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July 15-18, 2026 / Missoula, Montana

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“Jim knew Indians were expected to fail. It's long been the national myth. Indians weren't considered by white people to have the capacity for 'civilized' success. They were not supposed to have incurred permanent damage from the massacres, starvation, boarding schools and other degradations during the period between meeting and being reservationed by the white man. Instead, they were supposed to assimilate, disappear, stop being a problem. Jim was himself a living example of the counter-narrative to the expectation set by that story: he lived a life that could be considered successful by any standard. But that success wasn't in spite of his Blackfeet heritage, it was because of it. He was a successful Indian writer — but he wasn't assimilated into anonymity."

— Lois Welch