Flathead Reservation Timeline

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

2017
The Montana Tribal Histories Reservation Timelines are collections of significant events as
referenced by tribal representatives, in existing texts, and in the Montana tribal colleges’
history projects. While not all-encompassing, they serve as instructional tools that accompany
the text of both the history projects and the Montana Tribal Histories: Educators Resource
Guide. The largest and oldest histories of Montana Tribes are still very much oral histories and
remain in the collective memories of individuals. Some of that history has been lost, but much
remains vibrant within community stories and narratives that have yet to be documented.

Time Immemorial – The Creation and time of the animal people. Coyote and Fox traveled
the earth preparing the world for human beings.

Traditional Life – The Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai flourished in their aboriginal
territory that included most of Montana and portions of Wyoming, Idaho, Washington,
and Canada. The Salish Tribe grew, becoming so large that the people had to divide into
smaller bands.

Pre-1700 – A Salish prophet, Xalíqs,

̣ Shining Shirt foresaw the coming of the “Black Robes”
(Catholic Jesuits).

1650 – 1700 – The Salish and Pend d’Oreille acquired horses from the Shoshone.

1775 – Blackfeet gained continued access to firearms through Hudson’s Bay Company in
Canada, leading to an uneven power struggle with area tribes over a rapidly decreasing
land base.

1780s – A smallpox outbreak reached a group of Salish camped in the Missoula area. The camp
divided – families with smallpox and those without. One group went to the Bitterroot Valley
while the other moved to the Drummond area. Only one boy in the Bitterroot camp survived
the epidemic. By 1782, small pox had killed an estimated one-half to three-quarters of the
Salish and Pend d’ Oreille bands. The combination of the introduction of disease, firearms, and
horses led to massive changes in intertribal territories. Blackfeet expansion caused eastern
bands of the Salish and Pend d’ Oreille to move their winter camps west of the continental
divide. The Salishian people called the Tun̓ áxn, who occupied the Rocky Mountain front, were
decimated. The survivors scattered to the west and merged with other tribes, bringing about
the near extinction of a native people.

1790s – The first French and British fur traders appeared in what is now western
Montana and the Flathead Indian Reservation.

1803 – In the Louisiana Purchase the United States purchased from France the right to
be the only purchaser of tribal lands when and if Indians ever chose to sell any land, and

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the sovereign and commercial rights to be the only government to trade and engage in
diplomatic relationships with the tribal nations in the Louisiana Territory.

1805 – The Salish allowed Lewis and Clark to enter Salish territory in the Bitterroot Valley
near Darby, opening the door to fur trade in Salish territory. Kʷtíɫ
� ̓ ̓ - Salish place
Pupƛm
�
name meaning “Great Clearing” was located at Ross’s Hole.

1809 – The Salish gained regular access to firearms through the establishment of fur
trade in western Montana by David Thompson. Saleesh House, at Sqeyɫ ̓ �
kʷm - Salish
placename in reference to “the Sound of Falling Water” located at Thompson Falls along
with Kullyspell House at Lake Pend Oreille in present day North Idaho established fur
posts in Salish and Pend’ Oreille aboriginal territory.

1811 – 1830 – The peak years of the Fur Trade in the Northwest which had far-reaching
impacts on the ecology, economy, and culture of the people of this region. The Iroquois
people arrived among the Salish people.

1811 – Kullyspell House having been built off the main travel ways was abandoned.

1831, 1835, 1837, 1839 – Years the Salish sent delegations to St. Louis to bring back the
“Black Robes,” the Catholic Jesuit Priests.

1841 – Father De Smet and the first Jesuit missionaries arrived in Montana, establishing
St. Mary’s, a mission near present day Stevensville in the Bitterroot. The Salish
̓ mlš� meaning wide cottonwoods.
placename for St. Mary’s is Ɫqéɫ

1846 – The Oregon Treaty between the United States and Great Britain divided aboriginal
territory along the current Canadian border on the 49th parallel. Millions of acres of
aboriginal lands in current Canada were lost. Kootenai bands along with tribes in the
Salish language family were now placed in separate jurisdictions.

1848 – The United States organized Oregon Territory, exerting jurisdiction over tribal
aboriginal lands west of the continental divide.

1851 – The Fort Laramie Treaty impacted aboriginal territory east of the Rocky
Mountains. The treaty failed to recognize use of Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai
aboriginal lands east of the Continental Divide.

1853 – Isaac Stevens surveyed a route for Northern Pacific Railroad.

1855 – Tribal leaders and US officials signed the Treaty of Hell Gate. Under terms of the
treaty, tribal leaders ceded to the United States “title” to the vast majority of their lands
west of the continental divide. Tribal leaders reserved 1.25 million acres for the Flathead
Reservation, along with the “Conditional Bitterroot Reservation” for what the treaty said
was to be for the tribes “exclusive use and benefit.” In the treaty, the tribes also reserved

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rights on their ceded lands, including the right to hunt, fish, gather plants, and pasture
livestock on “open and unclaimed lands.” Tribal understanding of the boundaries of the
Flathead Reservation was considerably different from what was actually written in the
treaty, particularly the east, west, and northern boundaries.

1855 – Lame Bull/Judith River Treaty with the “Blackfoot Nation” (Piegan, Blood,
Blackfoot, and Gros Ventre), the “Flathead Nation” (Flathead – Salish, Upper Pend
d’Oreille, Kootenai), and Nez Perce. In an effort to establish peace among warring tribes,
the US government convened treaty negotiations to establish a “Common Hunting
Ground” that would be acknowledged and honored by all of the tribes. At these
negotiations, Pend d’Oreille Chief Alexander told all the other Indian leaders present that
the Sweetgrass Hills country “was an old road for our people. A long time ago our people
belonged to this land.” Alexander’s statement documented tribal homelands east of the
Rocky Mountains – as other tribes moved into Montana, the Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and
Kootenai were forced to concentrate their populations on the west side of the
mountains.

1859 – Hell Gate Treaty of 1855 was ratified by US Senate and signed by the President.

1864 – First major gold rush in Montana Territory brought thousands of non-Indian
people with it.

1870 – Xʷeɫ
� ̓ - Many Horses, Chief Victor, died out in buffalo country. His son, Sɫ mxe
xƛcin ̓ ̣
̣
Q� ʷoxqeys – Claws of the Small Grizzly, or Chief Charlo, succeeded him as head chief of the
Bitterroot Salish.

1870s – Six buffalo calves survived a journey west to the Flathead Reservation. Ɫatati,̓ -
Little Falcon Robe, brought the calves to the reservation. These calves eventually became
the Pablo-Allard herd. Remnants of this herd sold to Canada made their way back to the
reservation when the National Bison Range was formed.

1871 – President Grant signed an Executive Order, requiring the Salish to leave the
Bitterroot Valley and go the “Jocko” reservation. The president’s action was not based on
any survey or examination of the Bitterroot for a suitable place (reservation) for the
Salish, as required by the 1855 Treaty of Hell Gate. Representative James Garfield was
appointed by President Grant to secure the Salish removal to the Jocko Reservation.

1872 – Representative Garfield met with the Salish near present-day Stevensville to
secure their approval and signature on an agreement for their removal to the Jocko
Reservation. Chief Charlo refused to sign. Under the terms of the agreement, the Salish
were to move from the Bitterroot Valley to the Jocko Reservation (Flathead Reservation)
in exchange for $55,000, new log houses, a side of beef for every family, and plots of land
designated specifically for the Salish. Salish sub-chiefs Arlee and Adolph signed the
contract, but head chief Charlo, son of Victor, refused to sign, therefore making the
contract invalid. When the agreement was officially presented upon Garfield’s return, a

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signature mark, which was a forgery, appeared on the contract by Chief Charlo’s typed
name. Chief Charlo was enraged when he found out about this deception. The senate
approved the agreement for ratification.

1873 – Chief Arlee and a few families moved to the reservation and settle near the Jocko
Agency.

1875 – By fall of this year, 123 Salish had moved from the Bitterroot Valley to the
reservation. The North American bison population had dwindled to about one million,
due to a deliberate campaign to exterminate them. “The elders say that in the second to
last year of the traditional Pend d’Oreille buffalo hunts, the hunters were able to kill only
27. The following year they killed only seven.” “Going to buffalo” was becoming only a
memory.

1877 – Fort Missoula established in the Bitterroot in large part due to the Nez Perce war.
The non-Indians in Montana Territory feared all Indians were going to rebel against the
federal government and demanded protection.

1882 – Tribal leaders were pressured into signing an agreement to allow a railroad right-
of-way through the reservation, relinquishing 1,430 acres of reservation lands.

1883 – Railroad tracks were laid across the Flathead Reservation. Tribal leaders
expressed their anger and resentment at the continuing loss of tribal homelands. “The
country we gave the government is very valuable. Lots of white men made independent
fortunes in my country … We don’t want the railroad to go through the reservation …
When we heard that you were coming, we made up our minds what to say to you. You
seem to like your money, and we like our country; it is like our parents.” Kootenai leader
Eneas said, “I would like to get the Flathead Lake country back. There are things that the
government promised me in that treaty that I have never seen … We had a big country,
and under those conditions we signed the treaty. Seven years after that we learned that
the line of the reservation ran across the middle of Flathead Lake…. I do not wish the
road to pass through the reservation. This reservation is a small country and yet you
want five depots upon it … My country was like a flower and I gave you its best part….”

1884 – Sisters of Providence boarding school was built in St. Ignatius.

1887 – The Dawes General Allotment Act was passed, mandating the breaking up of
communal tribal homelands and setting a course for catastrophic land loss on
reservations.

1888 – Boys boarding school was completed in St. Ignatius.

1890 – The Ursuline nuns arrived in St. Ignatius and began a kindergarten, which
eventually expanded into a grade school and high school that operated until 1972.

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1891 – Chief Charlo and the Salish were forcibly removed to the Jocko Reservation after
36 years of resisting removal, in the conviction that the 1855 Treaty of Hell Gate had
guaranteed the Bitterroot Valley for their reservation.

1893 – Flathead Reservation Indian Agent Peter Ronan died. Indian agents that
succeeded Ronan were proponents of allotment and homesteading the Flathead Indian
reservation.

1895 – Congress appointed “Crow, Flathead Commission” to negotiate cession of

reservation lands. Tribal leaders refused to cede any lands at any price.

1898 – The first Arlee July celebration was held in spite of the protests from the priests
and Indian Agents. William Smead was appointed as the US Indian Agent for the Flathead
Indian Reservation. Smead, as a state representative, had previously advocated for
opening up the reservation to white settlement.

1901 – A small delegation of representatives of the US Government, led by

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Charles Hoyt, met with tribal leaders on the reservation
to discuss an offer to buy part of the northern end of the reservation. Tribal leaders
refused to sell. Chief Charlo stated, “I will not sell a foot (of land).” Kootenai Chief Isaac
responded, “My body is full of your people’s lies. You told me I was poor and needed
money, but I am not poor. What is valuable to a person is land, the earth, water, trees …
and all these belong to us … We haven’t any more land than we need, so you had better
buy from somebody else.”

1901 – 1904 – Agricultural production statistics of 1902 recorded there were 25,000
cultivated acres with 120,000 bushels of grain, 25,000 tons of hay, and 20,900 bushels of
vegetables produced by tribal members. There were 25,000 horses, 27,000 cattle, and
600 bison owned by tribal members.

1901 – Last documented small pox outbreak among the Salish. A quarantine camp was
set up near Mission Creek.

1903 – Montana Congressman Joseph Dixon introduced a bill to Congress to impose the
Allotment Act on the Indians of the Flathead Indian Reservation.

1904 – Congress passed the Flathead Allotment Act, setting the course for the loss of
over 60% of the reservation land base. Heads of household were assigned 160 acres,
while single adults received 80 acres. Two rounds of allotments were held. An enrollment
and census were done to assign allotments. At this time, many names were altered, as
the census workers insisted on each individual having two names. Upon completion of
the census, 2,390 tribal members were eligible to receive allotments. Of the 1,245,000
acres, only 245,000 were secured by allotments. The remaining grazing and agricultural
lands were opened up to homesteading. Amendments to the act seized additional lands
for town sites, the Indian agency, churches, reservoirs, and power sites, along with

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61,000 acres for Montana school lands. The 16th and 36th section of each township were
set aside for school support. Immediately following allotment, Indian owned cattle
dropped to 5,000 head and the horse herd was reduced to 4,000.

1905 – Chief Charlo traveled to Washington, D.C., to try to persuade the President to halt
the allotment process on the Flathead Reservation.

1906 – Chief Charlo sent tribal leaders Antoine Moiese and Alicot to Washington, D.C., to
make another allotment protest to the President, Congress, or anyone who would listen.
Indian Agent Smead forced Michel Pablo to sell buffalo. Between 1906 and 1913, buffalo
were gradually rounded up and shipped to Canada, the sole purchaser.

1906 – Congress passed the Burke Act that allowed Indian allotments to be taken out of
federal trust if the allottee was deemed “competent.”

1908 – The first round of allotment of lands to tribal members was completed. After 2,400
allotments were issued, covering 228,434 acres, the remaining land was declared
“surplus.” The Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai Tribes suffered another loss of
reservations lands as a Congressional Act passed in 1908 took 16,000+ acres for a
National Bison Range. The Flathead Irrigation Project bill passed, justified as aiding Indians
in transition to agriculture. The project actually benefited non-Indian farmers and
ranchers and harmed many native subsistence operations. Many Indians lacked the
money to pay the irrigation charges, which led to allotments being seized for settlement
of debts. A state game warden killed four members of a Pend d’Oreille family hunting
party in Swan Valley. The game warden was killed by one of the tribal women who acted
in self- defense.

1910 – Chief Charlo died on January 10. In April the Flathead Reservation was officially
opened up to non- Indian settlement. “Surplus” reservation lands were sold to
homesteaders.

1911 – Public schools began to open to serve the non-Indian homesteaders.

1911 – 1934 – By 1930, most of the Indian allotments were now in non-Indian
ownership.

1917 – 1919 – The United States participation in World War I included many American
Indian soldiers, among them members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

1920 – A second round of allotments transferred 124,795 acres from communal Tribal
ownership to individual tribal member ownership.

1924 – Congress granted citizenship to American Indians.

1927 – After learning of plans to construct a massive hydroelectric power plant and dam

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on the lower Flathead River, a coalition of non-Indian reservation residents, the Rocky
Mountain Power Company, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other profiteers attempted
to take ownership of the proposed dam site.

1928 – Congress affirmed the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ ownership of the
proposed dam site.

1930 – Rocky Mountain Power Company secured a license from the FPC to build the
hydroelectric power plant on the proposed reservation site.

1933 – Sixty percent of the original tribal allotments were lost. This land became fee land
owned by non-Indians.

1933 – 1942 – The Civilian Conservation Corps was funded during these years employing
tribal members building trails and roads on the reservation.

1934 – Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act. This Act repealed the Dawes Act
and enabled tribes to voluntarily organize and adopt federally approved constitutions
and by-laws.

1935 – The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes organized under the 1934 Indian
Reorganization Act, ratified a tribal constitution and created an elected government of
ten tribal council representatives and the last two federally recognized head chiefs,
Chiefs Charlo and Koostahtah. The first Tribal Council meeting was held at the Flathead
Agency in Dixon. The Council representatives were Edwin Dupuis, Alexander Clairmont,
Louis Tellier, Eneas Conko, Nicolai Lassaw, Duncan (Charlie) McDonald, William Gingras,
Louis Adams Sr., Louis Couture, and Joseph Blodgett. Chief Martin Charlo and Chief
Koostahtah were life members and active members of all committees. The first
committees established were Land, Finance, Law and Order, Health, Labor, and
Education. The council made a recommendation to designate an area of the Mission
Mountains for management similar to the National Parks, keeping it undeveloped and
allowing only foot and horse trails.

1936 – The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) adopted a corporate charter.
A first order of business was to address issues with Montana Power Company and their
license at Kerr Dam. This included appropriate rental fees, preference hiring of tribal
members in the construction work. The original annual rental fee was $140,000.

1936-1938 – Kerr Dam was built.

1941 – 1945 – Years of World War II, during which 25,000 American Indians served in the
military, including many Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal members. Indian people
also worked in defense-related industries. According to late tribal elder Margaret Finley,
life changed very rapidly for Indian people, “…when we got in the war with the Japanese,
Pearl Harbor, right after that. Everything changed very fast, very, very fast … how we do

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things together, happiness, all that. It all changed.” American Indian people left their
home communities – many for the first time – to serve in the war or work in defense
projects. People who still held the collective memory of an old tribal world were exposed
to a global world that would forever change the country their world was now situated in.

1951 – 1953 – Tribal members again enlisted in the military and served during the Korean
War.

1953 – House Concurrent Resolution 108, the Termination Act, targeted the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Termination ended a tribe’s sovereign status
and relationship with the federal government as a political entity. The Confederated
Salish and Kootenai Tribes were at the top of the list of tribes to be terminated.
Termination was considered “voluntary” and required tribal member consent, although
pressure and coercion were not uncommon.

1954 – The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes successfully resisted the US
government’s attempt to terminate their tribes and reservation.

1960 – The Tribal Constitution was amended to change the blood quantum requirement
for membership to one-quarter degree Salish or Kootenai or both combined. The change
was not retroactive, and only applied to people born after the amendment was
approved.

1961 – The tribes entered into a Public Law 83-280 agreement with the state of
Montana. This law allowed the state to assume criminal and civil jurisdiction on the
reservation. Five states were mandated to this jurisdiction change and Alaska became
the sixth mandatory state in 1958. Montana was not one of the mandatory states;
however, the remaining 44 states, including Montana, had the option to assume
jurisdiction in Indian Country. PL83-280 was amended between 1953 and 1968, allowing
states to assume jurisdiction unilaterally. In response, after tribal opposition, Congress
amended PL 83-280 to include a requirement for tribal consent for the jurisdiction
change, and also to allow acceptance of “retrocession” of the state’s assumption of
jurisdiction. In 1963 the state of Montana passed legislation to allow the state to assume
jurisdiction on reservations. However, by this time the law had been amended to require
tribal consent. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes were the only tribe in the
state to agree to PL 83-280.

1965 – The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes passed a Tribal Ordinance defining
the terms under which they would come under PL 83-280.

1965 – The Indian Claims Commission determined that Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Tribes had not been compensated for the lands ceded in the 1855 Treaty of Hell Gate.
“…the Tribes had surrendered 12, 005,000 acres to the government which were worth
$5,300,000. The total payment to the tribes, however, had only been $593,377.82.” After
fees were taken out, the tribes received $4,016,293.29 in 1967. The compensation was

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determined in 1855 land values. No interest was paid for the 112 years the Tribes had
been deprived of the money.

1971 – The US Court of Claims found that the Flathead Allotment Act was a breach of the
1855 Treaty of Hell Gate. Compensation to the Tribes was determined in 1912 land
values, totaling $7,410,000, of which only $1,783,549 had been paid. The balance of
$5,626,451 was paid a few years later.

1974 – Tribal elders Christine Woodcock, Louise McDonald, and Annie Pierre protested
the Ashley timber sale in the Mission Mountains, successfully stopping it.

1975 – Two Eagle River School was founded, serving high school students with a
dominant focus on cultural studies.

1975 – The Culture Committee was formed and then divided into the Salish-Pend
d’Oreille Culture Committee and the Kootenai Culture Committee. The Indian Self-
Determination and Education Act passed, which recognized the right of Indian tribes to
self-government “as domestic dependent nations, Indian tribes exercise inherent
sovereign powers over their members and territory.”

1976 – Salish Kootenai College was founded. Prior to 1976, only 41 tribal members had
college degrees, compared to 423 from 1976 to 1995.

1978 – The Supreme Court ruled that Tribal Courts do not have criminal jurisdiction over
non-Indians, and that tribal courts DO have jurisdiction over non-Indians in matters such
as permits, licensing, and environmental protection.

1981 – The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Natural Resources Department was
established.

1982 – The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council approved Tribal Ordinance
79A, setting aside approximately 91,778 acres of the Mission Range as the Mission
Mountain Wilderness.

1984 – The Tribes negotiated re-licensing of Kerr Dam, which secured the option to take
control of the dam in 2015, and raised the fee from $2.6 million to $9 million annually,
along with annual adjustments for inflation.

1985 – The Tribes secured minimum stream flows to protect fisheries.

1997 – The National Trust for Historic Preservation named “the Flathead Indian
Reservation one of 11 Most Endangered Places in the United States” due to the proposed
radical expansion of US Highway 93.

1998 – The Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) agreed as part of a legal settlement to pay
the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes $18.3 million to restore, replace, and/or

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acquire the equivalent of Tribal treaty- protected resources that were injured by the
release of hazardous substances in the Clark Fork River through mining and smelting in
Butte and Anaconda.

1999 – The “Squaw” word bill passed Montana State Legislation. The Salish and Pend d’
Oreille Culture Committee begin work to rename over 20 “S” word sites with Salish place
names. By 2009, 19 proposed Salish place names were approved by the US Board of
Geographic Names to replace “S” word sites across Montana.

2002 – Nkwusm, the Salish Language Immersion School, opened in Arlee.

2015 – Kerr Dam administration reverted to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
and was renamed Salish Kootenai Dam.

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