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Séliš | |
|---|---|
 Flathead Nation flag | |
| Total population | |
| 7,753 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Montana, U.S. | |
| Languages | |
| Séliš language, English | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| OtherInterior Salish peoples |
TheConfederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation (Montana Salish:Séliš u Ql̓ispé,Kutenai:k̓upawiȼq̓nuk) are afederally recognized tribe centered on theFlathead Indian Reservation in the U.S. state ofMontana. The tribe includesBitterroot Salish,Kutenai, and UpperPend d'Oreille people, who are allInterior Salish peoples.
The Bitterroot Salish were referred to by Euro-American explorers asFlathead Indians. This name was originally applied to variousSalish peoples after Europeans misinterpreted their identifyingCoast Salish Sign Language sign to mean that they practicedartificial cranial deformation. This sign involved pressing both hands to the opposite sides of the head and meant, "We the people.”[1][2]
The peoples of these tribes originally lived in the areas of Montana, parts ofIdaho,British Columbia, andWyoming. The original territory comprised about 22 million acres (89,000 km2) at the time of the 1855Hellgate treaty.
The tribe has about 7,753 citizens members with approximately 5,000 tribal citizens living on the Flathead Reservation.[3] Their predominant religion isRoman Catholicism. 1,100 Native Americans from other tribes and more than 10,000 non-Native Americans also live on the reservation.
The People's Center Museum opened in 1995 in Pablo, Montana. Now called the Three Chiefs Cultural Center in Pablo, Montana, hosts rotating exhibitions of Salish and Kootenai cultural artifacts.[4] The museum is supplemented with an oral tradition of storytelling that explains the significance of the pieces on display and shares the stories of the people who lived in the time before and during the European invasion.
Every July, the tribes host the ArleePowwow in Arlee, Montana.[3]
The Bitterroot Salish, Pend d'Oreilles, and Flathead speak theSalish–Spokane–Kalispel language, which belongs to theInterior Salish languages within theSalishan language phylum.
In 1988, the Self-Governance Demonstration Project of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) was successful, and the U.S. government returned full autonomy to their tribal leadership in 1993. Over the following decades the CSKT has reverted to traditional governance in which Elders provide counsel, to the chief, on tribal policies, culture and education, and in turn tribal policies have grown out of a desire to strengthen the community's ties to their cultural heritage.[5]
In a move to self-identify and push back against the effects of theIndian Termination policy, namely assimilation, in 2016 the tribe chose to change their name from the anglicized "Salish-Pend d'Oreille" to Séliš-Ql̓ispé. The change was part of a wider movement to include more Salishan in the community's daily lives.
For the Séliš-Ql̓ispé, language and culture are entwined — through oral histories, food practices, horticulture, environment, and spirituality. By reviving the language, they hope to also reclaim their identity, their health, and their culture.[6]
Community efforts to revitalize the Salishan language and culture, aside from efforts to teach classes on language (in some cases, full-immersion into the language with no falling back onto English), include such things as virtual tours and museums, such as theSq'éwlets, which is a Stó:lō-Coast Salish Community in the Fraser River Valley.[7]
The tribe is headquartered inPablo, Montana.[3] It is governed by a democratically elected ten-person council.[8]
The Tribal Council has ten members, and the council elects from within a 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, theSalish Kootenai College, and a heritage museum.[3]
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes were the first to organize a tribal government under the 1934Indian Reorganization Act.[8]
TheFlathead Reservation in northwestMontana is more 1.2 million acres[3] (4,856 km2) in size.
The Tribal Council represents eight districts:
DuringWorld War II, a 422-foot (129 m) Liberty Ship, the SSChief Charlot, was named in his honor and built inRichmond, California, in 1943.
Timber is the primary industry on the reservation.[3]The tribes are the biggest employers on the reservation. In 2011, they provided 65% of all jobs.[9][10]
The tribes own and jointly operate a valuablehydropowerdam, calledSéliš Ksanka Ql'ispé Dam, formerly known as Kerr Dam. They are the first Indian nation in the United States to own a hydroelectric dam. CSKT operates the only local electricity provider Mission Valley Power. They own S&K Electronics, founded in 1984,[11] and the internationally operating S&K Technologies, founded in 1999.[12]
Other tribal businesses are theKwaTaqNuk Resort & Casino inPolson,county seat ofLake County and most populous community on the reservation, and theGray Wolf Peak Casino inEvaro, Montana.
The Flathead and the Pend d'Oreille both agree that the Flathead once occupied a large territory on the plains east of the Rocky Mountains. This tribal homeland included the present-day counties of Broadwater, Jefferson, Deer Lodge, Silver Bow, Madison and Gallatin and parts of Lewis & Clark, Meagher and Park. This was about the time when they got the first horses.[13]: 303–304
The tribe consisted of at least four bands. Respectively, they had winter quarters near present-dayHelena, nearButte, east of Butte and in the Big Hole Valley.[13]: 309
The Salish (Flatheads) initially lived entirely east of theContinental Divide. They established their headquarters near the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. Occasionally, hunting parties went west of the Continental Divide but not west of theBitterroot Range. The easternmost edge of their ancestral hunting forays was bordered by theGallatin Range, Crazy Mountain Range, and Little Belt Range.
The Salis-Tunaxe lived immediately to the north of the Flathead. There was no sharp line between the two tribal territories, and the people in the border zone often intermarried. Further north lived the Kutenai-Tunaxe (Kootenai-Tunaxe). To the east of them lived the Salisan tribes' common enemy, theBlackfoot.[13]: 304
West of the Rocky Mountains lived the Pend d'Oreille, in the territory aroundFlathead Lake. The south of them was occupied by the Semteuse, in a relatively small area. The numerousShoshone semi-surrounded the Salish from the northeast to the southwest.[13]: 304 It seems the Salish did not know theComanche andKiowa at this time. They may have been regarded as bands of Shoshone.[13]: 317
Later well-established plains tribes like theSarsi,Assiniboine,Cree,Crow,Gros Ventre,Arapaho,Cheyenne andSioux lived far away. They were unknown to the Salish.[13]: 304 and 321.
The Salish got horses from the Shoshone,[13]: 350 with horses changing the life of the people. When they had had only dogs, the Salish had paid no special attention to theAmerican bison,[13]: 345 which they had hunted just likedeer andelk. Newly acquired mounts made it possible to overtake the American bison and the secured meat and skins could easily be carried by packhorses. All other hunting game became less important.
Before they had had horses, the Salish had lived in conical tents covered with two to four layers of sewedtule mats, depending on the season.[13]: 332 Thetipi soon replaced the old lodge. Instead of rawhide bags of many shapes and sizes, the women madeparfleches from now on.[13]: 327
Both the Salish-Tunaxe and the Semteuse were almost "killed off in wars" with the Blackfoot[13]: 317 and further reduced bysmallpox.[13]: 312 Some of the survivors took refuge among the Salish. With the near extinction of the Salish-Tunaxe, the Salish extended their hunting grounds northward toSun River. Between 1700 and 1750, they were driven back by pedestrian Blackfoot warriors armed with fire weapons.[13]: 316 Finally, they were forced out of the bison range and west of the divide along with the Kutenai-Tunaxe.[13]: 318
The Flatheads lived now between theCascade Range andRocky Mountains. The first written record of the tribes is either from their meeting with trapper Andrew Garcia, explorerDavid Thompson, or theLewis and Clark Expedition in September 1805.[14] Lewis and Clark came there and asked for horses, but they eventually ate the horses due to starvation. The Flatheads also appear in therecords of the Roman Catholic Church atSt. Louis, Missouri, to which they sent four delegations to request missionaries (or "Black Robes") to minister to the tribe. Their request was finally granted, and a number of missionaries, includingPierre-Jean De Smet, were eventually sent.[15] The Flatheads are also located inSula, Montana.
The tribes negotiated theHellgate treaty with the United States in 1855. From the start, treaty negotiations were plagued by serious translation problems. AJesuit observer, Adrian Hoecken, said that the translations were so poor that "not a tenth of what was said was understood by either side." But as in the meeting withLewis and Clark, the pervasive cross-cultural 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.[16]
Isaac Stevens, the new governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for theWashington Territory, was intent on obtaining cession of theBitterroot 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. Because of 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.[16]
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 stay in their Bitterroot Valley forever.[16]
After the 1864 gold rush in the newly establishedMontana Territory, pressure upon the Salish intensified from both illegal non-Indian squatters and government officials. In 1870, Victor died, and he was succeeded as chief by his son,Chief Charlot, aka Charlo, Claw of the Little Grizzly. Like his father, Charlot adhered to a policy of nonviolent resistance. He insisted on the right of his people to remain in the Bitterroot Valley. But territorial citizens and officials thought the new chief could be pressured into capitulating.[17]
In 1871, they successfully lobbied PresidentUlysses 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 presidentJames Garfield, to make arrangements with the tribe for their removal. 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 Charlot's "X" onto the official copy of the agreement that was sent to the Senate for ratification.[17]
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 (5,300 km2), 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.[17]
In November 1889, Charlot signed an agreement to leave the Bitterroot Valley. Inaction by Congress delayed the removal for another two years. According to some observers, the tribe's desperation reached a level of outright starvation. In October 1891, a contingent of troops fromFort Missoula forced Charlot and the Salish out of the Bitterroot and roughly marched the small band sixty miles to the Flathead Reservation.[17]
The three main tribes moved to the Flathead Reservation were the Bitterroot Salish, the Pend d'Oreille, and the Kootenai. The Bitterroot Salish and the Pend d'Oreille tribes spoke dialects of the same Salish language.
A dispute over off-reservation hunting between a band of Pend d'Oreilles and the state of Montana's Fish and Game department resulted in theSwan Valley Massacre of 1908.
Though marked for termination in 1953 under theHouse concurrent resolution 108[18] of the US federalIndian termination policy, the Flathead Tribes were able to resist the government's plans to terminate their tribal relationship in Congressional hearings in 1954.[19]In 2021 the Bison were returned to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes[20]
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