25 January 2024

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18 January 2024

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Thomas Walton

Thomas Walton


Thomas Edmund “T.Ed” Walton, 58, of Wolf Point died Jan. 5, 2024, at his home. He was born July 29, 1965, to parents June and Lorie “Tweet” Walton, the youngest of five children. He attended Frontier Elementary/Junior High and Wolf Point High School. He had a very good heart and was very kind to everyone. If anyone needed help, he was willing to lend a hand. He often gave rides to family and friends. He was the caretaker for his mother, Lorie “Tweet,” until her death March 13, 2023. He made sure that she was able to attend traditional ceremonies and family gatherings, transporting her and patiently waiting while she visited with family and friends. This allowed her family and community to be able to love and appreciate their mother and grandmother for many years. He also took her on many road trips including to Yellowstone National Park, Crazy Horse National Monument and often to Billings. Their highlighted excursion was to a long round trip to Las Cruces, N.M., and through California, providing her with a much dreamed for journey. He also cared for his

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Pearl Swank

Pearl Swank


Pearl Evelyn (Pedersen) Swank, 100, died Jan. 9, 2024, in Poplar. She was born Oct. 19, 1923 in Congor, Minn., near Albert Lea, Minn., to Danish immigrant parents Peder Marius and Inger (Paulsen) Pedersen. When she was five years old, the family moved to a rented farm north of Circle where she went to country schools. The family moved to Malta after she finished the seventh grade. She graduated from Malta High School in 1941. She graduated in 1945 from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. She taught in Culbertson, Nashua, Fairview and Poplar High Schools. She married Eugene Swank of North Poplar in 1952, where they raised their four children. She was an active leader for decades in the Up‘N-Atom 4-H Club teaching girls to sew, using her home economics teaching skills. She sewed all her own dresses, always had a big garden and many people appreciated “Pearl’s potatoes.” She took up quilting after her children graduated from high school, cutting blocks and sewing quilts for babies and old folks. She put together thousands of quilt tops that were donated to Denver Children’s Hospital, Daniels County Nursing Home and other charities. The star quilts she made were all quilted by her hand and she gave several neighbor teens quilts when they graduated high school. She was a member of Zion

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Susan Finnicum

Susan Finnicum


Susan Finnicum, 67, of Culbertson died Friday, Dec. 22, 2023, in her home in Culbertson. She was the seventh child born to Montana and Bernie Finnicum, born Nov. 6, 1956. She grew up around a lot of family. She graduated from Culbertson High School in 1975. She played basketball in high school and passed her love of basketball on to her daughter, Jenna. She was a lifeguard at the Culbertson pool in the summers. She attended college in Billings until she married Terry Anderson and then received her degree from Wyoming State University Laramie. They lived in Albin, Wyo., where they had two daughters, Tana and Jenna. They eventually moved to Missouri and lived there for several years. They finally settled in Sheridan, Wyo., where they raised their girls, kept horses, dogs, cats and other animals. She worked for a credit union during this time. She had a great love for God, children and animals. She always had at least one dog, a cat and a couple of horses. In 1997, she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. She had great faith in God and was a 27-year survivor of breast cancer. Her family rallied around her to get her through all the chemo, stem cell treatment and radiation. Unfortunately, her marriage did not survive breast cancer and she eventually took a job with a ranch near Wyola where she did haying and feeding cattle. She met her second husband, David Soto, while working at the ranch. They moved to a small farm near the state line east of Bainville where she had her horses, cat, dog and a pot belly pig. She worked with her brother, Butch, at the furniture store in Williston until it closed in 2011. While she had never been to Kalispell, she decided to move there when the store closed. She made her first trip to Kalispell and bought a place on top of a mountain

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Kevin Burshia

Kevin Burshia


Kevin Burshia, 59, died Jan. 6, 2024, at his residence in Poplar. He was born Sept. 15, 1964, to Gloria B. Chopper. He attended school in Poplar and graduated from Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Ore. He attended American Indian Bible College in Phoenix, Ariz., and eventually obtained a CDL in Fairbanks, Alaska. He worked as a special education paraprofessional and bus driver in Alakaket, Alaska. He was trained as a cook in the U.S. Army from 1985 to 1987. He worked at A& S Tribal Industries and Poplar School as a paraprofessional. He enjoyed working with children.

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Julian Shields Jr.

Julian Shields Jr.


Julian K. “Sonny Boy” Shields Jr., 73, of Wolf Point died Jan. 2, 2024, at Trinity Hospital in Wolf Point. A member of the Fort Peck Tribe, he was born in Poplar on Aug. 4, 1950, to Viola Red Elk and Julian Shields Sr. Among his achievements were earning a bachelor’s degree in social work from Montana State University in Billings and his master’s degree in social work from the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash. He worked in Indian Country in a variety of capacities from Portland, Ore., to Gallup, N.M., including the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the social work field. He returned home to serve his community at Health Promotion Disease Prevention and as the Tribal Health Director for Fort Peck until 2023. He had many interests, including gambling, dancing, reading, playing pool, watching crime documentaries, car, cooking, comedy, home repair shows, traveling, providing mentorship and those who knew him well enjoyed