The Missoula Art Museum (MAM) in Missoula, Montana, had a special exhibition, Q̓ʷeyq̓ʷay ‘Buffalo’ is Our Good Medicine, which brought past and present into conversation, carrying forward cultural knowledge through storytelling, research, and material practice. This exhibition explored the profound importance of the buffalo to Tribal communities, specifically the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, through ledger art on paper and hide, sculpture, and multi-media works. One of the works in this exhibition was Sqelixʷ Salish History Count by Aspen Decker made in 2026 with Yellowstone bison hide, colored pencil, ink, acrylic paint, native paint pigment. According to MAM: “This piece reflects the history of the Salish people through a spiraling narrative.”

Aspen Decker is an enrolled member of the T̓at̓ayáqn, Ql̓isp̓é & Sqlsé (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes) and a Nsélišcn (Salish language) educator who holds a Montana Class 7 Native American Language and Cultural Educator license. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Tribal Historic Preservation from Salish Kootenai College and a master’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Montana.

Ojibwa Shown above Coyote and Fox travel in a canoe, representing the oral tradition of creation.Ojibwa Shown above, Salish women harvest bitterroot with the traditional digging sticks.Ojibwa Shown above are women processing bitterroot.Ojibwa Shown above is Little Falcon Robe bringing six buffalo calves back from the plains.Ojibwa Ojibwa Shown above: the Catholics establish a mission among the Salish.Ojibwa Ojibwa A buffalo jump scene is shown above: the women use warclubs to finish off any buffalo who survived the fall.Ojibwa Shown above is the 1805 meeting between the Salish and Lewis and Clark.Ojibwa Ojibwa Ojibwa Ojibwa Ojibwa Ojibwa The Salish first obtained horses from the Shoshones.Ojibwa Ojibwa According to MAM: “Tipis and red dots represent the devastation of smallpox, which took half of the population and led to the loss of entire Salish bands, including those from the Helena, Lincoln, and Great Falls areas, whose survivors joined the remaining Salish bands.”Ojibwa Ojibwa According to MAM: “Three women represent the 1974 protest led by elders Christine Woodcock, Louise McDonald, and Annie Pierre, which stopped the Ashley timber sale and led to the establishment of the Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness.” The airplane symbolizes Indian Relocation of the 1950s and 1960s in which Indian people were resettled in cities far from their homelands.Ojibwa Photographs taken on May 15, 2026.

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