A Poplar family is grieving the loss of irreplaceable Native artwork after a fire destroyed the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, and with it, paintings by renowned Native artist Roscoe White Eagle.
For David Grainger and his son Gavyn Grainger, the church was more than a place of worship. It was home.
"I grew up in there. That was a big, big thing in my family. Going to church every Sunday," Gavyn said.
The fire took more than the building. It destroyed original paintings by Roscoe White Eagle, a celebrated Native artist whose work is held in institutions across the country.
"His artwork is in Browning Museum, CN Russell Museum, Great Falls. He's got paintings in the Smithsonian," David said. "He did our tribal flag."
For Gavyn, his great-grandfather's paintings were woven into his earliest memories.
"A lot of the buildings I went into and have a big painting in there. They're like, yeah, your grandpa painted that," Gavyn said.
The loss of that work carries a weight that goes beyond the physical.
"For somebody to put their heart and soul into painting something like that, and then for it to be destroyed by fire," David said.
Firefighters responded to the blaze last Tuesday but were unable to save the building as it became engulfed in flames, taking years of history and prayer with it.
The first service since the fire was held Sunday at the Cultural Center in Poplar, drawing members from surrounding communities including Culbertson and Wolf Point.
"It was really nice to see all the different people that came. There was people there from Culbertson, Wolf Point, surrounding areas, showing support for the community," David said.
For the Grainger family, that outpouring of support offered a measure of comfort amid the grief.
"Sometimes it takes, you know, something tragic to bring everyone back together again," David said.
While the Cultural Center is serving as a temporary gathering space, David remains hopeful about the congregation's future.
"The people are the church, not the building," David said.
