From the Archives: Kevin Red Star Promotes Children’s Book
Elk Morning at the Battle of Arrow Creek tells story of greatest event in Crow history
By Denise Rivette (originally published August 2022 in Carbon County News)
The Courtney Collins Fine Art Gallery at 32 Town Center Avenue in Big Sky will host an artist’s reception today, September 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. for Kevin Red Star who, in addition to his current exhibit at the gallery, will be promoting Elk Morning At The Battle of Arrow Creek, a new children’s book featuring his artwork. Books will be available for sale for $15 each.
The second in the Elk Morning series, Elk Morning At The Battle of Arrow Creek as well as the first, Elk Morning Counts His First Coup, have been accepted by the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) in their Indian Education for All curriculum. The story of the Battle of Arrow Creek, the greatest event in Crow history in which an estimated 1,200 Crow warriors fended off a force of over 10,000 warriors made up of a coalition of enemy nations, has been passed down through generations of Crow. In this book the story is interpreted by A. J. Otjen and Sabrena Half and is illustrated with paintings by Kevin Red Star and a buffalo motif by Sunnysky Red Star. The printing was sponsored by Stockman Bank.
Half, is a Crow woman and MSU-Billings graduate who along with her colleague and former professor, Otjen, publish books through their company, Bakaate (which means children in Apsáalooke). Their “mission is to inspire and empower the youth to take care of mother earth and respect all American Indian cultures.” The first three books they published feature Lily Good Path, an Apsáalooke girl, who becomes different animals to help her people as she makes her way through stories based on the folklore of different cultures. Their next two books feature Elk Morning, an Apsáalooke boy and Lily’s cousin. The Elk Morning books were specifically designed and created to join the OPI’s Indian Education for All curriculum.
Elk Morning Counts His First Coup has ties to Carbon County through Red Lodge teachers Brandelyn Simpson and Kathryn Wilhelm who helped create the Lesson Guide for the book. It was written by Half, Otjen and Bessie Stopsatprettyplaces and was illustrated by Crow artists Zachary Dean BirdFaraway and Salisha Old Bull. According to the Guide, “The story is told from an authentic Crow perspective and is an accurate and historic portrait of the Crow culture and the tradition of counting coup.”
To illustrate the latest entry in the Elk Morning series, Half and Otjen had the honor of working with world-renowned and local Crow artist Kevin Red Star, who opened his entire library of works for them to choose from. The resulting book is a beautiful rendition in words and paintings of a story that is known to all Crow, and that should be known to all those who live in Crow Country (including all of Carbon County).
Mike Jetty, Indian Education Specialist at OPI, remarked upon the first Elk Morning story that, “From my perspective, as a Dakota man, I would say these authors counted an educational coup.” When asked this week if he thought the authors counted a second coup with Elk Morning At The Battle of Arrow Creek, he responded with gusto, “Absolutely, I would say so!”
If you would like to meet the authors and see the place where the action in the story happened, they will join OPI on Friday, September 23, at Native American Heritage Days at Chief Plenty Coups State Park just west of Pryor. They will have copies of their books available for sale.
You can purchase any of the above-mentioned books at Bakaate.com where you can also pre-order a boxed set of all five for holiday giving for $50 plus $10 shipping and handling. Details are on the website. The authors would like to thank Stockman Bank for making the publishing of Elk Morning At The Battle of Arrow Creek possible.
In case you are wondering where Arrow Creek is, Arrow Creek is the Crow name for Pryor Creek.