The Flathead Indian Reservation

The Flathead Indian Reservation. . , In the 1855 Treaty of Hellgate, leaders of the Salish ("Flathead"), Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai tribes ceded to the United States most of their lands west of the Continental Divide. The tribes, however "reserved" certain areas, including this 13-million-acre reservation, designated by the treaty for their "exclusive use and benefit." The tribes also reserved the right to hunt, gather, fish, and pasture their animals on "open and unclaimed portions of their ceded lands. , In 1904, Congress violated the treaty's guarantee of the reservations as a sovereign homeland with passage of the Flathead Allotment Act, one of a series of laws aimed at forcing Indian people to abandon traditional ways of life by dismantling tribal ownership of land. Between 1904 and 1908, the government surveyed the Flathead Reservation and allotted individual parcels of land to Indian heads of households. The government then declared most remaining land "surplus" and opened them to non-Indian homesteaders. During the 1910s, aided by construction of the massive Flathead Indian Irrigation Project, non-Indians took control of most of the beat lands and the reservation economy. , In 1934, Congress ended allotment policy with the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes were the first in the nation to adopt a new constitution under the IRA's terms, and since then have gradually rebuilt their sovereignty, developing one of the most accomplished tribal governments in the U.S.