Speaker Information
Award-winning author and anthropologist Sally Thompson is now scheduling speaking engagements for 2026-2027. Thompson’s decades of research into Intermountain West history—including interviews with hundreds of tribal elders and archival work in North America and Europe—has resulted in two recent publications, Black Robes Enter Coyote’s World: Chief Charlo and Father De Smet in the Rocky Mountains (2024), won the Big Sky Award from the High Plains International Book Awards and the Will Rogers Medallion Award for best Western nonfiction. Disturbing the Sleeping Buffalo: 23 Unexpected Stories that Awaken Montana’s Past (2024) won the Next Generation Indie Award for best historical nonfiction. In both works, Thompson explores the basis for the contrasting worldviews between Euro-Americans and Native Americans that have led to such different relationships to land, nature, and each other. Her talks are best suited for historical societies, universities, museums, and libraries.
Topics for her talks include:
“Black Robes Enter Coyote’s World” explores the unusual circumstances that led to the arrival of Jesuit missionaries among the Bitterroot Salish in 1841 and how these different cultures interacted over the next two decades. Drawing on previously unknown illustrated journals—including one by Jesuit missionary Pierre Jean De Smet and others by Army surveyor Thomas Adams—Thompson reveals perspectives that dramatically deepen our understanding of this pivotal period. Attendees will gain new understanding of how the contrasting worldviews shaped—and continue to shape—relationships between Native Americans and Euro-Americans in the region and throughout the continent.
“Perceiving the Other: Visual Counterpoints in Blackfeet Country, 1846,” pairs two remarkable sets of mid-19th century images depicting life around trading forts in Blackfeet territory. One set was created by a Siksika (North Blackfoot) man, the other by Jesuit missionary Nicholas Point. Viewed side by side, these artworks reveal how each artist portrayed their perception of "the other"—capturing cultural truths and tensions that written accounts never recorded. Audiences will discover how visual records illuminate cultural perspectives in ways that words alone cannot convey.
“Father Pierre Jean De Smet, the Mapmaker” traces the unusual circumstances in which a restless young Belgian was catapulted to America, where, in addition to Jesuit studies, he would learn mapping skills from the nation’s best cartographer. He would eventually apply the skills to mapping the headwater lands of the Columbia and Missouri rivers. His maps would profoundly influence treaty negotiations and territorial boundaries that still matter today. Discovery of a previously unknown 1858-59 illustrated field journal by De Smet adds a significant new dimension to our understanding of the actual process used to map and record life along the old trails he explored. Audiences will discover the complex political and personal motivations behind his seemingly circuitous five-year journey through the Rocky Mountains—revealing a man navigating between spiritual mission, tribal diplomacy, and American expansionism.
“Kootenai Oral History and Glacial Lake Geology” compares two powerful sources of knowledge in this deep exploration of post-glacial conditions in northwestern Montana and the Idaho Panhandle. Thompson examines how Kootenai creation stories align with geological evidence. For broader perspective on the deep truths held in creation stories, Thompson draws on indigenous creation stories from around the globe, including the Garden of Eden. Attendees are likely to reconsider some long-held beliefs.
“How Did We Come to Be So Different?” examines the fundamental differences in how Native Americans and Euro-Americans relate to land and nature—and traces the historical roots of these divergent worldviews encapsulated in the terms “source” vs. “resource”. Through the words of Salish Chief Charlo and Jesuit missionaries, Protestant Reformation leaders Martin Luther and John Calvin, Puritan leaders John Winthrop and Increase Mather, alongside analysis of America's evolving economic systems. Thompson reveals how theological and economic forces created profoundly different relationships with the natural world. Attendees will understand how deep-seated beliefs created historical divisions that continue to shape contemporary debates about land use, resource extraction, conservation, and Indigenous rights.
Details: Talks typically run one hour, with a 45-minute illustrated presentation, followed by Q&A. Accommodations can be made to fit other time slots.
Bookings can be arranged through sallythompsonauthor.com/contact.