In 1913, Charlie Russell was commissioned by The Montana Club of Helena to make a consummate statement, on canvas, about the Montana he loved. He embarked upon one of the most difficult tasks of his artistic career with the classic “When the Land Belonged to God.”

There is not one cowboy or Indian in the entire painting, only a magnificent “choir” of buffalo crossing the Missouri River and climbing a ridge crest. The day is young, the dawn is breaking as both steam and dust rise from the herd. Also note: there are two wolves in the foreground. They are closer to us than the buffalo are, in addition to being closer to the buffalo than we are. This “epiphany of spirit’ awaits you at the Montana Historical Society Museum across from the State Capitol in Helena.

Charlie Russell was deeply impacted by a winter spent with the Blood Division of the Blackfeet Nation in 1888-89. It was then he received the Indian name a-wa-kaasii in response to acquiring some white buckskin to repair the seat of his worn jeans. With the repairs made, Charlie bounded around the camp triggering chuckles from observers. This adventuresome young man looked a fair bit like an antelope, henceforth the name “a-wa- kaasii.”

This song is my most cherished work.

The purest gift is not of gold
But in art that awakens the soul.

On the spring eve of sixteen, Charlie Russell departed from his St. Louis home
A young man, whose big dreams had delivered a call to the heart
So by train and stagecoach he made his way through an endless sea
Of grass that blew to the shore of the Big Sky’s unbroken sod
When the Land Belonged to God

A rising choir of buffalo, mountains were sentinels for creatures below
Stirring tones from long ago that survived an eclipse of the soul
As the curtain closed on our noble play, before the stage was struck by cashiers and surveyors
He carefully captured the scenes of the Big Sky’s unbroken sod
When the Land Belonged to God

Where all the wild Kin of man danced in rhythm with the land
Where Grizzly Bear and Gray Wolf were first chiefs
Where episodes of Old Man’s travels helped our people first unravel
The mystery of Sacred Time between the earth and sky

Time respects the careful hand. When chosen colors are dry, the vision forever stands.
The purest gift is not of gold, but in art that awakens the soul.
As we choose our trail up the Great Divide to an unknown stage on the other side
We might realign with the scenes of the Big Sky’s unbroken sod

Where the Land Belongs to God
On the Big Sky’s unbroken sod

Where the Land Belongs to God