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Nation

Séliš (Bitterroot Salish)

Not yet reviewed by this nation. What follows comes from public records and research. It does not speak for the nation.

Region
Pacific Northwest

In the record

The United States made 2 treaties and agreements that name Séliš (Bitterroot Salish) as a party, from Hellgate Treaty (Bitterroot Salish, Pend d'Oreille, Kootenai), 1855 to Lame Bull Treaty (Blackfeet), 1855.

C. C. Royce’s 1899 schedule records 3 cessions of land from Séliš (Bitterroot Salish): about 28 million acres by this atlas’s estimate, counting overlaps once. 2 of them came through treaties made under documented pressure. The largest was Land of the Flathead, Kootenay and others in Idaho and Montana, ceded 1855 (area 373), about 17 million acres, ceded under Hellgate Treaty (Bitterroot Salish, Pend d'Oreille, Kootenai), 1855.

The atlas records 1 broken treaty promise involving Séliš (Bitterroot Salish): Termination policy: House Concurrent Resolution 108 (1953) and Public Law 280.

The records group it with Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Today, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes carries this history, as their own pages or research records say.

Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources. This is what the United States’ treaty record says, not the nation’s own account.

Treaty or agreementTreaty under documented pressureShapes from the 1899 federal record: approximate, not legal boundaries.

The record over time

178018001850190019502000todayTreatiesHellgate Treaty (Bitterroot Salish, Pend d'Oreille, Kootenai), 1855 (1855)Lame Bull Treaty (Blackfeet), 1855 (1855)Land takenLand of the Flathead, Kootenay and others in Idaho and Montana, ceded 1855 (area 373) (1855)Land of the Nez Percè, Blackfoot and Flathead Nations in Montana, recorded 1851 (area 399) (1851)Promises brokenTermination policy: House Concurrent Resolution 108 (1953) and Public Law 280 (1953)

Circles are land the United States recorded as ceded, sized by acres and colored by how it was taken. Bars are treaties, broken promises, court cases and land returns.

Names

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Self-names

Official names

Names in treaties and records

Other names in English

Land recorded as ceded

Séliš (Bitterroot Salish) About 28 million acres recorded as ceded by the end of 1894
  • Treaty or agreement11 million
  • Treaty under documented pressure17 million

Estimate from Royce’s maps; overlapping cessions counted once. Not a survey or legal measure.

3 cessions. Follow Séliš (Bitterroot Salish) through the years on the map

Who is doing the work

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Working with these nations

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Connections

These links were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.

Land recorded in this nation’s name 3

Party to 2

Part of 1

Named in 1

Present-day governments that carry this history 1

Sources

  1. cskt.org/sqcc/unclassified
    Séliš-Ql̓ispé Sxʷnq̓eʔels l Sqlixʷɫsck̓ʷul̓ / Salish-Kalispel Culture Committee
  2. federalregister.gov/documents/full_text/text/2026/01/30/2026-01899.txtprimary record
    Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation
  3. cskt.org/our-story/unclassified
    This name reflects the union of three distinct tribal nations: the Bitterroot Salish, the Upper Pend d’Oreille (Ql̓ispé), and the Kootenai (Ksanka) people.
Research notes

NARA/Kappler "Flathead".

Kind
Nation
Confidence
Medium
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