Back in 1940, when Al Chandler Good Strike was growing up on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation he watched an old man make a hand drum for his grandfather in the same way Indian people made drums centuries ago. He was deeply impressed then and he still remembers the process today.

“You remember the things that fascinate you when you were young,” he says.

When he was in school at the Pierre Indian School in South Dakota, he learned to draw and paint the ancient way of the Plains Indians called ledger (hide) painting. Again, the art made an impression.

He did not do much with his interest during the years he spent working and raising three children with his wife, Carol. The family danced at powwows in regalia he made but only after he retired in 1992 was he able to devote himself to traditional arts.

When he was 18 years old, Al hitchhiked off the reservation and joined the Air Force. Serving as an airborne radio operator, he traveled the world, notably in the Far East and North Africa. He loved it.

While stationed in Japan Al on a crew that ferried a C-119 back to the U.S. so he spent his time off with his brother in Oakland, Calif. Here he discovered another childhood fascination. At school in Pierre, kids who made the honor roll each quarter were allowed an unchaperoned trip to the movies, complete with money for popcorn and soda. Al never made the honor roll, but each quarter he watched an exceptionally bright girl march off to the movies. He was impressed and at that tender age, Al said to himself, “I’m going to marry her.”

That day in California he caught a glimpse of that same girl on the city bus. He and his brother paid her a visit, and his childhood impression proved valid. Today Al’s wife, Carole Falcon Chandler is president of Fort Belknap College.

After 8 years in the Air Force, Al earned a certificate in electronics from Northern Montana College (now MSU-Northern). He worked for Xerox for nearly 30 years, in California, then Glendive, and finally in Billings.

“I really enjoyed life,” he says. “I wish I could do it all over again.”

After he retired and the Chandlers bought 240 acres on the reservation near the Little Rocky Mountains and Al turned his focus to the traditional arts that captured his attention as a child.

One of the first things he made was a drum like the one the old man made for his grandfather. He wanted to use the old ways of tanning buffalo hide so he did some research and tanned his own hides.

Al gained a whole new respect for the women 200 years ago who tanned the heavy buffalo hide in the traditional way. “They were very strong,” he observes, a fact he learned by working with the heavy wet hide himself. You can’t just lift it out of the water, he says with a laugh. You pull one side out of the water, then go over to the other side and pull it out of the water while you watch the first side slip back in again.

Al uses the names given to him by his grandfather as his art name, Chandler Good Strike. His signature mark is a deer hoof drawing. He makes drums, war shields, flat bags, trunks, and more. He paints them with traditional images of horses, buffalo, and men shooting rifles. Paints of many colors come from material he finds or trades with other tribes just like his ancestors did. Paint brushes are crafted from the porous stiff inner part of animal bone and used to work the pigment into the tissue of the hides.

In addition to the hide painting, Al’s art includes feather work, bustles, war bonnets, and eagle staffs. He stretches deer hide like an artist’s canvas and uses it for his paintings.

Al regrets the poverty in which he grew up on the reservation but looks behind that to the proud life that the White Clay People (Gros Ventre) lived centuries ago. Although their lives were hard, he says, “Back then everyone was in good shape and we lived good.”

One of Al’s passions is to give children a chance to experience the feelings he had learning the Native art culture. He shares his knowledge through workshops and classes under the Montana Arts Council. He also shares his skills with youngsters at the White Clay Immersion School.

He’s seen kids look at a hand drum they made in the old way and say, “I can’t believe I made this.”

“They feel inside like they are a part of history instead of losing what they had,” he says.

Al applied to the Smithsonian for a grant to teach such things as beading, tanning, and painting. “If I don’t get that money we will still do it,” he says, noting that he’s talked to other elders who want to share their gifts as well.

The reason is clear. He says, “I’m proud to be an Indian and I want to set the young on fire.”

You can Find Chandler Good Strike’s hide art at the Montana Folk Festival in Butte, the Santa Fe Indian Market in New Mexico and in galleries in Big Timber and in Bozeman. A donated hide is displayed at the First People’s Buffalo Jump near Ulm and at the Circle of Elders in Bozeman. His work has been purchased for private collections and he has attended markets throughout the U.S.