Native People Sustained Through Many Millennia
By editor
Paradise, Sanders County, Montana, July 2011
The Salish and Kootenai people occupied this valley for at least ten thousand years before the first white man arrived to explain to them how they were doing it wrong. They were a practical people who understood that the best way to survive in a place where winter lasts six months is to move around and eat whatever is currently available. They followed the seasons, hunting deer and elk in the mountains, fishing the rivers, and gathering bitterroot and camas in the valleys.
They were also a people who understood the value of a good location. The confluence of the Clark Fork and Flathead rivers was a natural gathering place, a crossroads where different bands could meet to trade, socialize, and arrange marriages. The river provided salmon and trout, the surrounding hills offered game, and the valley floor was rich in edible plants. It was a place where a person could make a decent living, provided they were willing to work for it and didn't mind the occasional grizzly bear.
When the white men arrived, they brought with them a different set of priorities. They wanted to dig holes in the ground, cut down the trees, and build fences. The Salish and Kootenai were eventually moved to the Flathead Reservation, a piece of land that was considerably smaller and less desirable than the one they had been occupying for ten millennia. The marker stands as a reminder that the people who were here first knew what they were doing, and that the people who came later might have learned something from them if they had bothered to ask.
See also
- Native People Sustained Through Many Millennia at Paradise, Sanders County (Lolo National Forest, erected 2011)
- [Flathead Indian Reservation] for more on the history of the Salish and Kootenai tribes
