Museum of the Plains Indians
Visitors can learn the traditions behind the feathers, the detailed beadwork and the bright colors of the area’s Native American groups on a tour of the Museum of the Plains Indians. On the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, the museum tells the story of the people who lived in Glacier Country before the Great Northern Railway enabled easy access to the area.
“The museum has beautiful beadwork and other historic artifacts from the Blackfeet Tribe,” said Beighle. “You can see aspects of their traditional way of life.”
The Museum of the Plains Indians focuses on Blackfeet, Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, Flathead and other nearby tribes. Opened in 1941, the museum displays the art and history of these native peoples through historic clothing, horse gear, weapons, household implements and toys.
Wooden sculptures and murals from noted Blackfeet artists greet visitors before a short film on Blackfeet history. Guests learn the symbolism and importance of regional tribal ceremonies with life-size dioramas.
After the history lesson, groups can view contemporary Native American works of art; a museum gallery features oil paintings, watercolors, sculptures and beadwork for sale.
Red Bus Tours
Riding down a steep mountainous hill on hairpin turns can feel jarring enough, but the added sound of car transmissions jamming might infuse an extra jolt of adrenaline into the experience. The park’s famous Red Bus vehicles have offered tours of the park since their construction in the 1930s. For many years, the bus drivers were called jammers because of the noise the vehicles made when double clutching on the steep roads of the park.
Fortunately, groups riding in these tour buses today won’t hear that sound as they go up and down the park’s roads, since park officials replaced the original standard transmissions with newer automatic ones in 1989. The park still operates 33 of the original red buses with iconic black trim.
The 17-passenger convertible touring sedans remain among the oldest intact fleets of passenger-carrying vehicles in the world. Larger groups can book several Red Buses at once for tours of a half-day to full days.
“The Red Bus tours are fantastic,” said Beighle. “They [drivers] give you a history of the park as they are driving. One of their most famous routes is the Going-to-the-Sun Road.”
The 50-mile Going-to-the-Sun Road spans the width of the park between the east and west entrances. Completed in 1933, the Historic Civil Engineering Landmark is notoriously difficult to plow in the spring, with up to 80 feet of snow at the top of Logan Pass. The road typically opens from early June to mid-October.
