KHEW News Staff | As of Oct. 14, 2026
A Native musician from Montana’s Flathead Reservation has a new record out. Vincent Bird’s album Mission Mountain Native was released Sept. 17, 2026, according to the Billy Conway Artist Fund, the Montana program that backed the project.
The fund describes Bird as a father, brother, wildland firefighter and basketball coach on the Flathead Reservation, where he grew up and still lives. It calls him “a creative, driven, focused songmaker and performer.”
How a Montana fund helped this Native musician
Bird is the 2025/2026 recipient of the Billy Conway Artist Fund, which gives Indigenous musicians in Montana a living stipend and mentorship so they can focus on their music. In January 2026 he went into the studio with Grammy winning producer lophiile to make the album, the fund says. His first single, “Working Man,” came with a video made by photographer and filmmaker Colter Olmstead.
Bird follows Shadow Devereaux, the Salish and Blackfeet hip hop artist known as Foreshadow, who was the fund’s first artist. Montana Free Press reported in 2025 that the stipend let Devereaux make music full time and pay for child care while he recorded his debut solo album, Perfect Timing, also with lophiile. Devereaux closed out his term with a set at the Red Ants Pants Music Festival.
Why it matters on the Hi-Line
Programs like this one are still rare, and they matter for young Native artists across Montana, including here at Rocky Boy and along the Hi-Line. The path Bird and Devereaux took, with a stipend, a mentor and a real studio, is one other reservation musicians can look into.
Listeners who want to hear Mission Mountain Native can start with the “Working Man” video linked from the fund’s artist page. Musicians who want to learn about the program can reach the fund at billyconway.artistfund@gmail.com.
KHEW will keep sharing new music from Native artists in Montana. If you are a Rocky Boy or Hi-Line musician with a release coming, let the station know.
Sources: Billy Conway Artist Fund, artists page; Montana Free Press, March 18, 2025
