The Sidney Area Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture will host Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau’s program, “Eastern Montana Through the Eyes of a Homestead Family,” with Russell Rowland at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Sunrise Festival of the Arts.

Eastern Montanans live in a region completely different from what most people imagine when they think Montana. Rowland talks about these differences and relates them to the history of his own family members who were among the first cattle ranchers in the state. They came west in the late 19th century because of the excellent grasses for livestock and after them came the railroad, then immigrants and outcasts, the experienced and the greenhorn. Men dragged their families to this isolated region in hopes of taking advantage of this rich grass.

Rowland’s novels, “In Open Spaces” and “The Watershed Years,” chronicle more than 30 years in the life of the Arbuckle family – George Arbuckle, a Scotsman with a feel for cattle, was his great-grandfather – and show how both desperation and greed can affect families that are struggling to survive in the country that can be both brutal and extremely generous. He has a master’s degree in creative writing from Boston University and teaches creative writing at MSU-Billings.