Editor

Challenge to Survive Unit Iv Editor

A history of the Salish people of the Flathead Reservation during an especially critical period, written at the Junior High School reading level and well illustrated with contemporary pictures. Many eyewitness accounts and documents are included. The forty year period covered by this history was a period of dramatic change. The chief and tribal members had to adjust to the end of the buffalo hunt and dramatic reductions in other hunting and gathering resources. In response, the tribes increased their cattle herds and farms to maintain their economic independence. At the same time they had to deal with the growing power of the Flathead Agent. By the first of the twentieth century the tribes were successful in this adjustment and were about as well off economically as most rural Montana whites i.e., they were not poor. In 1910 allotment was forced on the tribes without their consent and a large portion of the tribal assets land was sold to white settlers at far less than what it was worth. This reduced the future income of tribal members and the conflict over allotment fractured the tribal social structure.


These texts are for a junior high school course on Flathead Reservation history. The set includes contemporary documents and twentieth century interviews with tribal elders to emphasize eyewitness memories and personal experiences.