The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

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   The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT.org) of Montana have a remarkable history of success in dealing with challenging situations (from colonizing entities) and taking advantage of opportunities.  The tribes have a government of 1300 employees, manage many enterprises (including their own energy company and bank), and work innovatively to combine traditional tribal values with modern operations.

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   Below are just a few examples, and more can be found at CSKT.org, especially the tribes' impressive annual reports, and Char-koosta News, www.charkoosta.com.
 

   (1) Since 1944, CSKT has re-purchased over 245,000 acres of land — and as a result, CSKT became one of 10 tribal groups to participate in the Self-Governance Demonstration Project (initiated in 1988, with CSKT joining in 1994).  CSKT now plays a leading role in forestry decisions on their land.

    (2) The Indian Self-Determination Act of 1976 allowed tribes to contract with the federal government for managing federal programs.  CSKT was a leader in assuming management responsibility, now managing more than 100 federal and state programs on the reservation plus 70 of its own programs.

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   (3) CSKT is the recipient of a recent Project AWARE grant — funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s FY 2021 Project AWARE-SEA program — for three years with an opportunity to add two more years.  Earning this grant enables CSKT's Tribal Education Department to expand its educational and mental-health efforts, including giving young students hands-on experiences of traditional tribal ways of living.

 

   (4) Ken Burns’ documentary, “The American Buffalo,” premiered June 8th, 2023 at the Wilma Theater in Missoula, Montana not far from where CSKT has its headquarters.  Burns and writer Dayton Duncan focused on Native perspectives in a way that the media consider “ground-breaking,” and it airs on PBS in mid-October of this year.

 The press photo for the film included Burns’ staff and Whisper Camel-Means, a representative for CSKT’s Bison Range and CSKT’s Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation, and Conservation Manager.
 

The background of how Burns and his team came to work with CSKT (among other groups) includes another impressive achievement for these tribes:
 

In May of 2022, U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland and Montana Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras addressed CSKT members at the Salish Kootenai College (in Pablo, Montana) during a three-day celebration of the restoration of the former-National Bison Range to CSKT.

CSKT Tribal Council Chairman Tom McDonald reviewed the history of opening the Flathead Reservation to non-Native settlement and the establishment of the National Bison Range, stocked with the once free-roaming local herd that was previously sold to Canadian interests.  “The restoration of the Bison Range is a restoration of more than just land.  It’s a restoration of a piece that was missing.  It represents a gift of what we may care for to protect and have something for future generations.”

   At the May celebration, Lt. Gov. Juras recounted the story of Atatice and his son Latati: in the 1870s Atatice noticed the bison numbers decreasing on the Flathead Reservation, and he hoped to begin a herd on tribal land. His son Latati eventually completed his father’s vision: during a bison hunt on the on the eastern Montana prairies, Latati discovered a herd of orphaned calves and herded them back to the Flathead Reservation, helping to save the bison from extinction.

   This story, familiar to most tribal members, was the subject of a 2018 (28-minute) documentary, “In the Spirit of Atatice: The Untold Story of the National Bison Range” — and CSKT lawyer and Senator Shane Morigeau was a moving force behind that documentary.

    For the CSKT tribal members, the Atatice-Latati story is a critical chapter in keeping the bison from extinction, which is what Ken Burns emphasizes in his documentary — as well as during his talk after a tour of the CSKT Bison Range:

    “By the beginning of the 19th Century, there were at least 30 million bison, and by the end of the 1880s, nobody could find one.  This is the largest slaughter of animal life in the history of the world.”

 

   And CSKT tribes were historically involved in reversing that near-extinction.