Artful teepees, sled dogs and traditional American Indian ceremonies were once commonplace at Eddie Barbeau's home. The beloved elder from the Ojibway tribe had climbed to relative fame in the Helena area by unifying the city's diverse Indian population -- defending its culture and carrying its pipe.

But now, 11 years after Barbeau's passing, there's a hole in the ground where his Custer Avenue home once sat. His former residence, built in 1935, now sits on blocks. The property itself is surrounded by the Home Depot and a planned retail center, not far from the corner of what's to become a major Helena interchange.

The land now belongs to Montana Opportunities, LLC. The Butte-based company, which didn't return repeated phone calls last week, is looking to build a Town Pump gas station and casino on the site that once belonged to Barbeau.

While no single tribe calls Helena home, members of the city's Indian population are loath to see their memories of Barbeau give way to development, at least without some sort of memorial.

Darren Melton, who replaced Francis Belgarde as the director of the Helena Indian Alliance in 2001, said he first met Barbeau in 1988. Melton credits the elder for changing his life and would like to see him memorialized, if not on the property then elsewhere in town.

Melton lived with Barbeau at his home for six years. During that time, he apprenticed with the elder as an artist and witnessed many ceremonies.

"I told him I'd work around his yard if he taught me Indian arts and crafts," Melton said. "He used a lot of different styles -- Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Lakota. He preserved the Indian culture for all of us and kept it alive."

Melton remembered Barbeau as an accomplished man who sat on the board of the Montana United Urban Indian Alliance and organized Helena's own Indian Alliance in 1969.

Barbeau also trained sled dogs at Camp Rimini and, during World War II, served in Newfoundland to rescue downed American pilots. Later in life he became an accomplished artist, a pipe holder and a spiritual leader for the area's Indian people.

"I have a personal and direct connection to that land," Melton said of the Custer property. "That's where I had my naming ceremony. That's where Barbeau gave me my name, Bear Shield."

Daniel Pocha, a Helena Indian Alliance board member, said he too would like to see Barbeau memorialized. It makes him sad, he said, to see his home up on blocks and the property slated for development.

"He helped expand the culture and helped people identify with their Native customs," Pocha said. "He kept a medicine lodge up at his property. His paintings were on the lodge and it was nationally recognized with its award-winning artwork."

Pocha said that Barbeau also tended an arbor on the property and trained his older brother in the late 1980s on how to make native bead work and dewclaw baskets.

Pocha admitted that the renewed interest in Barbeau's legacy and his contribution to the community were rekindled when his former home was removed from its foundation and prepared for trucking to a new location.

The day-to-day business demanded by the medical side of the Indian Alliance prevents its board from getting involved in Indian cultural issues, Pocha said. That wasn't the case, he added, when Barbeau was alive.

"In the old days, we were more of an advocacy for the Native people," he said. "It was written into our bylaws. It was through the efforts of the Indian Alliance and Barbeau that the city realized it had to offer jobs to Natives other than running behind garbage trucks."

Barbeau was born on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota in 1908. He grew up with his grandparents, however, on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota where he spent his time raising and racing sled dogs.

"He had smoked since he was 7 years old," Melton said. "He once drove his sled 150 miles to get tobacco in Minnesota."

Melton said Barbeau talked about growth in the valley up until his death. Pocha added that he went head to head with local government when it built a sewage treatment plant on the lot behind his home.

"For me, there's a lot of history in his land there that's being covered up, mainly for utilitarian purposes," Melton said. "That whole area has changed over the last 10 years. Something that remembers him on that site would be appropriate."

Barbeau's contribution to the Helena community went beyond the Indian population. In 1993, he was honored as grand marshal during the Last Chance Stampede and Fair. Barbeau, then 85, was seen as a bridge between the city's white and Indian peoples.

Both Melton and Pocha hope to see interest grow in memorializing Barbeau.

Reporter Martin Kidston can be reached at 447-4086, or at helenair.com">mkidston@helenair.com.