Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 99 "I was making a living as a carpenter in 1982 and I just didn't feel fulfilled and I kept thinking, 'What's wrong with me?'" he recalled. "It just didn't seem for me." He knew he had some level of artistic ability, but he had never received formal training and wasn't sure life as an artist was a gamble he was willing to take. But everything changed when he went to hear a visiting speaker at his church one day. "All of a sudden, he just stops and kind of scans the audi- ence, and then he points at me," Lyle said. "And he just goes, 'God just wants you to know he wants you to use the creative ability he's put in your hands.' And then he just went right back to what he was speaking on." "I thought, 'Man, maybe I'd better pay attention,'" he laughed. "So, that's basically what got me started. If I've been given this gift, then I've got to use it." Lyle started out with woodcarving before he created his first bronze—a bull elk with two cows—in 1985. "It just kind of progressed from there," he said, carefully sculpting the intricate braids of a Native American woman as he simultaneously told his story. A TRIBUTE TO THE NATIVE AMERICAN SOLDIER As one would expect, Lyle's studio was filled with sculp- tures he's expertly teased from mounds of reddish-brown clay over the years. A wooly buffalo sat in a box on the table, frolicking deer and other wildlife rested on nearby shelves, life-sized figures of law enforcement officers stood tall sev- eral feet away, and the Native American woman stared off with an air of quiet contemplation as Lyle continued to bring her to life. But perhaps most intriguing of all was the six-foot-tall sculp- ture of a Native American man in a military uniform standing stoically in the corner. As I looked more closely, I realized that half of this regal figure was actually wearing the clothing of a traditional Native American warrior. The other half was dressed in a military uniform from World War II. "That's Dave Menz, the oldest World War II veteran from the Fort Peck Reservation," Lyle said. "We spent quite a bit of time together… We'd go up in the hills and I'd just let him talk and he'd share different things with me… He was in his nineties when he passed away last fall." Dave, an Oglala Sioux, was a member of the Standing Rock Tribe in North Dakota. He was torn from his home at the age of six and put into a boarding school in Poplar with two of his sisters, one of whom subsequently died of pneumonia. Dave fled the militaristic boarding school at the age of 12 and fended for himself until he joined the military when he was just 16 years old. He went on to serve in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Their friendship and Lyle's desire to honor Montana's Na- tive American military veterans became the catalysts for "A Tribute to the Native American Soldier," a towering, nine- foot-tall piece consisting of the warrior-soldier modeled after Dave standing on top of a base featuring the busts of seven Native American men. Each man is dressed in intricately detailed, historically ac-

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