25 Apr A Month as a Tribal Relations RA and a brief history of Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes
This year I will be working for the USDA Forest Service Office of Tribal Relations as a Tribal Relations Resource Assistant. I am working remotely from Northwest Montana, where I grew up. The Northern Region (R1) regional offices are an hour drive away which has given me the opportunity to make a couple of visits and meet the people I will be working with this year. This is my first work-from-home position, and it has been quite the adjustment coming from a background of field positions. Although I am feeling some major FOMO on this year’s field season, I have been enjoying the convenience of working at home (and my dogs have been loving it, too).
These first few weeks have consisted of many hours of learning about the history of Federal Indian Policy and current efforts of strengthening relationships between the Forest Service and Federally Recognized Tribes. My educational background is in Wildlife & Fisheries, not law or policy, so there is plenty for me to learn and much more to come.
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation
I’d like to highlight information about tribes in the Northern Region in each of my blog posts, starting with the tribe I am a member of: The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT). Located on the 1.3 million acre Flathead Reservation in Northwest Montana, CSKT is comprised of three distinct tribes brought together with the establishment of the reservation by the Hellgate Treaty of 1855. The Bitterroot Séliš (Salish), Upper Ql̓ispé (Pend d’Oreille), and the Ksanksa (Kootenai) have traditional lands covering all western Montana, parts of Idaho, British Columbia and Wyoming.
The Salish and Pend d’Oreille people speak the same dialect of the Salish language and share much of the same culture. The Ksanka people are part of the “upper Kootenai” groups, which refers to their primary location along the Kootenai River. The Ksanka people speak an entirely different language than their Salish counterparts and practice a distinct culture. These three tribes shared mutual land and were brought together, likely without a thorough understanding of why, as the Hellgate Treaty was signed.
The Flathead Reservation was initially intended to be entirely tribal land, but with the passing of the Dawes Act of 1887, a specific amount of land was assigned to each tribal member and “surplus” land was open to non-tribal people. The reservation became a checkerboard of ownership and still is today. Despite this, CSKT is doing some amazing conservation work on the reservation and beyond. Some examples of their efforts include the Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness Area (boarded by the Forest Service Mission Mountains Wilderness), the CSKT Bison Range (formerly the National Bison Range), and the installation of numerous wildlife crossing bridges and passageways along Highway 93.
From Salish elder Clarence Woodcock:
“The Mission Mountains have served as a guide, passage way, fortification, and vision-seeking grounds as well as a place to gather medicinal herbs, roots, and a place to hunt for food for the Pend d’Oreille, Salish, and Kootenai Indians since they have lived at the foothills of the Missions… They have become for us, the descendants of Indians, sacred grounds. Grounds that should not be disturbed or marred…Lands and landmarks carved through the minds of our ancestors through Coyote stories and actual experiences. Lands, landmarks, trees, mountain tops, crevices that we should look up to with respect.”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.