GREAT FALLS – Due to safety concerns and low flows, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks staff discourages any floating on the Smith River. The Meagher County Sheriff’s office issued a pre-evacuation notice for the Smith River corridor from Camp Baker to the confluence with Blacktail Creek due to the Ellis Fire, which had grown to nearly 900 acres Sunday.  

The portion of the Smith River from the confluence of the North and South forks to Eden Bridge south of Great Falls remains closed to all fishing daily from 2 p.m. to midnight because of low flows and high water temperatures. The gauge at Eagle Creek is measuring 55 cubic feet per second and well below what is recommended for floating.

More restrictions due to the fire are possible. For more information on the Ellis Fire, visit https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7625/.

Montana State University Extension is accepting applications from rural Montana communities to participate in the Reimagining Rural virtual gathering planned for this fall.

The virtual gathering is a series of three evening events where people come together in their communities to listen to virtual speakers discuss positive examples of successful rural communities. Following the speakers, local groups each have a facilitated conversation about how those ideas might work in their community. Sessions are planned from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 13, Sept. 27 and Oct. 4. Any community in Montana is welcome to apply, and participation is free.

“People who are passionate about creating vibrant, robust rural places, growing local capacity and who are eager to learn, connect and lead local change will find some great inspiration through Reimagining Rural,” said Jennifer Anderson, MSU Extension agent for Rosebud and Treasure counties and an organizer of the virtual program. “These local leaders often can’t make the trip to the conferences held in larger communities because they have businesses to run or jobs they can’t leave, but Reimagining Rural brings those ideas to any town, no matter how remote.”

More than 230 people participated in the Reimagining Rural virtual gathering in 2020, with socially distanced events in 24 communities. 

“Participants came away with a new awareness of the positive things that are happening in rural communities,” said Tara Mastel, MSU Extension community development program lead and planning team member. “They were surprised to learn about rural ‘brain gain’ of people aged 30-49 moving to rural communities, the importance of arts and culture to rural places and the strong desire people have to enjoy a rural lifestyle. These new ways of thinking about their community inspired leaders to start new projects and engage new leaders to work toward a more vibrant future.”

Reimagining Rural is made possible through a collaboration among MSU Extension, the Burton K. Wheeler Center and the Montana Community Foundation. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available to support the event.

To learn more or to download the application, visit msuextension.org/communitydevelopment/reimagine-rural.html.

More information is also available by contacting Mastel at tara.mastel@montana.edu.

Kari Maxwell will be heading west with her herd for the Bozeman Art Walk, Friday August 13, 4-8pm at Cello, 2 West Main Street.


With representation in Bozeman for over a decade, many are familiar with Kari Maxwell’s cow paintings. In the fall of 2018, bison made their way into the artist’s repertoire as well as the occasional fox, horse and wolf.

Maxwell plans to travel west, from Minneapolis to Bozeman, the week of August 9 with twenty paintings of her most recent work. These will be on exhibit the afternoon and evening of August 13 at Cello at 2 West Main Street as part of the Bozeman Art Walk.

Kari Maxwell and her husband, Peter Maxwell, lived in Bozeman in the nineties where Kari was a teacher at Great Beginnings Montessori School and Peter was a coach with the Bridger Ski Foundation. It wasn’t until after their move to Minneapolis (and with frequent trips back to Bozeman), that Kari received representation: first with the then gallery, Artifacts on East Main and now with Cello.


Regarding her cow paintings (and now the bison), Maxwell states, “My intent is to remind the viewer that although every individual is more than likely part of a group, they are most importantly, a unique individual. Perhaps these groups of animals we sometimes overlook can be seen differently. Perhaps instead of noticing herds, flocks or colonies, we’ll begin to notice individuals and all the quirks and idiosyncrasies in each being which are necessary when creating a whole.”


A few years ago, Maxwell read this excerpt from the book, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, that seemed to connect many of the dots for her regarding her work:

"...in the Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as 'the younger brothers of creation'. We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn - we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way they live. They teach us by example."

In addition to being a visual artist, Maxwell is an educator and creative coach. In 2013, she founded The Create Everyday Classroom in Minneapolis where she teaches intuitive art to students ages 4 - 12 years. Her curriculum is based on museum visits (the Minneapolis Institute of Art), artist studies, children’s books and art making methods.

For more information, visit @karimaxwell_artist on instagram
Kari Maxwell, visual artist on Facebook
Her blog titled, Create Everyday
Maxwell is available via email at karimaxwell@mac.com

NASA's ambitious goal of establishing a sustained human presence on Mars in the 2030s will involve landing a spacecraft on the distant planet without burning up the crew, producing food and breathable air amid an inhospitable environment, even making rocket fuel from the Martian atmosphere to power the journey home.

But one the greatest challenges may involve something that is no more than a nuisance on Earth — microbes.

When humans embark on the 2.5-year mission to the Red Planet, they'll carry all the water they need for the 34-million-mile trip, continually recycling it through pipes, tanks and filters. Anyone with household plumbing knows what happens in that environment over time.

"It starts to get all slimy, like if you don't clean your kitchen sink for a while," said Montana State University researcher Madelyn Mettler, who has spent the past year studying microbes sampled from the International Space Station.

The slime is more than gross — it can cause major problems. A water valve on the space station failed because it clogged with the stuff, and at the end of its 15 years in orbit, the interior of the Russian space station Mir was coated in microbial gunk.

"It can really wreak havoc on the equipment," said Mettler, a doctoral student in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in MSU's Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering.

That's why Mettler and a team of scientists in MSU's Center for Biofilm Engineering have partnered with NASA to explore specialized material coatings and other strategies for preventing microbial buildup in spacecraft water systems. Mettler will present preliminary findings from the study at the CBE's Montana Biofilm Meeting on July 13-15.

Mettler's research currently focuses on whether various coatings can prevent buildup of two microbes — a bacteria and a yeast — that are commonly found on the space station. The microbes grow together cooperatively to form a slimy mat called a biofilm. By growing the biofilm in the lab on wafers coated with various materials designed to deter the microbes, Mettler can then measure how effective the coatings are. The coatings generally work by having sharp, microscopic spikes that pierce the cell walls of the microbes.

"We were surprised at how well the coatings worked at first," Mettler said. But biofilm did eventually form even on the coatings. The researchers think the cause is the microbes dying on the coating surface and piling up to form a protective layer, Mettler said.

On Earth, a variety of chemicals can be used to help control biofilms, which are notoriously harder to kill than individual bacteria. But on a spacecraft, where water is being recycled for drinking, those chemicals present other problems, Mettler said. Trying to simply scrub out pipes and valves in a cramped space capsule is also problematic.

"I think it could require using a combination of just about every control strategy we know of," said project leader Brent Peyton, professor in the chemical and biological engineering department. That includes coatings, perhaps chemicals for water treatment that can be generated on demand, restricting the nutrients in the water, as well as using ultraviolet light and even high-frequency sound waves to inhibit the biofilm. "But we're hopeful there are solutions," he said. Other MSU researchers have begun collaborating with NASA scientists on some of those strategies, making the coating research part of a larger MSU effort to help the space agency wipe away the biofilm problem.

After learning about the space station biofilm problem from a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist at a conference roughly four years ago, NASA scientists were invited to the annual Montana Biofilm Meeting, which brings together dozens of industry representatives, researchers and government officials to exchange the latest findings in biofilm science. In 2019, NASA scientists stayed at MSU after the meeting for a special workshop on spacecraft biofilms. Mettler, then an MSU undergraduate working in Peyton's lab, joined the project before earning her bachelor's in biological engineering from MSU in 2020, and stayed on to conduct the research in Peyton's lab as a graduate student.

Mettler said she looks forward to the Montana Biofilm Meeting each year. "It's amazing how much we're able to learn from each other, and there are so many collaborations that form from those exchanges," she said. This year, she expects lively and productive conversation among the scientists from MSU and NASA.

The Montana Biofilm Meeting is being held virtually this year. Information, including about required registration, can be found at biofilm.montana.edu.

Gallatin Valley offers an incredible array of outdoor activities, but we must balance our individual enjoyment of our public lands and outdoor access with the impacts our increased recreation is having on these shared resources. As the Gallatin Valley population continues to grow, our community’s outdoor code of conduct and culture will be more and more important so that we protect the very things that make living and playing here so special.

Several groups, including Gallatin Valley Land Trust, One Montana, Bridger Ski Foundation and Southwest Montana Mountain Biking Association, have joined forces to create the Outside Kind Alliance. This alliance is streamlining trail etiquette messaging for all user groups, reaching a larger audience by working across organizations, and reminding both established and new users that being kind and considerate outside benefits everyone.

“For years, and particularly in the last year and half, we’ve seen growing pressure on the trails throughout our region. This Alliance reminds us that through kindness and respect for one-another, we can all enjoy our shared outdoor spaces, regardless of whether we like to hike, run or bike the trails,” says Chet Work, Executive Director at the Gallatin Valley Land Trust.

The primary goal of Outside Kind is to share best practices, principles and tips for enjoying the outdoors together. Whether you wish to encourage your friends and family or visiting guests to hike kind, ride kind, ski kind, wag kind, etc., Outside Kind offers the community consistent and clear guidelines around outdoor activities and positive local ethics.

The Outside Kind website, www.outsidekind.org, has an Outside Kind quiz which lets locals and visitors alike test their knowledge about outdoor etiquette and ethics. Outdoor lovers can sign the Outside Kind Pledge and sign up to become an OK Ambassador. Learn more at outsidekind.org. Be Outside Kind Gallatin Valley!

Outside Kind is facilitated by One Montana with the support of GVLT and currently includes the following organizations:
Bridger Ski Foundation
City of Bozeman
Friends of Hyalite
Gallatin Valley Land Trust
One Montana
Queers & Camo
Run Dog Run
Southwest Montana Mountain Bike Association
US Forest Service
Winter Wildlands Alliance

 Stage-1 fire restrictions in effect until further notice 



WHITEHALL – Stage-1 fire restrictions will be in effect until further notice at most Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks properties in Jefferson County beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, July 10, due to high fire danger.  This follows Stage-1 fire restrictions being implemented by Jefferson County. Stage-1 restrictions ban campfires except where specifically exempted and allow smoking only in vehicles and areas 3 feet in diameter that are cleared of flammable materials. An exemption is in place for Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park, where campfires are allowed within established campfire rings. Campfires are banned at fishing access sites in Jefferson County. Gas or propane stoves that can be turned on and off are still allowed. Fireworks are always prohibited at FWP sites. Affected fishing access sites in Jefferson County include: Limespur, Mayflower Bridge, Parrot Castle, Piedmont Pond and Sappington Bridge.  

Leo Killsback, associate professor in Montana State University’s Department of Native American Studies, has won the 2021 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize for his two-volume history of the Cheyenne Nation.

Awarded by the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the prize recognizes Killsback's “A Sacred People: Indigenous Governance, Traditional Leadership and the Warriors of the Cheyenne Nation” and “A Sovereign People: Indigenous Nationhood, Traditional Law and the Covenants of the Cheyenne Nation.” Both books were published by Texas Tech University Press in 2020.

The Stubbendieck award carries a cash prize of $10,000. Killsback also has been invited to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln this fall to lecture on the books’ topics.

Killsback specializes in research about Indigenous governance, traditional law, sovereignty and treaty rights. An enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Killsback grew up in Busby on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. He graduated from MSU in 2003 and returned to MSU in 2020 from Arizona State University, where he held an academic appointment from 2010 to 2020, earning tenure and promotion to associate professor.

The Center for Great Plains Studies said the prize “celebrates the most outstanding work about the Great Plains” during the past year as chosen by an independent group of scholars.

“This is a humbling, ennobling work — grounded in the indivisibility of the Cheyenne Nation and the Great Plains,” said book prize committee chair Patty Simpson, professor of modern languages at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Simpson also formerly taught at MSU. “Killsback’s work disseminates a growing sense of urgency about the academic and activist dimensions of Indigenous scholarship and the imperative to understand in a new way the significance of the very ground beneath our feet. We congratulate him on this achievement.”

Henrietta Mann, a noted Indian scholar, as well as professor emeritus in Native American Studies at MSU and the first Endowed Chair of Native American Studies at MSU, commended Killsback’s work as significant in its contribution to the continuum of Cheyenne history. Mann is an elder of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.

“Dr. Killsback’s two-volume book is an answer to the Cheyenne ancestral vision that wanted their descendants to live harmoniously with time and to carry their sacred and secular history in both their hearts and minds,” Mann said. “Further, as keepers of ancestral wisdom, today’s scholars are expected to teach the forthcoming generations, a task Dr. Leo Killsback has fulfilled in his two books that transmit the Cheyenne Nation’s walk through time from an oral tradition to a written format. As but one of the Cheyenne people’s elders, I am delighted his scholarship has resulted in a prestigious award, celebrating his melding of the older with the contemporary, thus, accomplishing a commendable task.”

Killsback said he was honored to be selected for the prize because it is important that Indigenous histories, experiences and voices are recognized as new horizons in scholarship are reached in Great Plains and Native American studies.

“As an Indigenous scholar, I will continue to contribute research and scholarship that is meaningful and significant to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples,” he said.

Killsback has spent nearly a decade conducting research and adapting his doctoral dissertation into the books. He combed archives at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the National Anthropological Archives in Maryland. He also interviewed and collaborated with more than 80 elders, teachers and spiritual leaders for the books.

Killsback said the titles of the books were selected to highlight two aspects of the Cheyenne people: their spirituality and their sovereignty. However, Killsback said, “the purpose of the books serves to preserve the Cheyenne culture and ways of life, should they befall any more catastrophes beyond colonization and policies of forced assimilation.”

Killsback said he didn’t know how timely the books would be when he began. In the past two years, many friends and members of his community died during the pandemic.

“I wanted to write something in case our people and culture were threatened again, not thinking that we would face threats at this juncture of time,” Killsback said. “I also wanted to contribute something that all Native people could benefit from, learn from and keep our traditions and philosophies alive while trying to reinvigorate and revive them.

“We go to our (Cheyenne) traditions in times of need and pain and in times of healing. Most certainly now (at the end of the pandemic) is a time of healing.”

Killsback said the impact of the epidemic on his community motivated him to start Society of War Dancers, a nonprofit. He worked closely with Bozeman-based Hopa Mountain to provide COVID-19 relief to the Northern Cheyenne community in the form of face masks, vitamin C and other supplies.

Killsback said that while he had searched for a publisher for the book project since 2012, he has been interested in issues of American Indian sovereignty for even longer, reaching back to his years as a student at MSU. Prior to his graduation in 2003, he won a Rockefeller Brothers Fellowship for Minorities Entering the Teaching Profession. A paper he submitted to Brett Walker, MSU Regents Professor of history, on cultural perceptions of non-Indians as well as Indians toward animals was presented to a Future Indigenous Voices Conference. Killsback said he considered attending law school, but instead he chose to pursue academia.

“I decided we need more Native scholars who can conduct research and contribute directly to their communities and to Native people,” he said. He attended the University of Arizona, where he received his master’s degree and doctorate in American Indian Studies.

While in Arizona Killsback met his wife, fellow Native scholar Cheryl Bennett of the Navajo and Comanche nations. Bennett researches jurisdictional issues, sovereignty and hate crimes in Indian Country. Both professors moved to MSU’s Department of Native American Studies in the College of Letters and Science in fall of 2020. Killsback said he wanted to be near the Northern Cheyenne community where he remains active ceremonially and socially, and where he continues to be involved in the preservation and resurgence of Cheyenne language and culture.

“I also want to help expand and help advance the discipline of Native American studies, scholarship, teaching and service, especially in Montana,” he said.

Killsback said while the two award-winning volumes are his first books, they will not be his last. He is under contract with the University of Nebraska Press to write two more books about the Cheyenne oral tradition and stories. He plans to write one of the books in the Cheyenne language. In the meantime, he will also be working to advance Native American issues in his and other Native communities from his MSU base.

“My goal is to help reinvigorate our communities and secure a healthy and prosperous future for the generations to come,” Killsback said.

For more information on the award or the Center for Great Plains Studies, click here.

Wine is a fermented grape juice served as an alcoholic beverage. The taste experience of the wine depends on the type of grape and the overall winemaking process. However, this is not to say that drinking wine same as taking alcoholic beverages. Wine gives you a more enjoyable experience. If you are new in the industry, this guide will enhance your experience on the basics of wine. There’s a much you didn’t know about wine. Each variety from wine shop Australia comes with varying characteristics. In this guide, the focus is on how to get yourself a perfect wine as a beginner.

Preparation for Wine Tasting
If you want to buy wine like a pro then learning how to taste and evaluate a glass of wine is paramount. Before you make your first sip, it’s essential to set yourself in the right tasting environment. Prepare the circumstances surrounding your wine tasting exercise that may have a potential effect on your impressions of the wine. For example, it is so difficult to concentrate in a noisy or crowded room. Foreign smell and odor from perfume and pet can interfere with your ability to get the sense of wine’s aromas. A wrong-shaped glass can also affect the wine’s flavor. Before wine testing takes place, try to neutralize the conditions as much as possible to give the wine a fair chance to stand on its own.

How to Buy Wine
Before buying wine there, there are a few factors to consider, including occasion, budget, and preferences. The type of wine you buy during the party is a different thing you will buy when you want to have your pasta on the weekend. Besides, wine comes with a varying price range. Don’t buy what you can’t afford. Go for excellent options that don’t break the bank. Pick your preferred taste, and don’t take what you don’t like. Finally, buying cabernet sauvignon wine is not the best idea since it doesn’t go with pasta sauce. Choose the right wine if you want to use it with food.

How to Serve the Wine
Wine should be served in its absolute best condition. There is three wine service to pay attention to when serving including; the glassware, temperature, and preservation. First, each wine brand has got something spectacular to offer. Choosing the right wine glasses which are specifically shaped can help accentuate those characteristics. Secondly, while you can store all wine simultaneously, reds and whites are better served at quite different temperatures. Most people prefer taking white wines when too cold and red wines when too warm. While not everyone has a thermometer on hand, a good rule of thumb is to ensure white wines are chilled before drinking, and red wines should have time to rise in temperature.

Learning To Preserve the Wine
After enjoying your day, the chances are that you will have some leftovers wines in the bottles. to avoid several trips to wine shop Australia, you need to preserve your future use. Any wine happens to deteriorate when it comes into contact with air. You can slow down the spoilage rate when you use a quick vacuum pump to suck out the excess air. The less air in the wine bottle after opening, the longer it stays.