The Center Pole
The Center Pole is a Native non-profit organization founded in 1999. The campus is located at the foot of the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. Originally a youth development organization, we have expanded our work to include projects for a stronger Crow community. The expansion includes an alternative energy demonstration project, work in the area of food sovereignty, a digital archives, an indigenous media and education center and a radio station to give the Crow people a voice.
We teach and model entrepreneurship through social enterprises on the campus: cafe, gift shop, resale shop and tipi stays. These enterprises interact with local entrepreneurs, offer area employment and serve to create sustainability for our programs.
Programs
Center Pole conducts programs that increase knowledge and awareness and promote systemic change in Native communities.
The word "sovereignty" has different connotations to different people. For The Center Pole, it means strengthening the rights, autonomy and dignity of community members.
Our earth lodge demonstration project is producing an inexpensive, energy-efficient, sustainable one-room home using free logs from reservation forests gathered using fire prevention load reduction techniques.
Our alternative energy project will demonstrate simple solar and wind systems to the Native community they can use to save money and energy.
Our garden project will assist elders and their grand children to grow, trade and sell (and hunt and traditionally process) their own healthy foods, reflecting the past traditions of the Crow people.
Our reservation-based system to transport and distribute “recovery foods.” otherwise wasted, about-to-expire food that food outlets in Billings are required to remove from their shelves. Center Pole redistributes these foods to the hungry on reservations.
Currently, Center Pole transports and distributes about 120,000 pounds of recovery foods per month, over a million pounds per year. Food is distributed from the Center Pole’s warehouse in Garryowen every weekday and is also transported into the communities of Crow Agency and Lodge Grass on the Crow Indian Reservation and Busby and Lame Deer on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. During the distribution, a meal or snack is served for the elders and others in need of the community.
Traditional Activities and Workshops
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Singing, Dancing, Drumming, Storytelling, Parading
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Regalia, Beading and other Arts
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Traditional Herbs and Plants
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Sacred Places
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Spiritual Ways and Ceremony
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Crow Fair "Tipi Capitol of the World"
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Crow Native Days
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Language Lessons
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Cultural Excursions
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Horse Culture
Internships
Our community internships are the cornerstone of our operations as well as a stepping stone for community members to feel better about themselves. In return, our interns receive hands on life skills, workforce and career training through our social enterprises and non-profit activities that include entrepreneurship, food systems, natural farming, sustainability, agritourism, and ecological stewardship.
Center Pole assists those in the community with huge challenges: homelessness, drug and alcohol recovery, disabilities, poverty, and illiteracy, giving them a second chance, as well as those who are completing educational goals and need support to succeed. Our interns have gone on to college and careers of all kinds.
Wellknown Buffalo — an Indigenous-owned business on the Crow Indian Reservation
After signing in at the Wellknown Buffalo Cafe and Gift Shop, guests can explore the Wellknown Buffalo "Living Culture Campus" and can be directed to historic sites in the area.
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Camp in your own tent or in comfort in one of our tipis.
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The property is on actual battlefield land. Come meet our Crow-bred horses.
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We are family friendly and welcome elders!
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Learn the spiritual meaning and healing properties of the tipi and how we do horse medicine.
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Camp in Your Own Tent or a Tipi
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Stay within Sight of Historic Sharpshooter Ridge on the Little Big Horn Battlefield