These are the location notes for "A Healing Force."


See a map of the Montana reservations.

The Starblanket family roundhouse is made of cob with a grass roof. It has three bedrooms and a den/playroom. In this floor plan, the main entrance comes through the laundry room. In a traditional home, the place of honor was opposite the entrance, in this case roughly the great room and the master bedroom. The kitchen occupies the central area where the hearth once resided. The back side of the kitchen facing the master bedroom has altar niches. The library runs along the wall beside the back door and wraps around to the door of the master bedroom. The dining table tucks against a bench along the outer wall. The living room has a built-in couch and a woodstove. The sitting room has a built-in couch, chairs, and bookcases. The den / playroom has a fireplace, a built-in couch, and several pieces of loose furniture. There is also a niche with a desk and chair behind the fireplace. Toys are kept in baskets or shelves inset into the walls. The laundry room has a sink and cabinets in addition to the washer and dryer. The kitchen includes a refrigerator, chest freezer, stove, and sink. The back side of the kitchen facing the master bedroom has altar niches. The master bedroom has a queen-size bed. The master bathroom is decorated with tile mosaics of sea creatures. It has a wooden shelf unit attached to the wall. The guest bedroom has a full-size bed with a desk and chair behind the headboard. A huge planter lines the wall above the window, above which hangs a ceiling fan with grow lights. The planter and nearby shelves hold a variety of succulents, other houseplants, and even a banana tree. The bunkroom holds one pair of twin-size bunks along with a windowseat. The guest bathroom is decorated with turquoise tiles and small planters full of water-loving flowers. This is the porch of the Starblanket family roundhouse.

The garden includes raised beds and buckets of tools. The benches are made from scavenged bricks and boards.


Here is the Albert Lee Ferris Art Gallery. This building includes an art gallery for shows, and rooms selling traditional arts and crafts. They have books, baskets and quilts, jewelry, paintings, and more. Priority for including items goes first to tribal members living in Rocky Boy's Reservation, then to nontribal residents and members of other tribes, and finally to those who are neither residents nor members of any tribe. Here is the cash register. The second floor holds the office, accessible through a spiral staircase. The woman is Big Chipmunk, who is half Chippewa and half Cherokee. A ladder in the second-floor office leads to the cupola above. The cupola on the third floor is available for meditation or creative space. The building is named after Albert Lee Ferris, sculptor, painter, 1939–1986.

Tags: cyberfunded creativity, ethnic studies, fantasy, fishbowl, music, poetry, reading, safety, spirituality, weblit, writing
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