The Hockaday Museum of Art invites everyone to travel back to the era of the fur trade and learn about the native material culture on the Plains. Mark Miller and Rod Douglas will be presenting "A Confluence of Cultures" on Thursday, February 11, 6:30 - 8:00 PM. Admission is free for members and teachers with current school ID; $5 for non-members. The presentation investigates what influence and change the Euro-American culture, in the form of the fur trade, brought to native people. The two presenters will also focus on the general economic effects during that time and the art that was produced. The presentation is offered to complement the Hockaday's Before It Was Montana exhibit, which displays art and artifacts from its Traveling Medicine Show outreach program for local schools.

Authentic and reproduction items that would be featured in Rod's lodge (or tee-pee) will be brought to share with the audience. These include firearms of the period, colorful European blankets and kettles, and painted parfleche folders and buffalo robes that have been tanned as the Indians did in the last century.

Rod Douglas is an active member of the American Mountain Man Association as well as being an ardent disciple of fur trade history. He has traveled the trails of the early fur trappers and explorers, across the mountains, streams and deserts of Western America on horseback, bull boat, dugout canoe and by foot. Douglas says "I hope that you will enjoy being transported to a time in history of the fur trappers and come away with a better understanding of how both cultures, white and Native, benefited from one another."

Mark Miller has been interested in American Indian material culture for as long as he can remember. He has been professionally engaged in the restoration and repair of antique American Indian art and offered his consultation services in that area since 1977. Working primarily with galleries and private collectors, Mark has also worked privately with native people and assisted with tribal projects.

The Hockaday Museum of Art is located in the cultural district of downtown Kalispell at 302 Second Ave East. It is housed in a 1904 Carnegie Library building that appears on the National Register of Historic Places. The Museum is a private nonprofit organization, open year-round, Tues-Sat from 10am-5pm. The mission of the Hockaday is to enrich the cultural life of our community and region, and preserve the artistic legacy of Montana and Glacier National Park. For more information, please visit www.HockadayMuseum.org or call 406-755-5268.