Fort Union Trading Post will feature a temporary student art exhibit of Buffalo Pot Effigies created by students from the Poplar Montana middle School. The exhibit will be on display starting on the 21st in the month of April. Many of the students who produced the art pieces are descendents of members of the Assiniboine and Dakota tribes who came to Fort Union historically. The art being displayed reflects a strong representation of effigies that were made by their ancestors. The exhibit will be on display in the Bourgeois House and run until the end of May.
Effigies were a big part of American Indian spirituality. To include a buffalo as an effigy was to contact the spirit of that animal. Buffalo effigies were made and done in a variety of ways. Rawhide images were used in ceremonies and to attack the Buffalo closer to the tribe. Stones and rocks carved were used as talismans and added to ceremonial pipes. Fort Union had symbols that were tied to the buffalo included around the fort. Karl Bodmer painted an image that would relate the idea of attracting the buffalo by the Assiniboine. The Assiniboine created a monument with a skull on a rock and was meant to attract buffalo near the fort. This became known as the Assiniboine Medicine sign.
Hours are from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm daily at Fort Union. Hours will change Memorial Day weekend to 8:00am to 8:00pm CDT. Fort Union Trading Post is located 24 miles north of Sidney, Montana and 25 miles southwest of Williston, North Dakota, via highway 1804. While here, visitors are encouraged to tour the reconstructed fort, trade room and bourgeois house.
For more information on Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site contact the park at 701-572-9083.
