Flathead Indian Reservation

The Flathead Indian Reservation, located in western Montana on the Flathead River, is home to the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles tribes – also known as the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. The reservation, often referred to as the Flathead Nation, or simply Flathead or by its official acronym C.S.K.T., was created through the July 16, 1855, Treaty of Hellgate.

It has land in four of Montana's counties: Lake, Sanders, Missoula, and Flathead, and controls most of Flathead Lake. The Flathead Indian Reservation, west of the Continental Divide, consists of 1,938 square miles (5,020 km²) (1,317,000 acres (533,000 ha)) of forested mountains and valleys.

Native Americans have lived in Montana for more than 12,000 years, based on archaeological findings. The "Flathead" Salish and Kalispel are the easternmost of the Salishan tribes, and are considered by tribal elders to be "the head or parent tribe" from which other Salishan groups dispersed downstream. Kootenai groups stretch north and west into what is now Idaho and Canada, with only the southeastern Ksanka band being primarily connected to the Flathead Reservation. The Kootenai left artifacts in prehistoric time. One group of the Kootenai in the northeast lived mainly on bison hunting. Another group lived on the rivers and lakes of the mountains in the west. When they moved east, they could rely less on salmon fishing, but turned to eating plants and bison. During the 18th century, the Salish and the Kootenai tribes shared gathering and hunting grounds. As European-American settlers entered the area, the different cultures of peoples came into conflict.

In 1855 the United States (US) made the Treaty of Hellgate, by which it set aside a reservation solely for use of the Flathead, encompassing an area including much of Flathead Lake. By the late 19th and early 20th century, the federal government had adopted a policy of allotting lands to individual Indian households from their communal holdings, in order to encourage subsistence farming and adoption of European-American ways.

Although the Flathead opposed such European-style allotments and farming, the US Congress passed the 1904 Flathead Allotment Act. Construction of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project using the Mission Mountains as the water source was also authorized by Congress. Thousands of acres on the reservation were reserved for town sites, schools and the National Bison Range. The Flathead were given first choice of either 80 or 160 acres (32 or 65 ha) of land per household.

According to their treaty, the tribes have the right to off-reservation hunting, but the state believed it could regulate those activities. State game wardens were responsible for a violent confrontation in 1908 with a small Pend d'Oreilles hunting party, which resulted in deaths of four of the Native Americans, in what is known as the Swan Valley Massacre. A court challenge to their hunting rights reached the US Supreme Court, which upheld tribal treaty rights to hunt off-reservation in their former territory.

After allotments of land to individual households of members on the tribal rolls, the government declared the rest of the communal land to be "surplus" and opened the reservation to homesteading for White settlement. United States Senator Joseph M. Dixon of Montana played a key role in getting this legislation passed. Most tribal members chose land close to the mountains where wild game still roamed, so prime farmland in the middle of the valleys was available. When it opened in 1910, 81,363 applications by whites were received for 1,600 parcels of land. Lottery winners took only 600 tracts, leaving 1,000 tracts still open. These were taken in what the tribe considers a subsequent "land grab". The distribution of the lands caused much resentment by the Flathead as homesteaders started fencing the land, claiming water rights from streams and diverting water for irrigation. Congress amended the act to authorize the construction of irrigation systems for homesteaded lands within the reservation. The United States Reclamation Service began reconnaissance surveys in 1907 and actual work commenced in the summer of 1908. The tribes requested the establishment of the Pablo National Wildlife Refuge which was established in 1921, subject to reservoir uses for the irrigation project. The Tribes manage the fishery resources in the Pablo Reservoir. Originally a joint project, the Indian Service gained control of Flathead Irrigation Project in 1924. With the rugged mountains and valleys, numerous waterways diverse in size, and a large amount of natural lakes, the project was not completed until 1963.

A tribal council was formed in response to the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. They were the first tribes to organize a tribal government under the act. Under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, the tribal council was finally able to begin gradually taking over management of law enforcement, justice, forestry, wildlife, and health and human services programs. The Flathead have worked to regain control of the reservation lands and acquire some of the approximately one-half of the land base appropriated by non-Indians. The allotment of reservation lands remains "a very sensitive issue".