{"id":163367,"date":"2025-07-14T16:18:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=163367"},"modified":"2025-07-14T16:27:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:27:52","slug":"george-ochenski-another-shameful-chapter-in-treatment-of-tribal-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/07\/14\/george-ochenski-another-shameful-chapter-in-treatment-of-tribal-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"George Ochenski: Another shameful chapter in treatment of tribal nations"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Flathead<\/a>
A sign on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Photo: Ken Lund<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
What good are treaty rights if the fish are poisoned?<\/div>\r\n
Monday, July 14, 2025<\/div>\r\n
By George Ochenski, Daily Montanan<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\n

By virtually any measure, the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribal Nation is an incredible success story against all odds. Forcibly removed from their homeland in the Bitterroot Valley, despite not having waged war against the white settlers or army, their own \u201cTrail of Tears\u201d brought them to the Flathead Valley to live within the boundaries of the vastly reduced lands they retained in the Hellgate Treaty of 1855.<\/a><\/p>

Although the Hellgate Treaty is widely regarded as one of the best treaties signed by any of the nation\u2019s Indigenous people, even land supposedly reserved for the exclusive habitation of the Salish-Kootenai was opened to purchase by non-tribal settlers by the Dawes Act of 1887.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>

The act\u2019s intentions were to allocate reservation lands the tribes already owned to individual families as private property and, as part of the \u201ccivilization\u201d of Native Americans, it required tribal members to register with the federal government to receive their \u201callotment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

The entire debacle was part of the Allotment and Assimilation Era from 1887 to 1934.<\/a>\u00a0 Simply put, the federal government\u2019s plan was to force Native Americans to be \u201cassimilated\u201d into European-American culture.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\"CSKT\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\tCSKT issues a fish consumption warning for three rivers \u2022 Daily Montanan\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are warning tribal members to indefinitely stop eating fish caught in rivers around the reservation because of high amounts of toxic chemicals, including furans and polychlorinated biphenyls.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\"Daily\t\tDaily Montanan\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n

Importantly, any reservation lands not allocated to tribal members was deemed \u201csurplus\u201d land and opened to purchase by non-tribal settlers.\u00a0 This excursion into reservation lands was further exacerbated by the ability of tribal members to sell their allotment parcels to non-tribal members.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

The fracturing of the Salish-Kootenai\u2019s tribal lands through sales to non-tribal members continues to cause serious problems today, including the long and on-going battle to retain their water, hunting and fishing treaty rights.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Article III of the Hellgate Treaty could not be more clear regarding the Tribe\u2019s fishing rights:\u00a0 <\/p>\t