The nine years between 1912 and 1920 were a period of economic and political struggle for the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. The Indian people toiled to maintain their economic independence despite the theft of most of their land assets. The new Flathead Irrigation Project destroyed most of the private irrigation ditches tribal farmers had dug over the years. Some tribal members opened businesses and organized rodeos, but many ventures were frustrated by government policies, fire, and drought. While trying to adapt to the economic impact of allotment, the tribe also fought against paternalistic and exploitive government policies. Until 1916 half of tribal income from timber and land sales was used to operate the agency and construct an irrigation project that largely benefited white settlers. During most of the 1912 to 1920 period, Flathead Agent Fred C. Morgan and his allies on the Flathead Business Committee fought the more radical Flathead Tribal Council over agency policies. The Flathead Tribal Council especially fought against congressional appropriations to construct the irrigation project as long as the construction was to be paid for with tribal funds or with liens on tribal allotments.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century the crescendo of economic change on the Flathead Reservation was reaching a climax. Income was not distributed equally on the reservation even though by 1905 the Indians were basically self-supporting and most of the poorer tribal members had enough to get by. But the surrounding white community cast covetous eyes on tribal assets—especially the land. In 1903, Congressman Joseph Dixon led an assault on the tribes to force the sale of reservation land to white homesteaders at far below its real value. Tribal leaders realized they were being robbed and protested vigorously—to no avail. With the loss of their assets in land, the tribes’ future income declined, leaving them poorer than white rural Montanans. As part of the allotment policy, tribal members wrestled with a formal enrollment to determine who had rights on the reservation. White businessmen also moved to claim possession of the dam site at the foot of Flathead Lake. While the tribes were fighting against the coerced allotment, they fought the State of Montana over taxes and hunting rights. In the background alcohol and crime impacted some tribal members.  

The written records of Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai Indian history between 1907 and 1911 are dominated by continued complaints against allotting and opening the reservation. A long string of letters and a series of delegations to Washington, DC, left no doubt that the Indian leaders and tribal members opposed the opening. Tribal members recognized that the allotment policy was driven by white men’s greed and desire to get tribal assets at bargain prices. Most of the complaints that made it to the Indian Office files are from, or were initiated by, Sam Resurrection. To make matters even worse, in 1908 Senator Joseph Dixon secured funding for the Flathead Irrigation Project. The project would destroy most of the private irrigation ditches the Indian farmers had dug over the years and make the tribes pay for the construction of the irrigation project, which mainly benefited white homesteaders. The tribes fervently protested against this use of their assets—the land—to reward Dixon’s political backers. The allotment and opening of the Flathead Reservation devastated the new tribal economy based on livestock and agriculture.  

To Keep the Land for My Children's Children is a collection of primary documents about the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana between 1890 and 1899. The 1890s witnessed the heartbreaking climax of the struggle of Chief Charlo and the Salish Indians to develop a self-supporting community in the Bitterroot Valley. The period also saw the doleful impact of a biased white-controlled justice system and predatory economic interests in western Montana. Four Indians were hung for murder in Missoula in 1890, but whites who murdered Indians escaped punishment. In the 1890s tribal leaders labored to hold the agency-controlled Indian police and Indian court accountable. Serious crimes were tried in off-reservation courts with varying degrees of justice. In the early part of the decade government agent Peter Ronan and Kootenai leaders tried and failed to protect Kootenai farmers just north of the reservation boundary. A predacious Missoula County government developed new and novel legal theories to justify collecting county taxes from the "mixed blood" people on the reservations. Duncan McDonald and Charles Allard Sr. ran a hotel and a stage line on the reserve. Sources describe a community that actively looked out for its interests and fought to protect tribal independence and assets.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai tribes of western Montana navigated a world of military struggles with enemy tribes in alliance with the newly arrived tribe of white Americans. By the last quarter of the century-from 1875 to 1889-the paradigm had shifted, as the tribes worked to keep the peace and preserve their tribal rights and assets against the onslaught of the growing white population. In just fifteen years, the Flathead Reservation tribes careened from dramatic efforts to stay out of the 1877 Nez Perce War to pressing the white justice system to punish white men who murdered Indians. In 1889 the Missoula County sheriff actively pursued Indians accused of murdering white men, but whites accused of killing Pend d'Oreille chief Michelle's relatives and Kootenai chief Eneas's son went unpunished. In 1882 tribal leaders negotiated terms for the sale of a railroad right of way through the reservation. Throughout the 1880s, Chief Charlo worked to secure the Salish's right to remain in the Bitterroot and, if possible, obtain enough government aid to help establish a self-supporting Salish community in the Bitterroot Valley.

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.

The story of the cattle barons has often overshadowed the experiences of the common cowboy on whose labor the ranchers' wealth was built. Malcolm McLeod recorded the life of privation and danger of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century mixed-blood cowboy. He worked for cattle owners across Montana and in southern British Columbia and eastern Washington. Born in Washington Territory in 1870 of Scotch, French Canadian, and Chippewa Indian heritage, McLeod traveled countless miles over the years. But home remained the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana, where he was enrolled and allotted land. McLeod worked for Charles Allard, one of the largest stock owners on the Flathead Reservation. He herded Allard's famous buffalo herd and even rode buffalo for Allard's short-lived Wild West Show in 1893. In later years McLeod tried his hand at farming, at a harness and shoe repair shop, and in the taxi business, but these enterprises never provided the excitement and danger of his cowboy work. It was the labor and experiences of men like McLeod that built the modern Flathead Reservation community and economy.

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.

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.

Duncan McDonald (1849–1937) led a remarkable life as an entrepreneur, tribal leader, historian, and cultural broker on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. The mixed-blood son of a Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader and a Nez Perce Indian woman, Duncan accompanied the Pend d’Oreille Indians on a buffalo hunt and horse-stealing expedition to the Montana plains during the early 1870s. During the late nineteenth century he was put in charge of Fort Connah, the Hudson’s Bay Company post on the Flathead Indian Reservation, and worked as an independent trader across the northern Rocky Mountains. Duncan established a hotel and restaurant, among other businesses, on the Flathead Reservation. In 1878 and 1879 he wrote a history of the 1877 Nez Perce Indian War, which was published in a Deer Lodge, Montana, newspaper. Long a thorn in the side of Flathead Indian agents, Duncan was chairman of the Flathead Business Committee between 1909 and 1924 and for many years represented the interests and views of tribal members to the Montana white community.

"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.

""A Great Many of Us Have Good Farms" "includes Ronan's letters from 1877-87, when the Salish and Kootenai navigated crises that could have destroyed the tribes. In 1877 the tribes worked hard to stay out of the Nez Perce War, after which they then had to avoid conflict with white settlers who could mistake them for hostiles and a government that tried to deprive them of guns and ammunition for hunting and self-defense. The Bitterroot Valley Salish struggled to preserve their right to live in their traditional homeland.

The letters, an 1884 photographic tour of the reservation, and a biographical sketch of Ronan provide a rich and exciting journey through nineteenth-century Flathead Indian Reservation history.

"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.

This history of the Nez Perce War was written in 1878-79 by Duncan McDonald, a relative of Chief Looking Glass and the son of a Hudson's Bay Company fur trader and a Nez Perce Indian woman. McDonald spent most of his life on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. McDonald wrote the history based on interviews and family sources. In 1878 he traveled to Canada to interview Nez Perce chief White Bird and learn his side of the story. Remarkably, the history was published in a Deer Lodge, Montana, newspaper only a year or two after the war ended. McDonald's Nez Perce War history is published with a historical introduction and selection of his other essays on Indian affairs, in which he objects to the United States government's unjust treatment of northwest Indian tribes and condemns the threats of some Montana whites to attack Indians who were friendly to the settlers.