SWIFT FOX

Laber, Jay

Metal

2004

2005.17.01

On May 31, 1805, near present-day Great Falls, Captain Meriwether Lewis recorded in his journal the sighting of a "new" animal: "I saw near those bluffs the most beautifull fox that I ever beheld, the colours appeared to me to be a fine orange yellow, white and black." Although unknown to early explorers, the swift fox (Vulpes velox) held spiritual significance for Montana's native peoples. By 1918, predator extermination efforts had eradicated the buff-colored Canidae from Montana's short-grass prairies, but in 2006 the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes successfully reintroduced them on their Fort Peck Reservation. In this sculpture, commissioned by the Montana Historical Society for an exhibit on Lewis and Clark, Blackfeet artist Jay Polite Laber (b. 1963) captured the animal's quintessential essence. Crafted from junked car parts and discarded barbed wire, Labor's scrap-metal Swift Fox-known as senopah in Blackfeet-is paused mid-stance, alert and ready for action.