Greetings,

As the weather cools down and the elections heat up, we are all aware of the changes in our region. This update describes recent work at the Center. We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions.

From all of us at the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, The University of Montana

THE Nez Perce Surrender
provided by William Farr

The five-month, 1,800-mile Nez Perce's flight from the U.S. Army over Lolo Pass ended on Oct. 5, 1877, when Chief Joseph (Heinmot Tooyalakekt) surrendered to Gen. Nelson Miles on the edge of the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana. The Nez Perce had been making their way north, dogged by U.S. soldiers, as they sought sanctuary in Canada, across the so-called "Medicine Line." They had fought four pitched battles, winning three. One was a draw and finally they had come within 40 miles of safety on the twisting, narrow Snake Creek, hard on the slope of the Bear Paws. There were about 700 people-men, women, and children-but of these there were less than 250 warriors.



By Sept. 30 Cheyenne scouts with Gen. Miles had located the Nez Perce's camp on Snake Creek and Miles prepared for battle with about 400 men, many of whom were already tired. The initial assault failed and Miles settled in for a siege. He had already inflicted significant losses-one being the capture of the Nez Perce horse herd by the Cheyenne scouts. Hemene Moxmox (Yellow Wolf) reported, "Everything was against us. No hope! Only bondage or death."

In this situation Gen. Miles decided to try to force negotiations and a surrender. The Nez Perce were not of one mind, although Chief Joseph wanted to talk. The talks came to nothing.

Amid snow and cold winds, the Nez Perce camp suffered. "Children cried with cold and hunger. Misery everywhere." The siege dragged on, interrupted only by cannon fire and by Oct. 4 Gen. Miles's forces were joined by Gen. O. O. Howard, who was convinced that he could effect a surrender.

The next day, Oct. 5, with fresh troops on the way, Gen. Miles and Howard wanted to negotiate. Still no consensus. Looking Glass, White Bird, and many others would listen to no talk of surrender. The bands would have to make up their own mind. The last casualty was Looking Glass, killed by one of the Cheyenne scouts working for the U.S. Army in a strange case of mistaken identity. Looking Glass had believed the Sioux were coming to the Nez Perce's aid and rose up from the rifle pit for a better look and was shot down.

It was up to Chief Joseph. By 2:00, Joseph took his rifle, mounted his horse and rode slowly toward Howard and Miles. When he arrived, he held out his rifle in token of submission first to Howard and then Miles, who took it. It was here that Joseph offered what has become known as his surrender speech:

"Tell Gen. Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No." He who led the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are-perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."

upcoming events

On Oct. 2^nd in Butte, Mont., Senior Fellow Pat Williams will give the keynote address at the Governor's Restoration Economy Conference held on the Montana Tech campus.

On Oct. 2^nd, Center Director Larry Swanson will speak during the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Billings Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau. The meeting is focused upon legislative needs of the City of Billings. Swanson will discuss how local option tax authority could be used as a tool for investing in a growing Billings.

On Oct. 7^th in Missoula, Mont., Swanson will participate in a meeting focused on building urban-rural partnerships in Missoula County. Leaders from the Seeley Lake community and City of Missoula will explore how they can better work together to achieve mutual needs. The meeting is being organized and hosted by the Regional Community Foundation.

On Oct. 8^th in Hamilton, Mont., Swanson will speak at a gathering organized by Farmers State Bank and other businesses in the Bitterroot Valley. Business leaders and others are invited to the meeting, which will explore prospects for a slowing economy in the area, tied to the national economic slowdown and credit market crunch.

On Oct. 9^th in Missoula, Mont., Swanson will speak to the 2008 class of Leadership Missoula, discussing the history of the Missoula area economy and its growth and change over the last 30 years. Leadership Missoula is a program of the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce.

On Oct. 10^th in Missoula, Mont., Swanson will serve as a table speaker for a fundraiser being held by St. Patrick's Hospital.

On Oct. 10-12^th near West Yellowstone, Mont., Williams will host the Progressive Leaders Seminar Series. This fall's gathering is held at the B-Bar Ranch, north of Yellowstone National Park. 

On Nov. 14^th in Helena, Mont., Senior Fellows Bob Brown and Daniel Kemmis will participate in the orientation of newly elected members of the Montana Legislature. Brown is a former President of the Montana Senate, and Kemmis is a former Speaker of the Montana House of Representatives.

On Oct. 14^th in Great Falls, Mont., Swanson will speak to and participate in a meeting being convened by the Rural Funders Collaborative, which is funding community development work by the Indian Land Tenure Foundation and Native American Community Development Corp. on three of Montana's Indian reservations.

On Oct. 16^th in Bozeman, Mont., Swanson will serve as a table speaker for a fundraiser by Montana State University and the MSU Library.

On Oct. 24^th in Missoula, Mont., Swanson will be a panelist and speaker at the NewWest Real Estate Conference, sponsored by NewWest.net. Larry will be discussing trends shaping the real estate market in western Montana.

On Oct. 28^th in Billings, Mont., Swanson will participate in a meeting between leaders in Billings and several surrounding towns and communities on ways to partner in their efforts to move the region forward. The meeting is organized by the Billings area Regional Community Foundation.

On Nov. 6^th in Helena, Mont., Swanson will speak at a meeting of the Institute for Transportation Engineers. He will discuss key trends in the region helping to shape transportation planning.

On Nov. 18^th in Missoula, Mont., as part of the Center's history and culture lecture program, Clyde Milner and Carol O'Connor will present "As Big As The West: The Pioneer Life of Granville Stuart." Granville Stuart (1834-1918) is a quintessential Western figure who embodied many of the contradictions of America's westward expansion. Stuart's life encompasses the mining camps of Gold Rush California, exploits as a cattleman in Montana Territory, including his role as the leader of a vigilante force that was responsible for several hangings in 1884, his government service as the U.S. Minister to Paraguay and Uruguay, and his memoir Forty Years on the Frontier. Milner and O'Connor are professors of history at Arkansas State University. A book signing will follow their presentation for their recent book, As Big As The West: The Pioneer Life of Granville Stuart, which will be available for purchase at the event. The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the North Underground Lecture Hall at The University of Montana and is free and open to the public.

On Nov. 19^th in Missoula, Mont., Swanson will speak at a gathering of the 2008 class of Leadership Montana. Leadership Montana is a statewide, on-going program that organizes new classes of key leaders from across Montana each year into learning groups. The program is sponsored by First Interstate BancSystem. Swanson will discuss key trends shaping the Montana economy and growth patterns within the state.

Senior Fellow Pat Williams lectured to classes chosen by the Washington Center. The classes were held in Denver during the last week in August.

Williams is offering a special fall semester class within Continuing Education. The class is titled Congress and This Year's Elections. Williams also teaches History of Wilderness Policy and Concepts, EVST 295.

Williams has joined the advisory board of the group Forward Montana as they seek to create an intern-fellowship program, Legi Corps, for the upcoming Montana Legislature.

regional trends

Construction "Boom" - "Bust"?

The bursting of the U.S. housing bubble is being reflected in falling home values, rising foreclosures, and deteriorating credit conditions in U.S. and world financial markets. Housing values went up and up so reliably that no one hesitated to finance a mortgage backed by these rising values. However, what goes up ultimately must come down and the downward spiral in the value of housing is leading to drastic declines in new housing starts and a marked slowdown in the U.S. construction industry. The chart below looks at the U.S. construction industry, as measured by labor earnings of all who are employed in the industry. Their earnings steadily and consistently rose from around $200 billion in the early '90s to a high of $554 billion in the first quarter of 2006, which turns out to be the peak level of activity in the construction industry.

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center in the news 

The Wall Street Bailout: What About Main Street? - New West, Sept. 23, 2008

Financial fall: Local investors assess damage - Billings Gazette, Sept. 16, 2008

Canada almost failed major test of democracy - The Star.com, Sept. 13, 2008

Panelists: Flexibility needed on local option tax - Missoulian, Sept. 12, 2008

Summit takes look at local-option tax - Billings Gazette, 
Sept. 12, 2008

Top Economists, Plum Creek CEO Featured at NewWest.Net's Third Annual Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies Conference - New West, Sept. 10, 2008

Palin pick may have torpedoed Dems' strategy - Salt Lake Tribune, Sept. 7, 2008

Gazette Opinion: Let's talk about advantages of local tax control - Billings Gazette, Sept. 7, 2008

Palin's Western background could provide GOP boost in November - Grand Junction Sentinel, Sept. 3, 2008

States Capitalize on the Energy Boom to Expand Training and Research - The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac, 2008

Democrats focus on Rocky Mountain West - Los Angeles Times, Aug. 24, 2008

DNC: How the West is won - Star Tribune, Aug. 24, 2008

Conference looks at how early 20th century photography shaped view of Blackfeet - Great Falls Tribune, Aug. 22, 2008

Western Voters Could be Up for Grabs for Obama and McCain - US News and World Report, Aug. 9, 2008

On Sept. 30^th in Missoula, Mont., Center Director Larry Swanson guest-lectured at a UM class on Montana Geography, discussing the state's economic transformation over the last two decades.

On Sept. 30^th in Pocatello, Idaho, Senior Fellow Daniel Kemmis delivered the annual lecture sponsored by Idaho Yesterdays, a journal of Rocky Mountain history and culture. Kemmis' lecture, entitled "Have we Rediscovered the Lost Trail?" focused on John Wesley Powell's recommendations over a century ago that the West should be organized according to watersheds, and the way the region seems to be rediscovering that long-ignored wisdom.  In addition to delivering the Tuesday evening lecture, Kemmis also visited American Studies and political science classes and had an opportunity to meet with local planners.

On Sept. 29^th in Whitefish, Mont., Swanson spoke at the annual meeting of the Central States Compensation Commission, a 17-state body made up of state human resource department personnel who collaborate on annual wage and salary surveys. He discussed the construction industry slowdown and its variable impacts on U.S. States.

On Sept. 27^th near Choteau, Mont., Kemmis spoke to a group of staff and donors of the Montana Wilderness Association.He discussed recent trends in natural resource and public land management.

On Sept. 25^th in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Kemmis moderated a session on "Faith and Philanthropy" at the annual conference of Philanthropy Northwest. On Sept. 26^th, at the same conference, he moderated a session with Congressional staffers discussing pending legislation and congressional inquiries into the philanthropic sector. Finally, Kemmis made a presentation on lessons learned in recent years by foundations, focusing particularly on lessons about how to make philanthropy a more effective agent for change in rural and reservation communities.

On Sept. 23^rd from Missoula, Mont., Swanson spoke to a meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, organized by Pascal Observatory. The meeting included representatives from 14 countries representing 18 regions, who are collaborating in a Pascal program referred to as "PURE" (Pascal Universities Regional Engagement Project). The universities and the regions they represent will spend two years evaluating how they are currently providing "service" to their regions and how they can strategically enhance how universities can best advance social and economic development objectives of the regions in which they are located.

On Sept. 22^nd in Missoula, Mont., Senior Fellow Pat Williams co-hosted a reception for Prof. John Leshy, the main speaker at this year's Public Land Law Review Conference.

On Sept. 17^th in Indianapolis, Ind., Kemmis was a co-presenter at the annual conference of the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals. This year's conference, "Galaxy III" was devoted to "celebrating the Extension System, its strengths, diversity, and unique qualities." Kemmis' session was entitled "Creating, Building, and Sustaining a Thriving Rural Community." The session examined styles of community leadership that can contribute to reducing poverty in rural and reservation communities with histories of economic decline and significant population change.

On Sept. 15^th in Great Falls, Mont., Daniel Kemmis made a presentation to "New to Montana," an annual gathering of pastors recently assigned or called to Montana. The event was sponsored by the Montana Association of Churches. Kemmis spoke about community-building in Montana, past, present and future.

On Sept. 9^th in Helena, Mont., Swanson presented information and analysis on the need and potential for Local Option Tax authority in Montana. Many local governments in Montana are facing severe constraints in meeting the needs of growing communities and are exploring the potential for expanded local option tax authority in the state as a possible remedy. The presentation was part of a "Tax Summit" meeting organized and sponsored by the Billings Chamber of Commerce and other area chambers throughout Montana.

On Sept. 9^th in Missoula, Mont., Williams spoke in favor of passage of the six-mill levy on the University Oval at an event sponsored by ASUM.

On Aug. 22^nd in Browning, Mont., Center Associate Director Bill Farr was a featured speaker at the annual Piegan Institute's conference entitled "Sinaaki" or "Images." The conference explored photographs and artists of the Blackfeet-their images and their impact. Farr's talk focused on the life and career of Walter McClintock, author of The Old North Trail, first published in 1910.

On Aug. 12^th in Missoula, Mont., Swanson participated in a strategic planning meeting for Community Medical Center. Swanson is a member of the hospital's strategic planning committee.

On Aug. 11^th in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Williams met with members and staff of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to discuss Landscape Restoration.

On Aug. 5^th in Poplar, Mont., at the Fort Peck Community College, Swanson participated in a community planning and visioning forum organized by the Native American Community Development Corp. (NADC) and Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF). Swanson gave the opening presentation on future challenges and opportunities for community improvement in Poplar. Members of the Fort Peck Tribal council, the Poplar City Council, and Roosevelt County Commission, along with representatives of other organizations doing business and community development work in the area, participated in the daylong forum. Breakout group sessions facilitated by planners with CTA Architects were conducted, identifying key needs and opportunities facing Poplar and the surrounding area as it plans for the future.

" There are some areas in B.C. that you won't see a green forest again until 2050, so obviously we don't want that to happen in Alberta."

" The goal is to get in, get out and not come back. We don't want to be the reason for a decline in the herds."

" As goes Colorado, so goes the West, as far as this energy policy debate."

" You never think when you live in a subdivision with 1,000 homes that you're going to be evacuated."

" Nature always bats last. We need to rethink our strategies and let forests be forests."

" The thing that scares me about this is getting a bear inside with a bunch of dudes running around and screaming."

" This is the first regulation in the country that takes wildlife into account in oil and gas drilling."