Nestled in the heart of Montana's beautiful Bitterroot Valley, Sacajawea Gallery lies on the route of the historic Lewis and Clark expedition.

Featuring local and historical western artists, Sacajawea Gallery is committed to preserving the history and heritage of frontier Montana. In addition to traditional Western art, however, we make a special effort to highlight Native American artists of Montana and the surrounding region in the effort to recognize the unique cultural contributions of the original American people.

See “Reclamation” on display at D.A. Davidson & Co.’s offices at 1711 N. 1st St. in Hamilton beginning Dec. 31st.

Reclamation Showing   Sacajawea Gallery will be displaying “Reclamation”, a quilted 7' x 5' fiber and mixed media art piece by Judith Bingham Parkins. Traditional piecing and layering of the quilted fabrics are enhanced for the viewer with copper wire, beading and fabric treated with rust, bleach and dyes.

“Reclamation” is symbolic of man’s civilized intervention and the impact on the Clark Fork River at Milltown, Montana where the Milltown Dam was built in 1906 to generate power for sawmills in Milltown and Bonner. The reservoir behind the dam eventually immersed the Stimson Lumber Company’s dam, built to stop harvested logs from floating down the Blackfoot River beyond Bonner. The toxic sediment from more than 100 years of mining, milling and smelting operations in the Upper Clark Fork Valley also accumulated in the reservoir.

After Milltown’s community water supply was found to be contaminated in 1981, the EPA and State of Montana became involved, alternative sources for drinking water were secured. Then in 1996 a massive ice jam threatened the Milltown Dam and the City of Missoula. Releasing the water for safety precautions resulted in destruction of fifty percent of the fish population downstream. The EPA has formulated a plan to remove the Stimson and Milltown Dams. If successful, for the first time in over 100 years the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers will flow free.

This impressive quilt is filled with symbolic images of the bleached (ghost), rusted and dyed fish swimming through the dam and in the deep waters below it. It’s really a beautiful expression of a contemporary historical challenge in Montana.