Land area
Land of the Nez Percè, Blackfoot and Flathead Nations in Montana, recorded 1851 (area 399)
In the record
The area covers about 11 million acres in what is now Montana.
The 1899 record names Séliš (Bitterroot Salish) and Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) as the people of this land.
The record ties this land to 2 agreements: Treaty of Fort Laramie (Horse Creek), 1851 and Lame Bull Treaty (Blackfeet), 1855. Which one ceded it has not been checked yet, so the map dates it by the first.
How it was taken: a treaty or agreement. The treaty text records an agreement among the eight nations and two U.S. commissioners; the cited sources do not describe duress.
Today, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and Nez Perce Tribe carry the history of the people named here.
Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources.
Shapes come from C. C. Royce’s 1899 maps as georeferenced by the US Forest Service. They are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land. Royce recorded land the United States treated as ceded; the shape does not show a nation’s territory.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
- Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
- Kootenai Tribe of Idaho
- Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Working with these nations
- Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) Nation government National Bison Range restoration (about 18,800 acres) Website
Land return and Native-led work nearby
- Potlatch Fund Native-led Native philanthropy and grantmaking to Native individuals and Native-led organizations Give on their site Website
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
Links marked “suggested” were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Nations named for this land 5
- Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montanamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Kootenai (Kutenai)matched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Nez Perce (Nimiipuu)as named in the 1899 recordsuggested
- Nez Perce Tribematched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Séliš (Bitterroot Salish)as named in the 1899 recordsuggested
Agreements recorded for this land 2
- Treaty of Fort Laramie (Horse Creek), 18511851suggested
- Lame Bull Treaty (Blackfeet), 18551855suggested
Located in 1
Sources
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1851-09-17primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1851-09-17primary record
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1855-10-17primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1855-10-17primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: Montana 1 (Library of Congress)primary record
- USDA Forest Service, Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States (digitized Royce maps)reference work
The record’s fields
- Area number in the 1899 record
- 399
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1851-09-17; 1855-10-17
- Kind of instrument
- Treaty or agreement
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Nez Percè, Blackfoot and Flathead Nations
- States
- MT
- Counties
- Broadwater; Cascade; Chouteau; Fergus; Golden Valley; Judith Basin; Lewis and Clark; Meagher; Musselshell; Petroleum; Wheatland
- Map sheets in the 1899 record
- Montana 1
- Geometry
- Approximate shape from Royce’s 1899 maps
Research notes
geometry_role is 'cession' for every USFS feature: no field in the source distinguishes cessions from reservations.
- Kind
- Land area
- Confidence
- Medium