Page 18 - Flathead Beacon // 11.5.14

18 NOVEMBER 5, 2014 150 YEARS OF MONTANA FLATHEADBEACON.COM
FROM PEAKS TO PLAINS, THE PRESSURES
MONTANA’S TERRITORIAL YEAR MARKED THE BEGINNING OF AMERICAN INDIANS CEDING SACRED LANDS
BY TRISTAN SCOTT
In 1864, Native Americans popu- lated both sides of the Continental Di- vide, while Lewis and Clark had come and gone as a blip on their radar, as had many of the mountain men and fur trappers.
But in a single, pivotal, tumultuous year, the pressures of western expan- sionism by white Americans and for- tune seekers would apply unprecedent- ed pressure on Montana’s earliest resi- dents, setting into motion a history that would forever change the culture of the indigenous people and deal them untold injustice.
Native Americans have lived in Montana for more than 14,000 years, according to archaeological records, with the Bitterroot Salish arriving from the west coast and the Kootenai resid- ing mostly in present-day Idaho, Mon- tana and Canada.
The first written record of the Bit- terroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreilles tribes, which today form the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reserva- tion, came through their meeting with the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805.
After the gold rush of 1864, in the newly established Montana Territory, pressure intensified and problems with the Hellgate Treaty of 1855, which from
MILESTONES IN MONTANA HISTORY
MAY 26, 1864
President Abraham Lincoln signs into law a bill designating Montana a U.S. territory. Congress debated the nam- ing of the territory at length, including proposals such as Idaho and Jefferson. Lawmakers settled on Montana, which derives from Spanish and Latin, mean- ing “mountainous.”
AUG. 1, 1868
David Carpenter becomes the first per- son to file an official homestead claim in
Native Americans at Somers, July 7, 1907. MATT ECCLES PHOTO, COURTESY OF NORTHWEST MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM AT CENTRAL SCHOOL
OF WESTERN EXPANSIONISM
the beginning was riddled with transla- tion problems, ran deep.
The Hellgate Treaty created the Flathead Indian Reservation and de- fined its boundaries, but government surveys ultimately diminished the al- lotment of lands on its northern and southern tips.
In 1904, Congress passed the Flat- head Allotment Act, setting the course
the Montana territory for a section of land just north of present-day Helena. Homesteaders were able to buy land for $1.25 per acre.
MARCH 1, 1872
President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Act of Dedication law that created Yel- lowstone National Park, formally es- tablishing the first national park in the world.
JUNE 25-26, 1876
The 7th Cavalry of the United States Army, led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, engages a combined force of Lakota (Sioux)-Northern Cheyenne- Arapajo Indians, led by Sitting Bull, near present day Hardin. The tribes handily defeat the U.S. Army in the Bat-
for the loss of more than 60 percent of the reservation land base. By the time enrollment and census were complete, only 245,000 acres of the 1,245,000 al- lotted in the Hellgate Treaty were se- cured by allotments. The remaining lands were opened to homesteading for agriculture and grazing.
The arrival of homesteaders changed more than land ownership as
tle of Little Bighorn, or “Custer’s Last Stand.”
1880
According to early documentation, only 27 “Euroamericans,” or whites, are liv- ing at the head of Flathead Lake. All are livestock men except for one woman, two girls and a blacksmith. Within 10 years, the upper Flathead Valley report- edly had 3,000 occupants.
1881
After emigrating from Ireland to the U.S. at age 15, Marcus Daly arrives in Butte and buys an upstart copper mine named the Anaconda Copper Mine. It develops into one of the world’s most prolific mines and makes Butte one of the most prosperous cities in the world.
they began fencing the land and claim- ing water rights from streams and di- verting it for irrigation.
As more non-Indians moved to the reservation, the influx of homestead- ers led to the tribes being the minority population on their own reservation, with non-Indians outnumbering Indi- ans 2-1.
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As the population in the area spiked to over 60,000, Daly became one of the so-called “Copper Kings” of Montana, alongside William A. Clark. The Copper Kings would hold significant political sway and control of the state’s newspa- pers for over half a century.
1887
T. J. Demers founds the town of De- mersville, located on the Flathead River. For a few years, until the rise of Kalispell, Demersville was the largest town in the upper Flathead Valley.
AUG. 8, 1889
Chief Arlee of the Flathead Nation, “the last of the war chiefs of his race,” dies at his ranch near the present day town of Arlee at the age of 74.