The earth seemed to reawaken with the love and attention of the drummers and the respectful crowd on Oct. 4, 2003 at Council Grove State Park near Missoula, the day the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d' Oreille people gathered to honor their ancestors and dedicate a memorial to them.
The memorial's three panels, designed and created under the leadership of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes, present the full text of the Hellgate Treaty of 1855 flanked on either side by a description of the tribes' ancestral lands and a history of the treaty.
In 1855 the tribes met with Isaac I. Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory and negotiated this treaty that changed their lives forever.
July 16, 1855, nearly 2,000 tribal members gathered at Council Grove to meet with Stevens, who was also responsible for a survey to find a northern route for the transcontinental railroad. The tribes expected to talk about the continuing attacks by their enemies, the Blackfeet. They viewed themselves as friendly with white men and sought their help in establishing peace.
When the council began, Stevens surprised tribal leaders, explaining he wanted to make a treaty in which the Flatheads or Salish led by chief Victor, the upper Pend'Orielles led by chief Alexander, and the Kootenai led by chief Michel would agree to “go on one tract of land.”
Stevens was interested in ensuring the way was clear for identifying a northern route for a railroad to the Pacific coast, and the Hellgate Treaty was one of four treaties he established in 1855 across the territory.
Over the course of the council, dealing with very poor interpreters and complex cultural differences, the tribal leaders struggled to make their intentions not to part with their lands understood. A government transcript of the time records their voices, frequently in very garbled translations.
Stevens insisted on viewing the tribes' multiple clans as one united tribe with common concerns and homelands, further complicating the negotiations.
Under these circumstances, tribal leaders Victor, Alexander, Michel and other tribal members struggled to gain protections and the land-use rights they expected.
In one case, Victor negotiated to have the Bitterroot Valley surveyed and if, “in the judgment of the President,” as the treaty says, it is better adapted to the needs of the Salish people, a portion of the Bitterroot would be “set apart as a separate reservation… ”
This article of the treaty wasn't fulfilled in the way the Salish understood it would be. As a result, about 250-300 Salish lived in the Bitterroot Valley for decades in resistance. Finally, they were forced to move to the Flathead Reservation in 1891 by congressional act.
The Hellgate Treaty ended a way of life and began a new era for the tribes. Under its articles, the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille people agreed to move to a 2,000 square mile reservation in the Flathead Valley and relinquished claim to about 23,000 square miles they considered ancestral homelands.
“The losses that Indian people have experienced are hard to communicate in words. In particular, I feel the deepest grief for our language and culture, both of which are intimately intertwined and exist in such a fragile condition,” said Julie Cajune, director of the memorial project and coordinator of the Indian Education Program for School District 30 in Ronan.
Doug Monger, Montana State Parks division administrator said the new memorial helps Council Grove State Park to tell the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille people's story. “Now the park affirms the honor that the tribes hold for their ancestors and for this special place,” he said. Main source book: In The Name Of The Salish and Kootenai Nation edited by Robert Bigart and Clarence Woodcock. Published by Salish Kootenai College, 1996.
