Kootenai lived here first
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Editor,
The Kootenai had a vast territory, before Canada was a country. Prior to the spread of diphtheria and small pox, over 10,000 Kootenai lived from the upper most part of British Columbia, to as far south as the state of Wyoming, beyond Lake Pend d’Oreille and the Eastern most part of Montana. Cranbrook, B.C., resident Mulian Michelle, the great-great daughter-in-law of Kootenai Chief Michel, during her speech in the mid-1980s at Kerr Dam stated, “When I’m here at Flathead Lake, I’m standing in my kitchen.”
The Salish, Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine Sioux, Cheyanne and Crow Tribes are newcomers. The arrival of these bands are documented at the National Archives and their Regional Archives, and at other research institutions. Had these tribes not moved from their homelands, they would have perished, like the other tribes who resisted being forced from their homelands.
Bands of Salishian speaking tribes, Flathead, Pend d’Oreille, Kalispel, and Spokane tribes, who are “the confederated tribes,” migrated from the West coast (the Pend d’Oreille should not be allowed to claim they are separate and unique). In their move, the Colville, Kalispell and Spokane branched off, the Bitterroot Salish tried to stay among the Nez Perce. Chief Joseph sent them on because his people and the Kootenai were at war with the United States Calvary.
Throughout mankind, peoples occupy a beautiful homeland, because they were created for the land. Unlike the tall, lanky newcomer plainsmen, the Kootenai were compact, agile, mountainous people who adapted to this land. Artifacts housed in the basement of Salish Kootenai College are Kootenai artifacts; the Army Corps of Engineers have had universities radiocarbon date them. They are 11,000 years old.
So, if we allow Pend d’Oreille to act separate, then the three other Salish Bands will want to act separate, the over 300 Crees, who we had to take in 1919, the Metis who we allowed to stay, even though Chief Big Knife told them, “no second helpings,” (meaning not your future generations), then over 1,000 illegally enrolled will want even more.
Margaret Friedlander
Dayton
(Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part letter.)
