Aspen Decker links Salish ledger art to language revival and traditional fire, hunt knowledge

Aspen Decker, a linguist, historian and ledger artist, told a Radius Gallery audience in Missoula that she uses ledger art to teach and preserve Salish language, seasonal-round knowledge and traditional fire-management techniques.

Decker said the visual work embeds stories passed down “from countless generations over thousands of years” and that combining artwork and language helps keep those stories—and the community’s seasonal knowledge—alive. “Fire is a tool that we use for land management,” Decker said, describing controlled burns she said were used to renew grassland and manage travel routes.

Why it matters: Decker framed ledger art as a vehicle for cultural perpetuation and language revitalization. She described how seasonal markers—plants and animal behaviors—dictated travel and harvest cycles, and how those patterns were encoded…