the museum is the Welcome to Yellowstone Country exhibit. This exhibit shows parts of the past history of Yellowstone National Park. The work of entrepreneurs Charles A Hamilton and F. Jay Haynes in the park’s tourism industry in the 19th and 20th centuries is described.
The Martin Children’s Discovery Area is an interactive exhibition for kids. Children can visit the Explore Yellowstone and pump a geyser, climb a fire tower, fish from a bridge, set up a campsite, or experience the Old Faithful Inn.
For an additional fee, visitors can go to the Taylor Planetarium. There, you can enjoy regularly scheduled shows on the 40-foot-wide dome screen throughout the day.
During our visit, the MOR changing exhibit was Dragons, Unicorns, and Mermaids: Mythic Creatures. Since I like to include mythical creatures in novels I’m working on for kids, this exhibit was right up my alley.
This exhibition runs from May 24, 2024, to January 5, 2025. For more info on this exhibit, see one of my previous posts. It includes LOTS of pictures.
See operating times and days and admission prices here.
MOR has a large store near the entrance. It includes clothing, games, books, etc.
Here’s the Museum Map, near where you pay admission.
Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) – Complete
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When I travel along the Columbia River, I usually drive on the Oregon side because it’s faster. Last spring I drove on the Washington side and made a stop at the Columbia Gorge Museum near the small town of Stevenson, Washington. This hidden gem of a museum opened in 1995 and it houses a wide variety of art, historical artifacts, and immersive exhibitions.
Collections at the museum include artifacts from centuries ago to the present. The displays include traditional Indigenous tools, pioneer-era artifacts, and contemporary works of art.
Several styles of baskets used for different purposes are featured in the displays.
The design of this part of the museum really impressed me. Big pieces of columnar basalt framed the display cases.
Nearby, a sculpture of a Native American fishing from a platform towers over visitors. This traditional fishing method is still in use today at places like Cascade Locks, Oregon.
This enormous Sasquatch sculpture is part of the Sensing Sasquatch exhibition currently at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. Sensing Sasquatch considers this mythical creature from a Native American perspective. It will be at the Museum through January 12, 2025.
The Protector was created by Hollyanna CougarTracks DeCoteau (Yakama, Nez Perce, Cayuse, Cree). This work is based on her memories of seeing the shadows of Sasquatch in the forest.
She noted that Indigenous peoples admire Sasquatch because they are “protectors of all living things… if they die so too does everything else.”
The fur-covered Sasquatch sculpture was impressive, but so was the way they separated the sculpture from the rest of the exhibit. Long strands of string hung from curving ceiling tracks, adding to the sense of mystery. I loved the shadows created by the curtains surrounding the artwork.
As you may know, I’ve been volunteering at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon since 2013. I work on their volunteer newsletter. We are sharing the April HDV newsletter with staff and volunteers and we’d like to also share it with you. High Desert Voices (HDV) is a newsletter published by and for Museum volunteers.
The newsletter covers events and exhibitions at the High Desert Museum, as well as other topics. The museum features wildlife, living history, and culture topics related to the High Desert region.
The April HDV newsletter includes articles on the relationship of Indigenous people with Mother Earth, a behind the scenes look at the Museum’s birds of prey, and the progress being made on returning steelhead to the Crooked River in Oregon.
Please enjoy this month’s HDV newsletter. I’m very proud of the work our Newsletter Team accomplishes. We’re always grateful for the input we receive when working on articles from staff, speakers, and other sources. Comments from you, our readers, would also be appreciated. Thanks!
Last week, I showed symmetrical displays of history at the Museum of the American West in Lander, Wyoming. However, history is not always balanced. A good museum shows our similarities and differences. Here are more items on display at the Museum.
At times, our differences stand out.
Though what we wear differs, from practical and utilitarian…
To ornamental and symbolic, our clothing reflects who we are.
This Beaded Horse Regalia is part of the exhibition at The Indian Museum of North America®. The beaded horse is on display at the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota. Douglas Fast Horse, Oglala Lakota, created this piece. He makes a point of creating work that replicates “historic Lakota regalia as a way to honor his heritage and help tell the story of Lakota Oyate.”
I’ve always admired beadwork such as this. This Beaded Horse Regalia piece shows what can be accomplished with many tiny glass beads, and a lot of patience.
Birch bark canoe at The Indian Museum of North America® at Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota
The High Desert Museum, in Bend, Oregon, is currently hosting the Creations of Spirit exhibition. The pieces on display include historical artifacts and works by contemporary Native artists.
The beautiful pieces are enhanced by quotes throughout the gallery. I will let their words tell the stories.
Throughout the process, you continually impart yourself in the creation of that object. And when you’ve completed it, it takes on a life of its own.
Philip Cash Cash, Ph. D., Weyíiletpuu (Cayuse) and Niimpíipuu (Nez Perce) tribes
I wanted to have my own story in the baskets. I wanted to keep the traditional form and the shape, but I wanted to add iconography that talked to the present.
Joe Feddersen, Member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Root bag with multiple figures by Plateau artist (early 1900s); Basket with animal figures by Umatilla artist (mid-1900s); Round Dance pitcher & cup by Joe Feddersen, 2002; Berry-picking container by Vivian Harrison, (StuYat), Yakama/Palouse/Wishram, 2002
Most of my designs are from the petroglyphs along the Nch’i wana [Columbia River]. I love and appreciate where our people came from, and our people left animals as stories in our pictographs and petroglyphs. That’s why I want to instill them in my baskets and keep them alive. I want people to know that we’ve been seeing these animals for tens of thousands of years.
Natalie Kirk, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
Continue reading
The sculpture of Crazy Horse in South Dakota stands out along the horizon as you drive north from Custer. We visited the site earlier this month, near the date of its 75th anniversary, to view the progress on the immense sculpture.
The Crazy Horse Memorial includes a Welcome Center, a gift store and restaurant, the family home of the sculptor, rotating exhibits, indoor and outdoor sculptures, the Native American Educational and Cultural Center, and the Indian Museum of North America. I’ll feature photos of the Museum in a later post. The nonprofit also manages the Indian University of North America.
One of my favorite things was a 1/34 scale model of the Crazy Horse sculpture. The size of the finished sculpture carved into the mountainside will be 641 feet long and 563 feet tall.
If you stand in just the right spot, you can capture an image that includes the scale model and the current sculpture.
Did you know you can reveal petroglyphs with a little digital magic? Yep, there’s an app for that. In this post, I’ll show you how I revealed several petroglyphs with the app, Rock Art Enhancer. Click through the slideshow of each image below.
In each of the first pictures, I show the original image. In the second, I used the Auto level and increase saturation tool. The third pictures show a variety of effects. All of these petroglyphs are located in southeast Oregon.
These petroglyphs were carved into rock thousands of years ago and over time they have become less clear. Unfortunately, the messages conveyed by many of these carvings are unknown. While some show obvious elements of wildlife, humans, and the sun, others are open to interpretation.
The first series shows petroglyphs on a rimrock cliff located in Harney County. The second effect brings out the details, but I prefer the almost psychedelic colors in the third image. The third effect used the Decorrelation Stretching (abbreviated as D. Stretch) YUV Custom tool.
Continue readingToday I’m sharing pictures taken at the Plains Indian Museum section of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This world-class museum has five sections focused on western history, culture, and the environment. It’s in Cody, Wyoming, a half an hour drive from the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
The theme this week for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is “low light.” Museums and galleries often have challenging lighting for taking photographs. I used my Samsung phone to take most of these photos since it does well in low light conditions. I’ll share some of my tips for taking and editing photos.
The first image shows a war lodge. Warriors made these temporary structures in wooded areas to hide their presence in enemy territory.
There was a reflection of a large blue screen on the right side of the image that I eliminated with my editing program, Corel PaintShop Pro 2021. I also used a vignette effect to direct viewers to the most interesting parts of this structure.
On a desert wander, clouds fill my head. A scrub jay calls to me in its raucous voice and my attention shifts. I stumble over a rock, plain and gray. The rock beckons me to pull it from the sandy soil. Just a rock, I think. Dark and hardened, like my thoughts. It’s stuck fast in the soil and I pry it loose with a juniper twig.
I cup the rock in my hand and feel its weight. Though it appeared ordinary in the soil, it is not. Other hands have held this rock. They chipped away the darkness to reveal a shining edge. My fingers trace its sharpness; an unforeseen treasure from the past brought to light. My desert wander turns to wonder. As dawn breaks, the clouds lining the horizon disappear.
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
In April 2019, I went on a field trip to see petroglyphs & pictographs in Harney County, in eastern Oregon. This is one of the many trips offered as a part of the Harney County Migratory Bird Festival. Our guides that day were Bureau of Land Management archaeologists, Scott Thomas and Carolyn Temple.
One of the first things we learned was the difference between petroglyphs and pictographs.
Pictographs, like the images shown below, are painted onto rocks. These works are generally drawn with red, black, white, or yellow paint.
Pictographs frequently include depictions of animals. For example, the drawing at the top of the picture below appears to be a lizard.
Wordless Wednesday
I’m featuring pictures of Plateau Indian beaded moccasins for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The challenge this week is “A labor of love.”
After so much was taken away from Native Americans, creating beadwork became a labor of love. They preserved parts of their culture by decorating everyday items.
Prior to the European invasion of North America, Native Americans decorated their clothing with shells, porcupine quills, and bones.
In 1847, the worst year of Ireland’s Great Famine, people of the Choctaw Nation of the southeastern United States sent a gift of $170 to Ireland. The money, worth thousands in today’s dollars, was collected to help the starving people of Ireland. Over a million Irish people died from starvation and disease in the period from 1845 to 1849.
Cork-based sculptor, Alex Pentek, created the Kindred Spirits sculpture to help honor that simple act of kindness. The Making of Kindred Spirits shows the artist discussing its creation. The 20-foot tall sculpture, in Midleton, County Cork, was unveiled to the public in 2017. It stands in Ballie Park beside a popular walking trail.
But why would the Choctaw have sent such a gift when many of their people were struggling to survive?
Continue reading
Wordless Wednesday
These beaded bags are some of my favorite works of art. The bags are part of a display at The Museum at Warm Springs. In this region, work with beads began in earnest in the early 1800s. The beads, created in the glass shops of Venice, Italy, were transported across oceans, mountains, and plains. Settlers, trappers, and explorers used them in trade.
When you look at these photos, you will notice something becoming more clear in the background. Right across from this display, there is a modern-day image showing members of the three tribes that live on the Warm Springs Reservation. You can see their reflections in my photos of the bags. It was almost as if they were looking over my shoulder making sure I noticed their presence.
This museum features parts of their history you probably didn’t learn about in school. It also shows their resilience and celebrates their heritage. These beaded bags are a part of their culture that preserve moments worth remembering.
This teepee made from tules is a re-creation of what Native Americans of Central Oregon once used as a home.
Tule bulrushes (pictured below at Hosmer Lake) grow along the shores of lakes, ponds, and waterways.
This plant was used to make teepees, baskets, mats, bedding, footwear, and clothing. Tules were also used medicinally, as a source of food, and in making boats.
