Cuts the Rope, LaSalle to enter Cowboy hall of Fame

Press release

The Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center announced their 16th class of inductions into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, including legacy inductee Clarence Cuts the Rope of Hays and living inductee Leon Lasalle of Laredo.

The inductees were chosen from a field of candidates nominated by the general public. Inductees are honored for their notable contributions to the history and culture of Montana.

"The Hall of Fame exists to honor those who have made an impact in their part of the state and represent Montana's authentic Western heritage for future generations," said DuWayne Wilson, MCHF & WHC president. "Our volunteer trustees around Montana vote on nominations that come from the district in which they reside. This process gives the local communities a strong voice in who will represent them in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame."

The Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center board of directors has designated 12 trustee districts across the state from which up to 20 trustees may be appointed. Nomination criteria established by the board for the Class of 2024 inductions allowed the election of one Living Inductee and one Legacy Inductee from each of the 12 districts.

Lasalle and Cuts the Rope are the inductees for District 4, which includes Blaine, Chouteau, Hill and Liberty counties.

Clarance Basil Cuts the Rope, 1935-2000, legacy inductee, District 4

Clarence Basil Cuts the Rope was born April 12, 1935, to Frank and Matilda (White Plume) Cuts the Rope at the family log cabin in Hays.

Cuts the Rope came from a large family and was an enrolled member of the Gros Ventre Tribe. He grew up learning about his people and culture from his grandparents. His grandfather received the name Cuts the Rope when he and a friend attempted to steal Crow horses. His friend was captured, but Cuts the Rope's grandfather stole into the Crow camp, cut the rope that bound his friend and they quickly escaped. Cuts the Rope became the family surname when Cuts the Rope's father Frank was given his English name while in school.

Cuts the Rope went to the Mission School in the Little Rocky Mountains, the same school that his parents attended, and where all his brothers and sisters were educated. He once stated that education was very important to his parents and became important to him, as he got older and began raising his own family. While at the Catholic mission, the Franciscan sisters, as well as his classmates, began to notice his natural artistic ability. The nuns encouraged Cuts the Rope to enter art competitions. After graduating from the mission high school, he went to Haskell Junior College in Lawrence, Kansas, a vocational school for Native American and Alaskan Natives. The school is still operating today as the Haskell Indian Nations University.

Cuts the Rope served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany in a mortar battery unit with the 24th Infantry and the 11th Airborne Divisions. After two years of service, he was honorably discharged in 1959. He always valued his paratrooper wings. Upon his return home to Hays, Cuts the Rope once again began to paint and draw.

  Cuts the Rope gained a new outlook on his life and his art following a severe car accident that left him hospitalized for four months. With the encouragement of his mother and brother, he focused on art full time, and consistently took up the practice of painting. Around this time, he met Margaret Hickey of Massachusetts. She was of Irish and Iroquois descent. With a master's degree in English, she came West to be a Jesuit volunteer for the Mission School and later taught in the public school system.

She and Cuts the Rope were married in 1972 and made their home in Hays. The couple had five children together - Catcher and Delina "Sissy" continue to reside in Hays; Jauquene "Paul" of Havre; Thelma, living in Pryor, and Edna, who has made her home in Billings. When the children were of age, the family moved into Dodson during the winter months so they could attend school. Clarence and Margaret Cuts the Rope built a log cabin and a studio at the Hays family ranch where they lived at the rest of the year.  

Clarence Cuts the Rope continued to paint and draw and soon found that he was establishing a career as a professional artist. He worked with a variety of mediums including sculpting in bronze, oil, watercolor and pastel painting, charcoal, and pen and ink drawings. He signed his artwork with a drawing of a Native pipe by his name, for he saw it as a representative "logo" and a "sign of communication between man and the Creator." This affinity with nature was something Cuts the Rope gained from his Native culture, and all Native Americans from the past. As one of his marketing brochures read, "There are few works of Cuts The Rope that do not have a mood of warm alliance with nature ... Cuts the Rope doesn't just paint a horse - he interprets that horse. His realistic style never looks like a photograph." 

Cuts the Rope is best known for his use of light and color in the wide Montana skies of his oil paintings, and he reflected once in a Billings Gazette article, "My skies, they kind of determine my painting. The colors are so puny that we use, compared to when you look at a sunset, at nature itself."

Cuts the Rope incorporated his Native heritage into his work, along with knowledge of the Montana landscape - especially the plains, mountains, and breaks that have been a part of the region for hundreds of years. Cuts the Rope knew how to tell a story with the horses, wildlife and history right off his doorstep. He said, "Mostly, I like to tell a story - that's what every artist should do."

He had horses and cattle of his own and on occasion would trade paintings for horses. Clarence and Margaret Cuts the Rope traveled to local and national art shows, but mostly he sold his paintings from his studio through word of mouth. For a time, the couple, along with two of their children, Catcher and Sissy, lived in Lewistown, where he had a studio with a gallery open to the public. Cuts the Rope painted many pieces of art in his studio that are now part of private collections both nationally and internationally.  

His talent will forever be immortalized in his work, beautiful tableaus of Western heritage and landscape, particularly the Native American culture and the traditions of his people. He was able to capture these old ways in form and color, and in his own words, felt that he depicted "the real Indian, the wildlife of the prairie, and a history of those who lived there." 

Clarence Cuts The Rope died on March 29, 2000, at the age of 64, in Great Fall of congestive heart failure. He was buried with full military honors in the Cuts The Rope Family Cemetery south of Hays. From there, he looks out upon the landscape that he loved. With his strong connection to the Creator, he probably still gets to paint a sky now and then.

Leon Lasalle, living inductee, District 4

Leon LaSalle was born in Havre to Robert and Jenny (Billy) LaSalle Feb. 10, 1965. He was raised in the Bear Paw Mountains with his five siblings on the family's ranch, working alongside his parents, who started their own operation in 1969, following both of their parents, also ranchers.

LaSalle's mother's family was among the first cattle ranching operations on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.

For family and community comeraderie the family took part in the Little Britches Rodeo events. LaSalle is a third generation of the LaSalles to raise livestock, being involved in ranching since he was old enough to ride and drive.

Graduating from Havre High School, where he played football, he continued his education at Montana State University in Bozeman and Northern Montana College, in Havre, until he had to return to the workforce.

He was employed for a couple years with Baltrusch Construction while helping manage the family's cattle corporation, LaSalle Ranch, which included a yearling operation. LaSalle then began what turned out to be a 33-year career working for the USDA Soil Conservation Service while continuing to manage his own cattle operation.

It was during this time that his passion for helping farmers and ranchers developed. He assisted producers in Chouteau, Blaine and Hill counties put in hundreds of livestock watering systems. Many of these systems were done in some very severe drought years. LaSalle retired from the USDA in April of 2021. Shortly thereafter, LaSalle started his business, Native American Ag Consulting. This allowed LaSalle to continue working with ranchers in north-central Montana to help them stay on the land.

LaSalle married Shannon Brough Dec. 2, 1995. Together they began a lifetime endeavor of renovating an old farmstead that they purchased in the Laredo area southwest of Havre and raised livestock. LaSalle said Shannon has been his rock of support, often having to endure hours of listening to his take on the current issue he was working on.

LaSalle has served as past chairman of the Montana Stockgrowers Association Outreach Committee, 16-year president of the Rocky Boy's Cattlemen's Association; past president of the North Central Montana Stockgrowers; Tribal Delegate Intertribal AG Council, for the Rocky Mountain Region; a boardmember of the North Central Montana Stock Growers Association and as a member of the Beaver Creek Grazing Committee. As a Native American Ag Consulting consultant he worked on USDA related issues in connection with the Chippewa Cree, Fort Belknap and Little Shell people.

In 2011, while serving on the Board of Directors for the Montana Stockgrowers Association, Sen. Max Baucus asked LaSalle to give a presentation to the Senate Ag Committee, in Washington regarding the disaster program concerning ranchers with emergency livestock provision needs. He was surprised to learn that, after flying 2,500 miles, they would give him five minutes only to speak in front of the Senate. If he spoke longer, a buzzer would sound, meaning his time was up and he needed to leave the podium. This was very concerning to LaSalle; he had timed his presentation and could not say what he wanted to say in five minutes. He relayed his concerns to the committee chair, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and she stated, "No worries. I am in control of the buzzer so take your time and deliver your message."

During this session, he presented Stabenow with a copy of "Big Sky Boots, Working Seasons of a Montana Cowboy," written by Lauren Chase for the Montana Stockgrowers Association.

In 2013, the LaSalle Family earned the Environmental Stewardship Award from the Montana Stockgrowers Association.

LaSalle has also been recognized by the Hill County Conservation District as Cooperator of the Year and the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce as the 2015 Outstanding Agricultural leader.

Driven to help maintain and promote agriculture and the livestock business, LaSalle has fought for permanent disaster aid for ranchers, a safety net to help those struggling to survive a drought; assisted in the cleanup of the Milk River; supported new safety policy on open range on much of the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation; made efforts to improve water quality and protect sensitive grazing areas along the creek in Beaver Creek County Park; and opposed an increase in lease costs on state lands for ranchers. In 2022, LaSalle led negotiations for the Chippewa Cree Tribe to enter into an alternative funding arrangement with the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service and also assisted Fort Belknap with their own alternative funding arrangement. These two agreements are the first two such agreements in the United States.

One life experience that LaSalle said he does not want to relive is an elk hunting trip on horseback into the Big Belt Mountains.

The trip was supposed to be taken for relaxation; however, a 34,000-acre wildfire broke out, trapping the men. The first thought was to saddle the horses and ride out ahead of the fire, although when preparing to leave, the fire could be heard closing in. Instead, they grabbed the horses, hurried to the creek and jumped in, believing they could survive in the water. As the fire grew, hunters from other hunting camps merged with their camp. The tall grass was burning as if gasoline soaked, the wind felt like it was blowing 40-50 mph and sounded like a tornado. They could hear propane bottles, gas tanks and ammunition exploding. Each man threw water on themselves and the horses. The horses seemed to understand the situation and were cooperative. Breathing was difficult; the smoke had the men gasping for breath as the fire that swept over them had sucked the oxygen from the air, something they had not thought about. The awful feeling of suffocating began to sink in.

After a few hours, the worst of the fire had moved over their area, and they managed to pull themselves out of the creek. LaSalle was elated to find everyone alive. Shortly before midnight, the Lewis and Clark Sheriff's Office arrived at the camp to evacuate the hunters. However, LaSalle's group remained, watching the fire, to make sure that the hunters who left earlier on horseback were not forced to return. At daylight, LaSalle gathered up the remaining horses and rode out 10 miles to the fire staging area.

LaSalle is helping preserve and invest in our Western heritage future for all walks of life. He shares the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame vision to promote and preserve the Western heritage of Montana for the enrichment of the public and strives to improve the economic opportunity for rural America.