1974-07-15 Char-Koosta News

              Both Commodities and Food Stamps May Be Available
St. Ignatius: For the past month some 400 reservation needy families have been wondering where their next meal was going to come. From Lake County Welfare in Poison or Tribal Commodities in St. Ignatius. Now it appears that food distribution may be available at both places.
The Lake County Welfare Office reported that food stamps were being distributed from the Poison Day Care Center as of July 2. Indian and white families who wish to use food stamps must first be certified at the county welfare office in Poison
before they are eligible for stamps. Food stamps are discount cash for food purchased by needy persons to make their food budget go farther.
At the same time, the tribe is attempting to round up an issue of commodities for   July,       Tribal Commodity Manager Charley McDonald told Char-Koosta that state and U.S. Department of Agriculture buyers are trying to purchase enough surplus food to meet the requirements of commodity ....COMMODITIES (cont. on page 3 )
THE NEWSPAPER OF THE SALISH, PEND d ORIELLES AND KOOTENAI TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD RESERVATION
15 C
HAR-KOOSTA
Volume 4 ¦ Number 6     FULL MOON OF THE SARVICEBERRY     July 15,1974
No Blood On Tattered Hellgate Treaty
When non-Indian speakers at a rally in Ronan last month mentioned "violence" and "bloodshed" as possible solutions to race problems on the reservation, they were not saying anything new.
The relationship between the Salish, Kootenai and Pend 'd Orielle Indians and white settlers has had an undercurrent of threatened violence since the treaty between the tribes and the U.S. government was sign ed 119 years ago tomorrow. Ironically, as we shall see, it has always been the whites who have threatened and Indians who have managed to avoid serious confrontations.
The Hellgate treaty was signed at Council Groves near Missoula on July 16,1855. Endorsing the treaty, which was to have governed Indian-white relationships for the rest of time, were the chiefs of the Bitterroot Salish, the Pend'd Orielle and the Kootenai and a representative of the U. S. government.
The chiefs agreed to cede virtually all of western Montana to the U.S. with the explicit exception of two politically autonomous nations. The treaty calls for a general reservation for the three tribes in the Jocko. The "Flathead Nations" withheld for themselves all the lands now encompassed within the Flathead reservation plus a large section on the southwest boundary extending approximately to the junction of the Clark Fork and Flathead Rivers and a strip along the northern boundary.
In addition, a second reservation was established in the Bitter Root valley for Chief Victor's Salish. The treaty provided that these lands should be carefully surveyed and examined, and if it shall prove, in the judgement of the President (of the U.S.) to be better adapted to the wants of the Flathead tribe....then such portion of it as may be necessary shall be set apart as a separate reservation."
The Salish, Pend'd Orielle and Kootenai Chiefs agreed to "depend" on the U.S. to mediate disputes between them and other tribes and to comply with the laws of the United States in their relationship with white men. In return, the U.S. acknowledged that both reservations would be "set apart, and,
so far as necessary, surveyed and marked out for the exclusive use and benefit of said confederated tribes...Nor shall any white man, excepting those in the employment of the Indian Department, be permitted to reside upon the said reservation (s) without permission of the confederated tribes."
The Hellgate Treaty was not a form letter document dictated to the tribes by Governor Issac Stevens, the United States representative. It was a serious agreement signed by the Chiefs and headmen after six days of hard bargaining and several revisions. The Tribes were dealing with the United State as strong soveriegn nations and the treaty signed was substantially an agreement to co-exist peacefully as friendly nations.
The tribal leaders and the vast gathering of their Indian constituents were not crazy about the idea of signing away their native range...in fact, Salish War Chief Crawling Mountain (Moiese) refused to sign, accusing Stevens of breaking his promise ("you said there would be no talk of land") and telling Victor "you have torn my wings off and let me down'" But the Chiefs thought the treaty would bring peace to the buffalo hunting grounds and were anxious to avoid any trouble with the whites...another war chief, Spotted Coyote of the Pend'd Orielle, had been in action against bluecoats during the Spokane War and was impressed with the effect of the white man's cannons: The Indians, except for Walking Mountain, had no reason to believe that the whites could not bring peace to the buffalo range and would not keep their part of the bargain.
The three tribes had gotten along well with the whites since they were introduced, in the fall of 1805, during the Lewis and Clark expedition. Clark found the Salish "friendly, industrious and honorable" and his sentiments were echoed by other explorers, missionaries and traders among all three tribes. In fact, Stevens said that the Indians of the three tribes were "the best Indians of the mountains or the plains —honest, brave, docile—they need only encouragement to be good citizens."
But there was little encouragement from the whites for ....TREATY   (cont. on page 6)