Spring Creek Mural Brings Native Identity to Ronan

RONAN — A bold new mural now spans the side of a Main Street building in Ronan, bringing color, culture and conversation to the heart of town.

The Spring Creek Mural, completed in just over 14 long days, is the largest public artwork painted by Aspen Decker, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and Cameron Decker, a Dine tribal member and CSKT descendant, and it’s one of the largest murals in Montana.

"It's the biggest — the biggest Native on the rez," said Aspen. "So I think that's pretty awesome, she's like 18 feet."

"Seeing my original one was a 22 inch by 14 inch, then now it's like a 30-some size horse by 18 ft," she added, noting the inspiration came from one of her smaller ledger art pieces.

Cameron recalled how large the scale became. "It's pretty funny, when she was up there on the ladder, that bag is about as tall as you are," he said, referring to his wife. "It maybe seems smaller back here, but when you're up there, every single bit of this is the biggest painting we've ever made of anything."

"Just the blue of the horse took all day," Aspen said.

The mural also became part of Cheyenne Renee's national "50 in 50" project, her effort to paint murals in 50 small towns in all 50 states by the end of 2025. She worked with Aspen and Cameron Decker to combine artwork

While eye-catching, the blue horse also carries cultural meaning. "Some may question 'why the blue horse?' as it is not a typical horse color," Aspen said. "But it's seen in a lot of pictographic elements, or even in ledger art, where you see a lot of blue, green, red, and kind of all these Native colors of paint pigments that we've had here."

"Blue came later on, but after it got introduced here then it was seen through all regalia and designs," she said. "I think the blue horse is one of my favorite ones to do out of all my horses in my ledger art."

The mural depicts elements of place and culture, including local ponds, Native plants, seasonal cycles, and the Mission Mountains. Aspen explained the water and pond imagery reflects the place name meaning "where the water comes out," referring to the wetlands around Ronan.

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