291125 - Topic: Glacier Park Winter

So here we are nearing the end of November, and up high in the Northern Rockies (the climate of the North American continent being what it is) we can all anticipate a significant chance of cold temperatures and an ample amount of snow. Shall the welcoming lodges and chalets of Glacier National Park be cheerfully warmed by roaring fires, and staffed with stout and eager young bellhops, and the rosy-cheeked, smiling visages of adorable young college lasses on break from their university studies?

Uhmmm….. no.

It’s the off-season. They call it that for a reason. Everything is pretty much, you know, turned off. The lights are off, the heating is off (or at least very low), the “Open” signs in the gift shops are off … you get the idea. Nothing stirring but the caretaker and some assorted non-hibernating wild animals.

Many Glacier Hotel in the winter. GPI photo

The original press release for this episode included the following:

Blizzards and snow tie up the unorthodox excursion at the caretakers’ quarters at Many Glacier, many miles from the railroad, but there the radio brings them Andy Sannella’s orchestra and Bob MacGimsey, the three-part harmony whistler. Chief Two-Guns White Calf, whose likeness appears on the buffalo nickels, tells the Old Timer a Blackfoot legend of a winter of long ago.

[stay with me here, but that whole nickel thing is not all that it seems to be . . .]

What better time of year to make a special journey out to north central Montana, to travel into one of the most remote areas of the park, and spend one’s honeymoon? See for yourself; here’s the opening of the evening’s broadcast:

ANNOUNCER:

The Great Northern Railway presents Empire Builders, with Andy Sannella and his orchestra, and Bob MacGimsey, harmony whistler.

(MUSIC FADE INTO DEPARTING TRAIN EFFECT)

TOM:                  (Disgustedly)  There goes the train, my dear. Take a long last look at that!

DOROTHY:         (Enthusiastically)  Oh, Tom! It’s snowing!

TOM:                  (Sarcastically)  Well, isn’t that nice! Of all the places in the world for a honeymoon, you have to pick the Rocky Mountains in midwinter!  (PAUSE)  Whew! Snowing is right!

DOROTHY:         Now, Tom, don’t be so critical! You know I’ve wanted to get out here in winter for a long time. After all, novelists are entitled to a little consideration, even if they are women with husbands! And we had such a time arranging to get into Glacier Park at this time of the year.

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. In addition to the notion of this being the couple’s honeymoon, newlywed Dorothy turns out to be an aspiring writer with the intention of drawing inspiration and atmosphere from a national park icebox.

But as you might suspect, the plot thickens. They have arranged for none other than the Old Timer to accompany them on their journey from the friendly conveyance of a warm Great Northern train to the locale of Many Glacier Hotel, situated on the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake. The party was ferried there in one of the park’s ubiquitous red busses and its able driver.

Although Thanksgiving was still a few days off, the characters in this story were already contemplating Christmas (not unlike today, where most of the major news services are devoting considerable time to “Black Friday,” and at least one local radio station where I live started several days ago playing non-stop Christmas music). Here Dorothy describes the beautiful scenery found in the unsullied and tourist-free views along the 55-mile trip to Swiftcurrent Lake:

DOROTHY:          Tom, just look at those mountains over there! It must have been just like this hundreds of years ago, when only the Indians lived here. Oh, I feel that I really am seeing the Park, this way. Look at the snow on those trees. How it sparkles! They look like great tall Christmas trees – tinsel and all!

Well, about this point in our story there came a confluence of key characters – both real and fictitious. In fact, even one of the real ones was fictitious (once again, stay with me here for a moment longer…). Dorothy was aching to hear a real Blackfeet myth – but first, she and Tom helped perpetuate one that the GN was primarily responsible for:

DOROTHY:          M’m! Nice and warm here in the cabin, isn’t it? And isn’t that log fire cheerful? Oh, here’s the Old Timer, and Chief Two Guns.

TOM:                    He reminds me of somebody.

DOROTHY:          (PAUSE)  I know. Give me a nickel.

TOM:                    A nickel! What on earth! Here . . .

DOROTHY:          (Triumphantly)  There’s his picture!

TOM:                    Well, can you imagine that! I knew I’d seen that face somewhere. The Indian on the nickel. I’ll be darned.



Two Guns White Calf - there is a resemblance, but ...

Once everyone was settled in at Ranger Jim’s caretaker cabin, Dorothy decided it was time to see if she could get some good material to write about. She approached the Old Timer:

DOROTHY:          (Whispers)  Mr. Old Timer, can’t you get Chief Two Guns to tell us a story? I want to hear an Indian legend – a real one, from a real Indian!

PIONEER:            Well, Ma’am, I asked him a while ago, and he said he would. He doesn’t speak much English, but Chief Owen Heavy Breast, here, will translate for us.

So before we go much further, a couple comments about Two Guns White Calf. Yes, it was claimed for many years, in virtually every conceivable venue, that he was the model for James Earle Fraser’s Plains Indian portrait that first appeared on the 1913 “buffalo nickel.” What a coup for the imaginative PR man of the GN, Hoke Smith. He told people across the country to simply pull a nickel out of their pockets (the buffalo nickel was circulated from 1913 to 1938) and they would behold the very countenance of one of Glacier Park’s newly anointed celebrities, John Two Guns White Calf. The GN contracted with artist Winold Reiss to draw portraits of many of the Blackfeet to be used to illustrate their wall calendars and various other promotional items.

Winold Reiss with Two Guns White Calf, circa 1927. Photo by Tjark Reiss

When Reiss provided the GN with one of the many iterations of his portraits of Two Guns White Calf, the railroad’s publicity men deliberately circulated stories stating that Reiss had drawn the very man who modeled for the buffalo nickel. This often morphed into the implication that not only was Two Guns the one and only model for the buffalo nickel, but that the nickel’s artwork was executed by Reiss himself. In an interview several years ago with Reiss’s son, I learned that Reiss was not too impressed with the image on the buffalo nickel, and never once tried to claim the work as his own. On several occasions, according to Reiss’s son, Fraser actually wrote to Reiss demanding that he stop spreading such misinformation to the press. Reiss just ignored all the complaints, as he had nothing to do with it.

An accomplished author and very good friend of mine, Ray Djuff, is presently working on a biography of John Two Guns White Calf. His research has been thorough and meticulous. Here is a peek at what he has learned, particularly with regard to the whole buffalo nickel myth:

http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=26596

In the radio broadcast, Two Guns White Calf began to tell the story of the Sacred Buffalo Stone. Owen Heavy Breast provided an interpretation for a little while, and then a number of Empire Builders actors took on the roles of the story’s characters to dramatize the rest of the story.

DOROTHY:          Hush, Tom. What’s the story to be about, Mr. Old Timer?

OLD TIMER:        Listen …  (PAUSE)  Go ahead, Chief.

(MUSIC WITH MOTIF FOR ATMOSPHERE PREPARATORY TO TELLING INDIAN LEGEND. CAN RUN ONE TO TWO MINUTES. FADES INTO SOUND OF TWO GUNS’ VOICE BEGINNING STORY IN BLACKFEET LANGUAGE. FADE OUT, AND HEAVY BREAST BEGINS TO TRANSLATE, IN ENGLISH)

The story of the buffalo stone appears to be a real legend of the Blackfeet, a tale considered sacred to their people. But I’m not absolutely certain of that. One of the people whose writing brought that story to the masses was James Willard Schultz, who probably embellished or even flat out invented some of the stories he conveyed to his readers. I believe the story of Mink Woman and The Sacred Buffalo Stone is related by Schultz in his 1923 book, “Friends of My Life as an Indian.” [if you happen to have a copy of that book, please verify for me that such a story is published in it]

In the story told in this broadcast, the Blackfeet Indians are in woeful shape. Winter has set in, and all the game animals that would normally sustain them have disappeared. The Indians grow progressively weaker. A young woman named Mink Woman, one of the wives of Black Elk, is just about the last of the group to still have any energy – the others have pretty well huddled in their teepees and braced themselves to meet their demise. Mink Woman goes into the trees to find dry wood for the lodge fire, and is drawn by mystical powers to the Buffalo Stone, which speaks to her and assures her it possesses the Sun’s power.

She takes the stone back to her husband’s teepee lodge and falls asleep with the stone beneath her. Then in her dreams, the Buffalo Stone speaks to her again and tells her to expect the buffalo to return, and then instructs her in how the Blackfeet must create a buffalo jump to capture enough buffalo to restore life and energy to the tribe.

At the conclusion of the Blackfeet legend of Mink Woman and the Sacred Buffalo Stone, aspiring author Dorothy decides she now has some fabulous material to write about, and she and Tom are shown to another cabin that the ranger has prepared just for them.

There are very few instances where the GN consciously elected to offer their listeners any form of souvenir or premium, as became commonplace in the promotion of many other radio shows in later years. A devout listener of Empire Builders would be doomed to disappointment if they hoped for much in the way of freebies besides timetables, travel brochures, and other ephemera commonly handed out to promote the railroad. On this occasion, however, the GN told its listeners they could write for a very particular souvenir – one with no other intrinsic value than as a decorative memento of the radio show.

Possible radio premium (about 5.5 inches by 7 inches). I have many reproductions of Reiss's Indian portraits. This is the only image - of any Blackfeet subject - in this size and format. I strongly believe this was the print given to listeners of Empire Builders.  Author's collection

 

Here’s their pitch:

CLOSING ANNOUNCEMENT:

               Our friends have seen the stirring beauty of Glacier Park in a winter setting – but they have a new treat in store when they return next summer. The snow that mantles every foot of ground retires to the high fastnesses of the mountain peaks. The wildflowers carpet the valleys with a riot of color, and nature smiles again.

               The incomparable winter beauty of Glacier – your most scenic summer vacationland, and the only National Park on the main line of a transcontinental railway – may be glimpsed for sixty miles from the snug warmth of the Empire Builder and Oriental Limited observation cars. The majesty of winter is a thrilling invitation to glorious summer days in Glacier – the greatest “dude ranch” in the world.

               And now, if you have enjoyed this wintertime story of Glacier National Park, may the Great Northern Railway have the privilege of sending you a striking souvenir of this program – a reproduction of a portrait of Chief Two Guns White Calf, painted by Winold Reiss, eminent portrayer of Indian types. Drop a card to the Great Northern Railway, St. Paul, Minnesota. Your portrait of Two Guns White Calf will be mailed at once.

               ANNOUNCER:    You have been listening to Empire Builders, a program sponsored by the Great Northern Railway. Next Monday evening at the same hour this program will present to you another romance of the west.

               Empire Builders comes to you from the New York Studios of the National Broadcasting Company.

 

 

So until next time, Happy Thanksgiving, and keep that dial tuned to Empire Builders!