Curtis Brien is principal and athletic director of Lodge Grass High School on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation. But his path to that position was long and difficult. In this episode of Mountain West Voices, he talks about the emotional and physical scars left by his four years at Indian boarding schools, and what he learned from the experience.

In this episode of Mountain West Voices, Montana Rancher Ellen Pfister Talks Cattle and Coal.

In this episode of Mountain West Voices, Montana Rancher Ellen Pfister Talks Cattle and Coal.

In this episode of Mountain West Voices, Patricia Netherland tells of the journey that took her to a successful career as an MMA fighter - "Little Patricia Vidonic" - to her life as a single mother and successful entrepreneur in Billings, Montana.

This week on Mountain West Voices: The remarkable story of Flora Wong, a Chinese-American woman who survived the Sino-Japanese war and came to Montana as a "Picture Bride." Even though her marriage was arranged, and Flora "didn't know about the bird and the bee," she fell deeply in love with her husband. She is now 87 years old, runs marathons, has swum nearly 5000 miles, and says she will "keep going until I drop."

In this episode of Mountain West Voices, we hear from Dulcie May Klusmann, who, as a teenager, worked as a code breaker at Bletchley Park, Britain's top secret center for breaking German codes and ciphers. She remembers meeting Winston Churchill, who praised the "Bletchley girls," telling them they were like "geese that laid the golden egg without cackling." Dulcie came to Montana as a "war bride" in 1945, and now lives in a senior residence in Bozeman.

In this episode of Mountain West Voices, Lorraine Rivers Tucker recalls the journey that took her from the rough Montana copper mining town of her childhood, to a Dominican convent in Wisconsin, to Mobile Alabama in the early 1960's. At 24, teaching in an all black school, she found herself swept up the currents of the civil rights movement - marching in picket lines, being arrested and jailed.

This week on Mountain West Voices: Linh Huynh came to Canada as a child with the exodus of the 'boat people' from Vietnam. Today, she helps Calgary's new immigrants, teaching them English, and helping them adapt to their adopted country while preserving their own cultures.

In this episode of Mountain West Voices, we visit a remarkable language teacher at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Dorothy Thunder grew up at Little Pine First Nations Reserve in Saskatchewan, surrounded by the Plains Cree language. Today, the number of young people who speak the language is dwindling. Dorothy has dedicated her life to reversing that trend.

This week on Mountain West Voices, producer Clay Scott sees an orphaned black bear cub on the Montana prairies, miles from suitable bear habitat. The cub climbs a power pole, and it takes three game wardens several hours to safely tranquilize the bear and get him to a wildlife rehab center.