With funds from Congress, the blessing of President Thomas Jefferson, the assistance of 45 men, and the companionship of a dog, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set off on a journey of discovery across what was then the uncharted territory of the western United States. The passage would take three years, and span lands that would later become 11 states. It was the year 1804, and the wanderlust that had gripped Europe centuries before had still not eased its hold on one of its former colonies.

One year later, in September 1805, Lewis and Clark found themselves in what would later be Montana, amongst mountains, rivers, streams, woods, and plains teeming with game. Greeting them was a party of 400 Native Americans, composed of members of the Salish tribe, later united with the Ktunaxa and Pend d’Oreille into what would be known as the Flathead nation. The name came from the practice of most Indians of the Columbia region, who used to compress their heads by artificial means. Strangely, none of the three tribes of the Flathead nation did have flat heads.

The traditional tribes of the nation were more hunters and gatherers than they were farmers. They hunted buffalo, deer, elk, and other wild game. They gathered plant foods such as bitterroot, camas, moss, wild onions, Indian potatoes, and sarvis berries, all of which were preserved for later use. Those who lived nearer the mountains subsisted on berries, as a powerful enemy, the Blackfeet tribe, cut off passage to the buffalo hunting country. Water was easy to come by; with rivers and streams snaking through the rich land, the tribes could fish, float their boats, and, when settlers came, use it to find precious metals and convert land into farms and cattle country.
In the meantime, with the land still a stranger to mining and industry, the Salish, Ktunaxa, and Pend d’Oreilles hunted, gathered, practiced some forms of agriculture, fought their wars, and worshipped their gods.

The Salish called themselves Sqéliö, or The People. The Salish nation itself is one of many Salish-speaking tribes, but one among the few who did not practice the custom of head flattening, i.e. tying padded boards to their foreheads in early adolescence, so that their heads would be tapered by the time they reached adulthood. As mentioned, they were hunters, fisherfolk, and gatherers more than they were agriculturists. They did, however, keep domestic animals, including one known as the wool dog.

The Salish were, and still are, blanket weavers. Most of their blankets, shawls, or dresses were made using wool from the mountain goat or the wool dog. Wool dogs were so prized that they were kept apart from the other dogs of the tribe and were not allowed to breed outside of their pedigree.

The changing seasons shaped the lives of the Salish and Pend d’Oreille. Spring was the time of the bitterroot harvest, June the time of sweet camas bulbs, and the blooming of the wild rose the signal that buffalo calves had been born and it was time for the hunt. Summer was a time of berry gathering, drying, and storing. Fall was for hunting, where men hunted for large game, and women processed the meat for winter, or used the remaining hides to make clothes and moccasins. Winter involved some hunting, or indoor weapon making. Fishing was a regular activity all throughout the year.

The Ktunaxa (or the Kootenai), on the other hand, had lived in both the United States and Canada for about 3000 years. They were primarily hunters and fisherfolk; indeed, their name means “licks the blood,” referring to a traditional hunting custom. Their Creation History describes how the Sun and Moon were brothers who produced the powerful life force for all earthly creations; these brothers, the myths say, transformed all beings who chose to live on earth into physical forms, and henceforth assigned them a domain and complementary tools. This concept of interdependence, and its effect on the delicate balance of the natural world, marks the culture of the Ktunaxa.

Like the Salish and Pend D’Oreille, the Ktunaxa’s lives revolved around the seasons. Their diet consisted mainly of salmon, starchy roots, and bulbs. They were semi-nomadic, making winter villages near good fishing sites, and preserving whatever food they could gather. Migration began in early spring, when bitterroots were ripe and fish were many. In early summer, they traveled east to hunt buffalo, then returned to their spring lodgings to process and store the meat. As with the Salish and Pend D’Oreille, they gathered huckleberries, serviceberries, and chokecherries, and preserved them for their winter stores.

The Ktunaxa, however, practiced some form of agriculture other than domesticating animals. For instance, they cultivated a unique species of tobacco for trade with other tribes. Moreover, they practiced aquaculture and fisheries, as they depended upon salmon, sturgeon, suckers, whitefish, and trout in the nearby Kootenay River Basin. Other Ktunaxa who lived far from the basin, on the other hand, practiced little agriculture, and hunted large game.

With Lewis and Clark came curiosity. With curiosity came migration, and with migration came industry. Over the years, many more of the new colonists would meet more of these tribe members, who had long lived in the western Americas, and whose cultures saw life in mere stones, spirits in mountains, and ancestors in the stars. With the coming of industry and progress, most tribes disappeared, or fused into nations, or were gathered into reservations.

In 1855, the Salish, Ktunaxa, and Pend D’Oreille tribes were gathered into the Flathead Reservation, home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai – here, the Salish and Pend D’Oreille are one tribe, and the Ktunaxa another. They became the first nation to designate a wilderness area, and to this day, believe in their role as stewards of the land and its resources.

Through the centuries of transforming seasons and upheavals, the Salish, Ktunaxa, and Pend D’Orielle, though brought together by the demands of industrialization, still find themselves inextricably linked to their land. “The earth is our historian,” one Salish statement says, “It is made of our ancestor’s bones. It provides us with nourishment, medicine, and comfort. It is our source of our independence; it is our Mother. We do not dominate Her, but harmonize with Her.”

For more information on the Flathead Nation, visit http://www.charkoosta.com.