Distinctly Montana Magazine

88 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • FA L L 2 0 2 6 Laurel's house grew smaller and smaller. Their house began to look more like a museum than a country home. They also felt an urgent need to bring history and culture back to the valley, which was quickly being outsourced to private collectors. Their solution, then, was to build a "real" museum devoted to preserving the history and personal stories of the Flat- head Reservation, both Native as well as those of the white settlers. About seven miles south of Ronan, near the junction with Highway 212 (the Charlo cutoff), sat a small motel with a gas station and restaurant built in the 1950s, in an area still known on the map as "Allentown." Bud and Laurel bought the property on 30 acres in 1995 and spent the next two years renovating. Next to the lodge they built an 11,000-plus square foot museum, which was always their main interest. The entrance and gift shop is an impressive log structure designed by Bud himself. He hand-hewed logs from his own ranch to cre- ate the entry and interior support pillars. The museum opened in 1997. They named it after the highly respected Bitterroot Salish leader, Chief Joseph (Nganta) Ninepipes (1820-1871), and it shares that name with the adjoining Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge. In 1998 the museum was officially registered as a nonprofit. The museum cares for and preserves a unique and world-class collection of over 2,000 items consisting of artwork, photos, and objects of Native American and early Montana significance. So passionate had Bud been about saving these precious artifacts that Bud and Laurel's own personal collection makes up well over half the items on display. The displays are divided into four basic themes. The first is devoted pri- marily to the Native peoples of the Confederated Salish, Kootenai and Upper Pend d'Oreille Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, featuring moc- casins, dresses and cradleboards with stunning beadwork, alongside artwork from famous artists of the past such as Ace Powell, E.S. Paxson, Charles Russell, Remington and Nancy McLaughlin. Next is the Photo Gallery, containing over 250 of the museum's 700-plus photos dating back to the early days of photography that document the history of the Bud and Laurel Cheff DOUG STEVENS James Patrick Reilly at 17. Laurel Cheff's grandfather PHOTO COURTESY OF NINEPIPES MUSEUM OF EARLY MONTANA

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