Kutenai Topics – Access Genealogy

Treaty of October 17, 1855

Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at the council-ground on the Upper Missouri, near the mouth of the Judith River, in the Territory of Nebraska, this seventeenth day of October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by and between A. Cumming and Isaac I. Stevens, commissioners duly appointed and authorized, on the part of the United States, and the undersigned chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the following nations and tribes of Indians, who occupy, for the purposes of hunting, the territory on the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, and who have permanent homes as follows: … Read more

Treaty of July 16, 1855

Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at the treaty-ground at Hell Gate, in the Bitter Root Valley, this sixteenth day of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by and between Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory of Washington, on the part of the United States, and the undersigned chiefs, head-men, and delegates of the confederated tribes of the Flathead, Kootenay, and Upper Pend d’ Oreilles Indians, on behalf of and acting for said confederated tribes, and being duly authorized thereto by them. It being understood and agreed that … Read more

Jocko Reservation

Flathead Agency Report of Special Agent Horatio L. Seward on the Indians of the Jocko reservation, Flathead agency, Montana, December 1890, and January 1891. Names of Indian tribes or parts of tribes occupying said reservation: Bitter Root, Carlos band, Flathead, Kutenay, Lower Kalispal, and Pend d’Oreille. The unallotted area of this reservation is 1,433,600 acres, or 2,240 square miles. The reservation has been partly surveyed. It was established, altered, or changed by treaty of July 16, 1855 (19 U. S. Stats., p. 075). Indian population 1890: Pend d’Oreilles, Pmt nays, and Flatheads, 1,608; Carlos band and Bitter Root Flatheads, 146; … Read more

Kutenai Indians

Kutenai Indians. Said to be from a term applied to this tribe by the Blackfoot Indians and believed by Turney-High (1937) to have come originally from the name of a Kutenai tribe or division called Tunaha. Also called: Flatbows, the name given often to the Lower Kutenai, the origin of which is unknown. Kúspe(lu, their Nez Perce name, signifying “water people.” Sán’ka or asán’ka, own name, significance unknown. Shalsa-‘ulk°, by the Sinkiuse and said to be from a place name, but see below. Skelsá-ulk, Salish name, signifying “Water People.” Slender Bows, name sometimes given as an interpretation of their own … Read more

Kutenai Tribe

Kutenai Indians (corrupted form, possibly by way of the language of the Siksika, of Kútonâqa, one of their names for themselves). A people forming a distinct linguistic stock, the Kitunahan family of Powell, who inhabit parts of south east British Columbia and north Montana and Idaho, from the lakes near the source of Columbia river to Pend d’Oreille lake. Their legends and traditions indicate that they originally dwelt east of the Rocky mountains, probably in Montana, whence they were driven westward by the Siksika, their hereditary enemies. The two tribes now live on amicable terms, and some intermarriage has taken … Read more

Blackfeet Tribe in War

The Blackfeet were a warlike people. How it may have been in the old days, before the coming of the white men, we do not know. Very likely, in early times, they were usually at peace with neighboring tribes, or, if quarrels took place, battles were fought, and men killed, this was only in angry dispute over what each party considered its rights. Their wars were probably not general, nor could they have been very bloody. When, however, horses came into the possession of the Indians, all this must have soon become changed. Hitherto there had really been no incentive … Read more

Blackfoot Tribe, Past and Present

Fifty years ago the name Blackfoot was one of terrible meaning to the white traveler who passed across that desolate buffalo-trodden waste which lay to the north of the Yellowstone River and east of the Rocky Mountains. This was the Blackfoot land, the undisputed home of a people which is said to have numbered in one of its tribes the Pi-k[)u]n’-i 8000 lodges, or 40,000 persons. Besides these, there were the Blackfeet and the Bloods, three tribes of one nation, speaking the same language, having the same customs, and holding the same religious faith. But this land had not always … Read more

Condition of the Idaho Indians in 1890

U.S. Indian Agent and Party on Fort Hall Reservation

Early the summer of 1877 troubles arose in regard to the occupancy of the Wallowa valley by white settlers, it having been withdrawn in 1875 as a reservation under treaty of 1873, because of the failure, of the Indians to permanently occupy it. An Indian belonging to a band of non-treaty Indians under Chief Joseph was killed by some settlers; then the Indians insisted upon the removal of the settlers and the restitution of the valley to them. Upon the refusal of the government to do this, and after further efforts to compel all the non-treaty Indians to come into … Read more