Big Sky Chronicles: Chief Joseph Sculpture

The Montana Historical Society recently acquired a sculpture based on the Nez Perce Chief Joseph. In tonight's Big Sky Chronicles Beartooth NBC reports this sculpture took a long and unusual journey before ending up in Montana's Museum.

Montana artist Bill Stockton saw the tragedies American Indians experienced.

"He always had a strong affiliation and a sense of remorse for what the Native Americans have gone through. Their way of life had been taken, their lands had been taken and a lot of his work focuses on that," says MT Historical Society, Tom Cook.

Tom Cook of the Montana Historical Society says their fourth Stockton piece reflects that sentiment. The sculpture, titled "From Where the Sun Now Stands, I will Fight No More Forever" after Chief Joseph's famous speech upon his tribe's capture, was on display at a Billings art retailer. But the store was broken in to and it was among the pieces stolen. It would take a tragedy a year later for the piece to resurface.

"The Sheriff's Department received a report that a young Indian boy had committed suicide by jumping off a bridge over the Yellowstone River," says Cook.

The authorities dragged the river to recover the boy, and they also found the sculpture.

"I always think of it as its hands coming out first, then the rest of the sculpture coming up out of the water and it must of been a very haunting and spiritual feeling for the people who recovered this as well," says Cook.

Cook says the rediscovery of the piece can be seen as a symbolic reflection of the history of Native Americans.

"The strength of their will and the coming back now of their power their appreciation for their language and their culture is coming back to us and this piece here, you can see it as coincidence or you can see it as a spiritual reawakening," says Cook.

Cook says the piece will eventually be on display at Montana's Museum.

The sculpture was donated to the Historical Society by longtime Montana journalist Kay Hansen. The artist, Bill Stockton, died in 2002.

Story by Kaelyn Kelly, Beartooth NBC.
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