The documents collected in this book provide a window into a challenging and dangerous period in the history of the Salish and Pend d'Oreille Indians of western Montana. Although all of these sources were written or recorded by white people, used carefully, the documents provide important information about the experiences of the tribes. Between 1845 and 1874, the Salish and Pend d'Oreilles faced continued attacks, property loss, and death from the Plains Indian tribes east of the Continental Divide. The population losses the western tribes suffered nearly exterminated them as independent tribal bodies. The Salish and Pend d'Oreilles allied with and adopted warriors from other western tribes to replace some of their war losses. They also reached out for spiritual power from the Christian missionaries who established Saint Mary's and Saint Ignatius missions. Another coping strategy was their alliance with the white men who invaded the Northern Rocky Mountains and fought the same Plains tribes. During this era, the Salish and Pend d'Oreilles also expanded their farms and horse and cattle herds to compensate for the declining plains buffalo herds.

"Published by the Salish Kootenai College Press"

Peter Ronan (1839-93) was the government agent for the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana from 1877 until his death. It was a period of rapid cultural and economic change for the tribes as hunting and gathering resources declined and the surrounding white population exploded in western Montana. As an ex-newspaperman, Ronan provided reports to the commissioner of Indian Affairs with unusually full and detailed information about Flathead Reservation events during a critical time for the tribes. Ronan was a unique federal Indian Agent in the nineteenth century both because of both the length of his tenure and his ability to work with tribal leaders.

"Justice to Be Accorded to the Indians" includes Ronan's letters during the 1888-93 period covered by this second volume of Ronan's letters, the tribes navigated growing economic and legal crises. Tribal farms and cattle herds expanded to make up for declining traditional hunting and gathering resources. Ronan and Kootenai chief Eneas worked hard to avoid open conflict with white settlers encroaching on the northern boundary of the reservation. Despite repeated provocations, Eneas was able to keep the peace and struggled to get equal justice for Kootenai victims of white criminals. The letters also detailed Ronan's efforts to relocate the Bonners Ferry Kootenai and Lower Pend d'Oreille Indians on the Flathead Reservation and make off-reservation allotments to those tribal members who chose to remain in Idaho and Washington. This volume includes biographical sketches of Salish chiefs Arlee, Charlo, and Louison; Pend d'Oreille chief Michel; and Kootenai chief Eneas.

Letters from the Rocky Mountain Indian Missions reveals the life of an Italian Jesuit as he worked at three missions in the northern Rocky Mountains from 1874 to 1878. Meticulously translated and carefully annotated, the letters of Father Philip Rappagliosi (1841-78) are a rare and rich source of information about the daily lives, customs, and beliefs of the many Native peoples that he came into contact with: Nez Perces, Kootenais, Salish Flatheads, Coeur d'Alenes, Pend d'Oreilles, Blackfeet, and Canadian Metis. These never-before-translated letters reveal the shifting, sometimes volatile relationship between the missionaries and the Native Americans and also provide a window into the complex lives of the Jesuits. After requesting to work among the Native peoples of the American West, Rappagliosi arrived at Saint Mary's Mission in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana in 1874, where he spent much time among already converted members of the Salish Flathead Nation. The energetic Rappagliosi journeyed next to Canada to visit some Kootenai Indian bands and then was reassigned to Saint Ignatius Mission, where he interacted with the Upper Pend d'Oreilles Indians. Rappagliosi's final and most difficult assignment was at Saint Peter's Mission among the Blackfeet in Montana, who were not converts. There he became embroiled in disputes with a controversial former Oblate priest, and foul play was suspected in his death at the age of thirty-seven. Robert Bigart is a librarian emeritus at Salish Kootenai College. He is the editor of Over a Century of Moving to the Drum: Salish Indian Celebrations on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

St. Ignatius Mission on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana was a bustling place in the early 1890s. Each year well over three hundred Native American students attended the schools and over a thousand tribal members and Indian visitors camped at the mission for the Christmas, Easter, and St. Ignatius Day celebrations. The mission was also a training center for aspiring Jesuit priests. Here Indian students and parishioners learned useful skills and received spiritual consolation, even as the missionaries worked to undermine valuable aspects of Salish and Kootenai culture. Documents in "Zealous in All Virtues" describe the schools and the student exhibitions of drama, song, oratory, and music. Although direct Indian reminiscences from the period have not survived, "Zealous in All Virtues" assembles government reports, newspaper accounts, St. Ignatius church records, letters from missionaries, and other sources to offer general readers and historians an intriguing glimpse into life at a nineteenth-century mission.

On July 16, 1855, eighteen leaders of the Flathead, Kootenai, and Upper Pend d'Oreilles Indians signed an agreement with the United States government, ceding their title to almost all the land in western Montana and establishing the Flathead Indian Reservation. Born of confusion and disagreement, the Hell Gate Treaty is the legal basis for the modern relationship between the tribes and the federal government. "In the Name of the Salish & Kootenai Nation" reproduces the complete text of the Hell Gate Treaty and collects previously published documents relating to the treaty, among them the official proceedings of the treaty council, Gustavus Sohon's portraits of many of the treaty signers, and letters from the Jesuit priest, Adrian Hoecken, who was present at the treaty deliberations. These documents are presented in the hope that they will inspire further questions and research.

This book is a window into the Flathead Indian Reservation of western Montana in the twentieth century. The manuscript has been taken from the transcripts of a series of thirteen audio and video interviews conducted with Charles Duncan McDonald between 1982 and 1991. He tells much about his life, experiences, and the Flathead Reservation ordeal during the twentieth century. McDonald was a widely respected elder of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. During his long life (1897-1995), he was an eyewitness to almost a century of economic and political change on the reservation. He experienced the loss of his allotment and the hard times of the second decade of the last century and the Depression years in the 1920s and the 1930s. As a tribal councilman and later as a tribal employee, he witnessed the slow growth of the economic and political power of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes between 1935 and the end of the twentieth century. In his later years his excellent memory and willingness to share his experiences made him a frequent source of reservation history.