The Three Chiefs Culture Center opened in 1990 on the Flathead Indian Reservation as “The People’s Center.” It quickly became a community hub for members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes throughout the region as well as a place where tribal members and visitors alike could come to learn about the tribes’ history, stories, art and ways of life.
“It’s a place for us to tell our stories from our perspective, where people can come and hear from our ancestors,” says center director Marie Torosian.
The center featured a robust museum showcasing treasured artifacts sourced from CSKT members, highlighting ancestral pieces donated from tribal members, regalia gifted from chiefs and artifacts from the staff’s personal collections. The center was deeply intertwined with the culture of the greater community, reflecting the pride that the tribal members have for their artforms and heritage. Between people visiting the center and its various educational programs, the People’s Center served thousands of people each year.
But in 2020, the center faced the unimaginable.
“I call it the fire of 2020,” says Marie.
She was at the helm when the center was impacted by arson that September. A man broke into the building and started four fires inside. Marie was at home when she got the phone call from her uncle letting her know that first responders were en route to the center, and she left without thinking twice.
When she arrived at the center, she found the building engulfed in flames.
“It was devastating, very devastating to all of us, not only [those] that worked there with all the artifacts, but the community, tribal and non-tribal. It just meant a lot to everybody,” Marie says.
After the smoke cleared, Marie and her staff were able to inspect the building and see what could be salvaged. They entered the building expecting the worst, but even though the fire had reached the repository — the room where many items were stored — they found that miraculously, the museum and education rooms of the center were left untouched by the blaze. Marie recalls that she and her team together cried not only tears of sadness over the loss of the building, but tears of joy that a large number of irreplaceable cultural artifacts remained intact.
Marie and her team combed meticulously through the debris in order to find every last artifact.
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Though many items survived the fire, they had suffered significant smoke, water and soot damage. The center’s staff realized they were facing a years-long restoration and relocation of their collection.
Geri Hewankorn and Amy Webster are among the team of people who have been working to preserve the items after the fire. As curation technician and Institute of Museum and Library Services grant project director respectively, their primary goal is to assess the damage, recatalog the remaining artifacts and ensure their restoration. They are heading efforts to get the salvaged artifacts back into circulation.
This has not been an easy feat, as many of the tracking numbers tracing the artifacts back to their owners were lost. These tracking numbers represent generations of history: where an artifact came from, which tribe it belonged to and how it came into the center’s possession. The loss of those tracking numbers meant the loss of those stories.
“Another part of this project is to find the original numbers, and sometimes that will help lead us to the person that donated it. With the fire, a lot of that history is lost. It’s like putting a bunch of puzzle pieces together, but some of the pieces are broken,” - Amy
The recataloging has been a long and tedious process, but for Geri, the work to retrace the history of the photos and artifacts is essential in order to preserve the stories of her people.
“All the photos are notable — even though I don’t know the people in them, they’re people from our tribe,” says Geri.
Since that fateful day in September 2020, the center has been navigating what life looks like in the wake of the fire that nearly took everything. The People’s Center rebranded to Three Chiefs Culture Center to represent the three tribes of the CSKT — the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreille, each with their own distinct histories and stories. The center currently operates out of its temporary location in Pablo’s renovated Glacier Bank Building, even as the staff works toward the goal of design and construction of a new, permanent home.
Through it all, Three Chiefs Culture Center has held true to its mission, celebrating the three tribes’ traditions and history while providing cultural education to the public through the display of artifacts as well as activities, classes and events. In cultivating a space for tribal members to share their stories and traditions, the center continues to play a meaningful role in preserving the tribes’ heritage and perpetuating their culture. The team there is grateful to be doing so in the wake of tragedy.
“All of us that work here have connections to the artisans and the artifacts. It’s who we are,” says Marie.
Tribal members and visitors alike are welcome to visit Three Chiefs Culture Center and participate in their educational programming. For more information on upcoming classes and events, visit threechiefs.org.
