Big Sandy News

A Havre man has been given a six-year deferred sentence and ordered to pay $325,000 in restitution for punching a Big Sandy man in April 2011, causing him to suffer permanent brain injuries when he fell and hit his head in a bar parking lot.

Fewer than 1,000 people call the small Hi-Line town of Harlem home. Sitting on the edge of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, it is in the heart of rural Montana, sparsely populated but, as teachers and students of Harlem Elementary School have discovered, filled with generous people ready to help at a moment's notice.

They brought with them a tradition of quilting -- creating works of beauty and utility made in fabric to guard against the cold Montana nights.

"This is our 100th year farming and I'm the 5th generation to take the reins", says Nathan Merrill, Farm Manger of GTO Farms in Big Sandy, MT.