Native American woman telephone switchboard operator, Helen of Many Glacier Hotel, Babb, Montana, June 1925. Babb, Montana is on the Blackfoot Reservation, near the Canadian border, and currently has a population of about 175. Prairie Mary has written a bit about Babb today.
3 comments:
Interesting stuff! I would travel that area a lot when I lived in southern Alberta and I always stopped at the unique Two Sisters Diner when I was in Babb.
Of course, you realize this is a bogus photo, posed for publicity. The Big Hotels failed to hire tribal members for many years, but finally gave in to political pressure. Now there are Blackfeet rangers, anthropologists, biologists and clerks, but also the private businesses such as summer restaurants like to hire from an international pool of "hospitality workers" who migrate from hiking to skiing venues. They tend to be from Central Europe countries.
Prairie Mary
I suspected it was a public relations photo based on the date. Some interesting links:
** National parks are beautiful—but the way they were created isn’t >>
https://timeline.com/national-parks-native-americans-56b0dad62c9d
** A History of Many Glacier Hotel >> http://www.glacierparkfoundation.org/History/mgh.html
** What you have today >> http://www.glaciernationalparklodges.com/lodging/many-glacier-hotel/
** About the Blackfeet on the NPS web site >> https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/historyculture/tribes.htm
Post a Comment