Celebrating 100 years of women voting in Montana

It was 100 years ago when Montana women gained the right to vote.

On July 4, JoLynne Yenne invites women to join in the Bigfork Parade to celebrate this milestone.

Yenne is bringing in Suzette Dussault who will walk in the parade as Jeannette Rankin, and give a presentation after the parade at the Swan River Community Hall.

Dussault, like Rankin, was born and raised in Missoula. She has been speaking as Rankin through the Montana Cultural Trust and the National Endowment for the Humanities for 10 years.

Rankin, the first female elected to congress, was instrumental in women’s suffrage. “I feel her story is so significant,” Dussault said. “It’s a story of a person who did make a difference, and how an individual can make a difference.”

Dussault said in the 1900s parades were one way women would promote the suffrage movement. Making the Bigfork Independence Day parade an ideal way to remember Rankin and celebrate women’s rights.

“It will be really fun, and it will really replicate what happened in 1914,” she said. “That was how they got the word out, they would be part of parades or events.”

Anyone who wishes to walk with Dussault in the parade can show up at 10:30 a.m. at the parade start.

At 1:30 p.m. Dussault will speak as Rankin, telling the story of how the people of Montana were able to come together to “overthrow” the Anaconda Mining Company and approve the Montana Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. There will be a pot-luck picnic at the Swan River Community Hall as well.

The presentation is free and open tot the public.

“It’s a uniquely Montana story,” Dussault said.