Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation

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Flathead family

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation are the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles (Kalispel) tribes. They are Plateau Indians, traveling to hunt buffalo and living in tipis like the Plains Indians, but also having access to reliable food sources in the form of fish, particularly salmon, in the many rivers and streams of their homelands; they also gathered berries and roots, particularly camas. They learned of the Catholic religion through the Iroquois and requested missionaries to come and minister to them.

History

Pre-contact

These tribes originally lived in the areas of Montana, parts of Idaho, British Columbia and Wyoming.

The Salish (Flatheads) initially lived entirely east of the Continental Divide but established their headquarters near the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. Occasionally hunting parties went west of the Continental Divide but never east of the Bitterroot Range. The easternmost edge of their ancestral hunting forays were the Gallatin, Crazy Mountain, and Little Belt Ranges. The people are a Salish speaking group of Native Americans.

Salish Men Near Tipis (1903 Flathead Reservation, MT)

Unlike most other tribes in Montana, the Bitterroot Salish migrated from the west. The Salish occupied territory in Washington, Idaho, and western Montana but ventured as far east as the Bighorn Mountains. As the tribe moved east, it had to change from a lifestyle based on salmon fishing to one more dependent on native plants and buffalo.

The Kootenai, however, are native to the state. Archaeological evidence shows that Native Americans inhabited Montana more than 14,000 years ago, and artifacts indicate that the Kootenai have roots in the area's prehistory. The Kootenai inhabited the mountainous terrain west of the Continental Divide, venturing only seasonally to the east for buffalo hunts. The Kootenai were divided into two main groups. One band lived to the northeast and had a lifestyle based on buffalo hunting. The other band lived in the mountainous west and had a lifestyle focused on rivers and lakes.

During the 1700s, these two tribes – the Salish and the Kootenai – shared common hunting and gathering grounds.

Post-contact

The first written record of these tribes is from their meeting with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, where the Kalispel are mentioned under the name "Coospellar" where they crossed the mountains on annual expeditions to hunt buffalo (Thwaites 2001). The "Flatheads" also appear in the records of the Catholic Church at St. Louis, Missouri to which they sent four delegations to request missionaries (or "Black Robes") to minister to the tribe (Shea 1855).

Treaty of Hellgate

The Treaty of Hellgate was signed in Hellgate on July 16, 1855 between Indian commissioner Isaac Stevens and the tribes located in western Montana. The treaty was ratified by Congress, signed by President James Buchanan, and proclaimed on April 18, 1859 (Prucha 1994).

The tribes involved in the signing of the treaty entailed the Bitteroot Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and the Kootenai. Based on the terms of the accord, the Native Americans were to relinquish their territories to the United States government in exchange for payment installments that totaled 120,000 dollars. The territories in question entailed everything from the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains at the 49th parallel to the Kootenay River and Clark Fork to the divide between the St. Regis Borgia River and the Coeur d'Alene River. From there, the ceded territories also extend to the southwestern fork of the Bitter Root River and up to Salmon River and Snake River. The treaty was ratified on March 8, 1859.

Bitteroot Salish

Called the Flathead Indians by the first white men who came to the Columbia River, the Bitterroot Salish call themselves Salish ("the people"). The term "Flathead" derives from the flat skull produced by binding infant's skulls with boards. However, this tribe never practiced head flattening, but rather were called "Flat head" because the tops of their heads were not pointed like those of neighboring tribes people who practiced vertical head-binding. The sign language used by neighboring tribes to distinguish the "Flatheads" consisted of "pressing each side of the head" with the hands.

Their lifestyle was typical of the Plateau Indians, gathering wild roots, particularly camas, and living in mat-covered lodges, and also hunting buffalo and living in tipis part of the year. They were reported to be peaceful, except for historical enmity with the Blackfeet (Mooney 1909).

Originally practicing an animistic religion with ceremonial dances, notably the Sun Dance. However, when they met the Iroquois through trade with the Hudson's Bay Company they learned of the Catholic religion. In 1831 they sent a delegation to St. Louis requesting missionaries be sent to them. In 1840 the Jesuit Father Pierre-Jean De Smet responded to this request. Welcomed by a gathering of some 1600 members, he established the mission of St. Mary on the Bitter Root river. Although this was later abandoned due to incursions by the Blackfeet, conversion to Catholicism was successful and a new mission of St. Ignatius was established in 1845, by Fathers De Smet and Adrian Hoecken; in 1854 that mission was moved to its present location in St. Ignatius, Montana, and has continued in operation to contemporary times (Krause).

The Bitterroot Salish negotiated the Treaty of Hellgate with the United States in 1855. The original territory comprised about 22 million acres (89,000 km²) at the time of this treaty. From the start, the negotiations were plagued by serious translation problems. A Jesuit observer, Father Adrian Hoecken, said that the translations were so poor that "not a tenth of what was said was understood by either side." However, as in the meeting with Lewis and Clark, the pervasive miscommunication ran even deeper than problems of language and translation. Tribal people came to the meeting assuming they were going to formalize an already-recognized friendship. Non-Indians came with the goal of making official their claims to native lands and resources. Isaac Stevens, the new governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for Washington Territory, was intent on obtaining cession of the Bitterroot Valley from the Salish. Many non-Indians were already well aware of the valley's potential value for agriculture and its relatively temperate climate in winter. Due to the resistance of Chief Victor (Many Horses), Stevens ended up inserting into the treaty complicated (and doubtless poorly translated) language that defined the Bitterroot Valley south of Lolo Creek as a "conditional reservation" for the Salish. Chief Victor put his X mark on the document, convinced that the agreement would not require his people to leave their homeland. No other word came from the government for the next fifteen years, so the Salish assumed that they would indeed stay in their Bitterroot Valley forever.

Flathead delegation in Washington, D.C. with interpreter, 1884

After the 1864 gold rush in newly established Montana Territory, pressure upon the Salish intensified from both illegal non-Indian squatters and government officials. In 1870, Chief Victor died, and he was succeeded as chief by his son, Chief Charlot (Claw of the Little Grizzly). Like his father, Chief Charlot adhered to a policy of nonviolent resistance. He insisted on the right of his people to remain in the Bitterroot Valley. However, territorial citizens and officials thought the new chief could be pressured into capitulating. In 1871, they successfully lobbied President Ulysses S. Grant to declare that the survey required by the treaty had been conducted and that it had found that the Jocko (Flathead) Reservation was better suited to the needs of the Salish. On the basis of Grant's executive order, Congress sent a delegation, led by future president James Garfield, to make arrangements with the tribe for their removal. Chief Charlot ignored their demands and even their threats of bloodshed, and he again refused to sign any agreement to leave. U.S. officials then simply forged Chief Charlot's X onto the official copy of the agreement that was sent to the Senate for ratification.

Over time, the real reason for the Hellgate treaty meetings became clear to the Salish and Pend d'Oreille people. Under the terms spelled out in the written document, the tribes ceded to the United States more than twenty million acres (81,000 km²) of land and reserved from cession about 1.3 million acres (5300 km²), thus forming the Jocko or Flathead Indian Reservation. Conditions had become intolerable for the Salish by the late 1880s, after the Missoula and Bitter Root Valley Railroad was constructed directly through the tribe's lands, with neither permission from the native owners nor payment to them. Chief Charlot finally signed an agreement to leave the Bitterroot Valley in November 1889. Inaction by Congress, however, delayed the removal for another two years, and according to some observers, the tribe's desperation reached a level of outright starvation. In October 1891 a contingent of troops from Fort Missoula forced Chief Charlot and the Salish out of the Bitterroot and roughly marched the small band sixty miles to the Flathead Reservation.

By the early twentieth century it was reported that the Salish were increasing in population on the Flathead Reservation. They were considered "moral, devoted Catholics, and in every way a testimony to the zeal and ability of their religious teachers," and had adjusted their lifestyle to become "prosperous and industrious farmers and stockmen" (Mooney 1909).

Pend d'Oreilles

The Pend d'Oreilles, also known as the Kalispel, lived around Lake Pend Oreille, as well as the Pend Oreille River, and Priest Lake although some of them live spread throughout Montana and eastern Washington. The primary tribal range from roughly Plains, Montana westward along the Clark Fork River, Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, and the Pend Oreille River in Eastern Washington and into British Columbia was given the name Kaniksu by the Kalispel peoples. The Kalispel are one of the three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. The name Pend d'Oreilles is of French origin, meaning "hangs from ears," which refers to the large shell earrings that these people wore. Their language, Kalispel-Pend d'Oreille, belongs to the Salishan family.

The Pend d'Oreilles were generally peaceable. They made tools from flint, and many other things were shaped with rocks. For housing the Pend d'Oreilles lived in tipis in the summer, as well as lodges in the winter time. These houses were all built out of large cattails, which were available in abundance. These cattails were woven into mats called "tule mats" which were attached to a tree branch frame to form a hut.

The traveled to gather their food on a seasonal basis, while also maintaining more permanent areas that they farmed. Camas was a staple, baked and dried to preserve it not only through the winter but for several years. They also caught salmon, which they dried and thus preserved a year's supply. Berries were also gathered and dried. In the winter they hunted and trapped, trading furs for supplies.

The horses they needed came from trading buffalo skins. They people wore robes as well as skins for clothing. They decorated themselves with dyes, paints, beads, and sometimes even animal quills.

In 1844 the Jesuit Father Adrian Hoecken began missionary work with the Pend d'Oreilles, establishing the St. Ignatius Mission with Father Pierre-Jean De Smet. Through this missionary work the Pend d'Oreilles were successfully converted to Christianity, as were the other tribes in the area.

In 1855, the "Upper band" who lived around the lake joined with the Salish and Kootenai in signing the Treaty of Hellgate, and were settled on the Flathead Reservation in Montana. Some of the "Lower band" who lived on the river joined them; others of this group settled on a reservation in Washington.

Kootenai

The Kootenai (also spelled Kutenai) or Ktunaxa (pronounced in English as /k.tuˈnæ.hæ/) are an indigenous people of North America. They are one of three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana, and they form the Ktunaxa Nation in British Columbia. There are also populations in Idaho and Washington in the United States. The Flathead Reservation is home to the Bitterroot Salish and Pend d'Oreilles tribes as well. Today, the Ktunaxa are members of seven bands or nations, five of which are in British Columbia, Canada, and two are in the United States.

The tribes constitute a distinct stock (Kitunahan). There is evidence that they formerly lived in the eastern plains, east of the Rockies, but were driven into the mountains by the Blackfeet (Mooney 1910b). They were known by the neighboring Salish as Skalzi (lake or water people), and to the French as Arez-à-plats (Flatbows) (Money 1910b).

Kootenai Group Near Tipis (ca. 1900)

Kootenai girls, photographed by Edward S. Curtis in 1911.

A member of the Ktunaxa or Kootenai/Kootenay First Nation serving as a crewman aboard the sternwheeler Duchess, first steamboat to run on the Columbia River above Golden, BC.

Kutenai woman 1910 photogravure by Edward S. Curtis

Contemporary Flathead Indians

Flathead Indian Reservation

The Flathead Indian Reservation of over 1.3 million acres (5,300 km²), located in western Montana on the Flathead River, is home to the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles Tribes, together known as the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. The Reservation was created through 1855 Treaty of Hellgate and includes parts of four Montana counties: Lake, Sanders, Missoula, and Flathead. The Flathead Indian Reservation is an area of 5,019.621 km² (1,938.087 sq mi) of forested mountains and valleys just west of the Continental Divide.

The tribe has about 6,800 members with approximately 4,000 tribal members currently living on the Flathead Reservation and 2,800 tribal members living off the reservation. Their predominant religion is Roman Catholic. 1,100 Native Americans from other tribes and over 10,000 non-Native Americans also live on the reservation.

As the first to organize a tribal government under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1936 the tribes are governed by a tribal council. The Tribal Council has ten members and the council elects from within the Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. The tribal government offers a number of services to tribal members and is the chief employer on the reservation. The tribes operate a tribal college, the Salish Kootenai College and a heritage museum called "The People's Center" in Pablo, seat of the tribal government.

The tribes own and jointly operate a valuable hydropower dam called Kerr Dam as well as the Best Western KwaTaqNuk Inn in Polson, county seat of Lake County and most populous community on the reservation.

The present-day population of the Flathead Indian Reservation is 26,172 as of the 2000 census. The largest community on the reservation is the city of Polson, which is also the county seat of Lake County. The seat of government of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation is Pablo.

Kalispel Indian Reservation

The Kalispel Indian Reservation is northwest of Newport, Washington, in central Pend Oreille County. The total land area of the Kalispel Indian Reservation is 18.840 km² (7.274 sq mi). The main reservation is an 18.638 km² (7.196 sq mi) strip of land along the Pend Oreille River, west of the Washington-Idaho border. There is also a small parcel of land in the western part of the Spokane metropolitan area in the city of Airway Heights, with a land area of 0.202 km² (49.92 acres), the site of Northern Quest Casino which is operated by the tribe. The Northern Quest Casino provides nearly 1,000 jobs for members of the local community.

Kootenai Indian Reservation

The Kootenai Indian Reservation lies in central Boundary County, Idaho, about 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of the Canadian border, and about 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) west-northwest of the city of Bonners Ferry. It has a land area of only 0.076575 km² (18.922 acres) and a 2000 census resident population of 75 persons.

Salish Kootenai College (SKC) is a Native American tribal college based in Pablo, Montana which serves the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles tribes. There are approximately 1,100 students attending the college; enrollment is not limited to Native American students.

Prior to 1978, it was a branch campus of Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC). In 1981, the college formally disassociated itself from FVCC and became completely self-governing. It is member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

SKC offers seven Bachelor's degree programs, 13 Associate degree programs, and seven certificate programs. Most of the degree programs are career-oriented, though students can elect to take courses of study in fields such as the liberal arts and Native American Studies.

References
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Bigart, Robert, and Clarence Woodcock. 1996. In the Name of the Salish & Kootenai Nation: The 1855 Hell Gate Treaty and the Origin of the Flathead Indian Reservation. University of Washington Press. ISBN 0295975458
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Ktunaxa Legends. Pablo, MT: Salish Kootenai College Press, 1997. ISBN 0295976608
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition]. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. ISBN 0803243111
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation. A Brief History of the Flathead Tribes. St. Ignatius, Mont: Flathead Culture Committee, Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, 1979.
Johnson, Olga Weydemeyer. Flathead and Kootenay; The Rivers, the Tribes, and the Region's Traders. Northwest historical series, 9. Glendale, CA: A. H. Clark Co, 1969.
Curtis, Edward S. "Kalispel," The North American Indian, Volume 7, 51. Northwestern University, Digital Library Collections, 2003 (original 1911, Norwood, MA: The Plimpton Press). Retrieved December 16, 2008.
Boas, Franz, and Alexander Francis Chamberlain. Kutenai Tales. Washington, DC: Govt. Print. Off, 1918.
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Linderman, Frank Bird, and Celeste River. Kootenai Why Stories. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1997. ISBN 0585315841
Tanaka, Béatrice, and Michel Gay. The Chase: A Kutenai Indian Tale. New York, NY: Crown, 1991. ISBN 0517586231
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Boas, Franz. 1917. Folk-tales of Salishan and Sahaptin Tribes. Published for the American Folk-Lore Society by G.E. Stechert & Co. Available online through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection. Retrieved December 10, 2008.
Carriker, Robert C. 1973, The Kalispel People. Phoenix, AZ: Indian Tribal Series.
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Fahey, John. 1986. The Kalispel Indians. [Civilization of the American Indian series, v. 180]. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806120002
Lacy, Thomas F. 1994. Kaniksu, Stories of the Northwest. Keokee Company Publishing. ISBN 1879628066
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Mooney, James. 1910b. "Kutenai Indians." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York, NY: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved December 10, 2008.
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Andrews, Leah. Idaho's Forgotten War Idaho Natives. Retrieved December 16, 2008.
Shea, John Gilmary. [1855] 2008. History Of The Catholic Missions Among The Indian Tribes Of The United States, 1529-1854. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0548997826
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