Distinctly Montana Magazine

18 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 5 - 2 0 2 6 Last Best Books Presents ISLE OF BOOKS 511 W. MENDENHALL BOZEMAN 406.219.3581 ISLE OF BOOKS & BOOKS 43 E BROADWAY ST. BUTTE 406.782.9520 THESE AND OTHER BOOKS AVAILABLE AT EITHER LOCATION WWW.ISLEOFBOOKSSHOP.COM A MOUNTAIN'S IDEA OF TIME BY CHARLES FINN Charles Finn returns to the pages of Last Best Books with his latest collection of poetry, and we couldn't be more pleased to welcome him back. Following his Montana Book Award-win- ning On a Benediction of Wind, which we reviewed previously, Finn presents A Mountain's Idea of Time as an ode to slowing down and taking in the enduring wonder of nature. Through lyrical poetry, Finn brings his readers along on drives down Montana's backroads, summer evenings spent at a cabin in the woods, and frequent reveries on the banks of the Milk River near his home in Havre. The poems themselves seem to slow down, and Finn's voice invites us to examine and discover, to feel the texture of moments spent in Montana's timeless natural spaces. He is a poet of the extraordinary ordi- nary, writing in simple yet evocative verse about the myriad ev- eryday things that pass us by: "the creaky wisdom of trees" and "water striders performing their miracle." Compared to Mary Oliver—and deservedly so—his poems elevate the usual to the sublime while staying grounded in the here and now of Mon- tana's Hi-Line country. Published this past July, this lovely volume features beautiful cover art from Montana artist Bobbie McKibbin and will serve as a reminder to appreciate all that encompasses our earth and to consider living by a mountain's idea of time. BLACK ROBES ENTER COYOTE'S WORLD: CHIEF CHARLO AND FATHER DE SMET IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS BY SALLY THOMPSON Missoula-based anthro- pologist Sally Thompson, whose Disturbing the Sleep- ing Buffalo we previously reviewed and who also has a story in this issue, has written a dual biography tracing the parallel lives of Chief Charlo of the Bit- terroot Salish and Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, the Belgian-born Jesuit mis- sionary whose work helped reshape the Rocky Mountain West. The book opens at a Potawatomi mission on the Missouri in 1839 and follows Charlo from his birth in 1830 at the Place of Wide Cottonwoods—what is now Stevensville—through the seasonal rounds that defined Salish life: north to dig roots and fish for bull trout in the Missoula Valley, then east across the Continental Divide to hunt buffalo on the plains. De Smet, meanwhile, spent less time among his "beloved Flatheads" than his reputation suggests. He traveled constantly between the Pacific and the Rockies, mapping routes, documenting resources, and writing popular accounts that encouraged white settlement westward. Thompson refuses simple hero-and-villain frameworks. The Sal- ish welcomed the Black Robes in the 1840s, hoping for spiritual power and protection. By Charlo's death in 1910—just before the Allotment Act stripped away half the tribe's treaty-guaran- teed lands—he had come to curse the day white immigrants entered his country. The book recently won a Will Rogers Me- dallion Award and is a finalist for two High Plains Book Awards. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of the Bitterroot Valley and the forces that shaped it.

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