Robert J. Bigart – författare
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19 produkter
19 produkter
In the Name of the Salish and Kootenai Nation
The 1855 Hell Gate Treaty and the Origin of the Flathead Indian Reservation
Häftad, Engelska, 1996
227 kr
Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar
On July 16, 1855, eighteen leaders of the Flathead, Kootenai, and Upper Pend d'Oreilles Indians signed an agreement with the United States government, ceding their title to almost all the land in western Montana and establishing the Flathead Indian Reservation. Born of confusion and disagreement, the Hell Gate Treaty is the legal basis for the modern relationship between the tribes and the federal government. In the Name of the Salish & Kootenai Nation reproduces the complete text of the Hell Gate Treaty and collects previously published documents relating to the treaty, among them the official proceedings of the treaty council, Gustavus Sohon's portraits of many of the treaty signers, and letters from the Jesuit priest, Adrian Hoecken, who was present at the treaty deliberations. These documents are presented in the hope that they will inspire further questions and research.
264 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
Letters from the Rocky Mountain Indian Missions reveals the life of an Italian Jesuit as he worked at three missions in the northern Rocky Mountains from 1874 to 1878. Meticulously translated and carefully annotated, the letters of Father Philip Rappagliosi (1841–78) are a rare and rich source of information about the daily lives, customs, and beliefs of the many Native peoples that he came into contact with: Nez Perces, Kootenais, Salish Flatheads, Coeur d’Alenes, Pend d’Oreilles, Blackfeet, and Canadian MÉtis. These never-before-translated letters reveal the shifting, sometimes volatile relationship between the missionaries and the Native Americans and also provide a window into the complex lives of the Jesuits. After requesting to work among the Native peoples of the American West, Rappagliosi arrived at Saint Mary’s Mission in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana in 1874, where he spent much time among already converted members of the Salish Flathead Nation. The energetic Rappagliosi journeyed next to Canada to visit some Kootenai Indian bands and then was reassigned to Saint Ignatius Mission, where he interacted with the Upper Pend d’Oreilles Indians. Rappagliosi’s final and most difficult assignment was at Saint Peter’s Mission among the Blackfeet in Montana, who were not converts. There he became embroiled in disputes with a controversial former Oblate priest, and foul play was suspected in his death at the age of thirty-seven.
Providing for the People
Economic Change Among the Salish and Kootenai Indians, 1875-1910
Inbunden, Engelska, 2020
508 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
The years between 1875 and 1910 saw a revolution in the economy of the Flathead Reservation, home to the Salish and Kootenai Indians. In 1875 the tribes had supported themselves through hunting - especially buffalo - and gathering. Thirty-five years later, cattle herds and farming were the foundation of their economy. Providing for the People tells the story of this transformation. Author Robert J. Bigart describes how the Salish and Kootenai tribes overcame daunting odds to maintain their independence and integrity through this dramatic transition - how, relying on their own initiatives and labor, they managed to adjust and adapt to a new political and economic order.Major changes in the Flathead Reservation economy were accompanied by the growing power of the Flathead Indian Agent. Tribal members neither sought nor desired the new order of things, but as Bigart makes clear, they never stopped fighting to maintain their economic independence and self-support. The tribes did not receive general rations and did not allow the government to take control of their food supply. Instead, most government aid was bartered in exchange for products used in running the agency.Providing for the People presents a deeply researched, finely detailed account of the economic and diplomatic strategies that distinguished the Flathead Reservation Indians at a time of overwhelming and complex challenges to Native American tribes and traditions.
Providing for the People
Economic Change Among the Salish and Kootenai Indians, 1875–1910
Häftad, Engelska, 2022
271 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
The years between 1875 and 1910 saw a revolution in the economy of the Flathead Reservation, home to the Salish and Kootenai Indians. In 1875 the tribes had supported themselves through hunting—especially buffalo—and gathering. Thirty-five years later, cattle herds and farming were the foundation of their economy. Providing for the People tells the story of this transformation. Author Robert J. Bigart describes how the Salish and Kootenai tribes overcame daunting odds to maintain their independence and integrity through this dramatic transition—how, relying on their own initiatives and labor, they managed to adjust and adapt to a new political and economic order.Major changes in the Flathead Reservation economy were accompanied by the growing power of the Flathead Indian Agent. Tribal members neither sought nor desired the new order of things, but as Bigart makes clear, they never stopped fighting to maintain their economic independence and self-support. The tribes did not receive general rations and did not allow the government to take control of their food supply. Instead, most government aid was bartered in exchange for products used in running the agency.Providing for the People presents a deeply researched, finely detailed account of the economic and diplomatic strategies that distinguished the Flathead Reservation Indians at a time of overwhelming and complex challenges to Native American tribes and traditions.
Indian Chiefs Vs. Government Agents
Politics and Law Enforcement on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, 1875–1910
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
730 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
In Indian Chiefs vs. Government Agents Robert J. Bigart examines the years of dramatic change that occurred between 1875 and 1910 for the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. Major changes in the tribal economy were accompanied by the growing power of the Flathead Indian agent on the reservation. The tribes moved from a hunting-gathering economy supplemented by farming and livestock in 1875 to a ranching and farming economy supplemented by hunting and gathering in 1910. After 1885 the Flathead agent directed a new tribal police force that replaced the traditional police directed by the chiefs. The agency police and, later, the Missoula County sheriff and the federal and state court systems competed with the chiefs for control of law and order on the reservation. Yet through it all the agent had to accommodate the chiefs and tribal leaders to maintain law and order.Indians Chiefs vs. Government Agents recounts the metamorphosis of the Flathead Reservation’s economy and politics and reveals the competence and astuteness of tribal members as they resisted Office of Indian Affairs and federal impositions on their lands. The Salish and Kootenai navigated a rapidly changing world, and though they lost some political and economic battles, the tribes never stopped fighting to protect tribal members and their interests.
"a Great Many of Us Have Good Farms"
Agent Peter Ronan Reports on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, 1877-1887
Häftad, Engelska, 2014
268 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Published by the Salish Kootenai College PressPeter Ronan (1839–93) was the government agent for the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana from 1877 until his death. It was a period of rapid cultural and economic change for the tribes as hunting and gathering resources declined and the surrounding white population exploded in western Montana. As an ex-newspaperman, Ronan provided reports to the commissioner of Indian Affairs with unusually full and detailed information about Flathead Reservation events during a critical time for the tribes. Ronan was a unique federal Indian Agent in the nineteenth century both because of both the length of his tenure and his ability to work with tribal leaders."A Great Many of Us Have Good Farms" includes Ronan's letters from 1877–87, when the Salish and Kootenai navigated crises that could have destroyed the tribes. In 1877 the tribes worked hard to stay out of the Nez Perce War, after which they then had to avoid conflict with white settlers who could mistake them for hostiles and a government that tried to deprive them of guns and ammunition for hunting and self-defense. The Bitterroot Valley Salish struggled to preserve their right to live in their traditional homeland.The letters, an 1884 photographic tour of the reservation, and a biographical sketch of Ronan provide a rich and exciting journey through nineteenth-century Flathead Indian Reservation history.
Justice to Be Accorded to the Indians
Agent Peter Ronan Reports on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, 1888-1893
Häftad, Engelska, 2014
268 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
Published by the Salish Kootenai College Press Peter Ronan (1839–93) was the government agent for the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana from 1877 until his death. It was a period of rapid cultural and economic change for the tribes as hunting and gathering resources declined and the surrounding white population exploded in western Montana. As an ex-newspaperman, Ronan provided reports to the commissioner of Indian Affairs with unusually full and detailed information about Flathead Reservation events during a critical time for the tribes. Ronan was a unique federal Indian Agent in the nineteenth century both because of both the length of his tenure and his ability to work with tribal leaders.Justice to Be Accorded to the Indians includes Ronan's letters during the 1888–93 period covered by this second volume of Ronan's letters, the tribes navigated growing economic and legal crises. Tribal farms and cattle herds expanded to make up for declining traditional hunting and gathering resources. Ronan and Kootenai chief Eneas worked hard to avoid open conflict with white settlers encroaching on the northern boundary of the reservation. Despite repeated provocations, Eneas was able to keep the peace and struggled to get equal justice for Kootenai victims of white criminals. The letters also detailed Ronan's efforts to relocate the Bonners Ferry Kootenai and Lower Pend d'Oreille Indians on the Flathead Reservation and make off-reservation allotments to those tribal members who chose to remain in Idaho and Washington. This volume includes biographical sketches of Salish chiefs Arlee, Charlo, and Louison; Pend d'Oreille chief Michel; and Kootenai chief Eneas.
185 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This history of the Nez Perce War was written in 1878–79 by Duncan McDonald, a relative of Chief Looking Glass and the son of a Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader and a Nez Perce Indian woman. McDonald spent most of his life on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana.McDonald wrote the history based on interviews and family sources. In 1878 he traveled to Canada to interview Nez Perce chief White Bird and learn his side of the story. Remarkably, the history was published in a Deer Lodge, Montana, newspaper only a year or two after the war ended.McDonald’s Nez Perce War history is published with a historical introduction and selection of his other essays on Indian affairs, in which he objects to the United States government’s unjust treatment of northwest Indian tribes and condemns the threats of some Montana whites to attack Indians who were friendly to the settlers.
Cowboy's Life Is Very Dangerous Work
The Autobiography of a Flathead Reservation Indian Cowboy, 1870-1944
Häftad, Engelska, 2016
131 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The story of the cattle barons has often overshadowed the experiences of the common cowboy on whose labor the ranchers’ wealth was built. Malcolm McLeod recorded the life of privation and danger of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century mixed-blood cowboy. He worked for cattle owners across Montana and in southern British Columbia and eastern Washington. Born in Washington Territory in 1870 of Scotch, French Canadian, and Chippewa Indian heritage, McLeod traveled countless miles over the years. But home remained the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana, where he was enrolled and allotted land.McLeod worked for Charles Allard, one of the largest stock owners on the Flathead Reservation. He herded Allard’s famous buffalo herd and even rode buffalo for Allard’s short-lived Wild West Show in 1893. In later years McLeod tried his hand at farming, at a harness and shoe repair shop, and in the taxi business, but these enterprises never provided the excitement and danger of his cowboy work. It was the labor and experiences of men like McLeod that built the modern Flathead Reservation community and economy.
We All Believed Indian
The Life and Prosperity of a Mixed Blood Tribal Elder on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, 1897–1995
Häftad, Engelska, 2018
172 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
This book is a window into the Flathead Indian Reservation of western Montana in the twentieth century. The manuscript has been taken from the transcripts of a series of thirteen audio and video interviews conducted with Charles Duncan McDonald between 1982 and 1991. He tells much about his life, experiences, and the Flathead Reservation ordeal during the twentieth century.McDonald was a widely respected elder of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. During his long life (1897–1995), he was an eyewitness to almost a century of economic and political change on the reservation. He experienced the loss of his allotment and the hard times of the second decade of the last century and the Depression years in the 1920s and the 1930s.As a tribal councilman and later as a tribal employee, he witnessed the slow growth of the economic and political power of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes between 1935 and the end of the twentieth century. In his later years his excellent memory and willingness to share his experiences made him a frequent source of reservation history.
"Sometimes My People Get Mad When the Blackfeet Kill Us"
A Documentary History of the Salish and Pend D'Oreille Indians, 1845–1874
Häftad, Engelska, 2019
281 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The documents collected in this book provide a window into a challenging and dangerous period in the history of the Salish and Pend d’Oreille Indians of western Montana. Although all of these sources were written or recorded by white people, used carefully, the documents provide important information about the experiences of the tribes.Between 1845 and 1874, the Salish and Pend d’Oreilles faced continued attacks, property loss, and death from the Plains Indian tribes east of the Continental Divide. The population losses the western tribes suffered nearly exterminated them as independent tribal bodies.The Salish and Pend d’Oreilles allied with and adopted warriors from other western tribes to replace some of their war losses. They also reached out for spiritual power from the Christian missionaries who established Saint Mary’s and Saint Ignatius missions. Another coping strategy was their alliance with the white men who invaded the Northern Rocky Mountains and fought the same Plains tribes. During this era, the Salish and Pend d’Oreilles also expanded their farms and horse and cattle herds to compensate for the declining plains buffalo herds.
"You Seem to Like Your Money, and We Like Our Country"
A Documentary History of the Salish, Pend D'Oreille, and Kootenai Indians, 1875–1889
Häftad, Engelska, 2020
323 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai tribes of western Montana navigated a world of military struggles with enemy tribes in alliance with the newly arrived tribe of white Americans. By the last quarter of the century-from 1875 to 1889-the paradigm had shifted, as the tribes worked to keep the peace and preserve their tribal rights and assets against the onslaught of the growing white population.In just fifteen years, the Flathead Reservation tribes careened from dramatic efforts to stay out of the 1877 Nez Perce War to pressing the white justice system to punish white men who murdered Indians. In 1889 the Missoula County sheriff actively pursued Indians accused of murdering white men, but whites accused of killing Pend d’Oreille chief Michelle’s relatives and Kootenai chief Eneas’s son went unpunished.In 1882 tribal leaders negotiated terms for the sale of a railroad right of way through the reservation. Throughout the 1880s, Chief Charlo worked to secure the Salish’s right to remain in the Bitterroot and, if possible, obtain enough government aid to help establish a self-supporting Salish community in the Bitterroot Valley.
To Keep the Land for My Children's Children
Documents of Salish, Pend D'Oreille, and Kootenai Indian History, 1890–1899
Häftad, Engelska, 2020
323 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
To Keep the Land for My Children’s Children is a collection of primary documents about the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana between 1890 and 1899. The 1890s witnessed the heartbreaking climax of the struggle of Chief Charlo and the Salish Indians to develop a self-supporting community in the Bitterroot Valley. The period also saw the doleful impact of a biased white-controlled justice system and predatory economic interests in western Montana.Four Indians were hung for murder in Missoula in 1890, but whites who murdered Indians escaped punishment. In the 1890s tribal leaders labored to hold the agency-controlled Indian police and Indian court accountable. Serious crimes were tried in off-reservation courts with varying degrees of justice.In the early part of the decade government agent Peter Ronan and Kootenai leaders tried and failed to protect Kootenai farmers just north of the reservation boundary. A predacious Missoula County government developed new and novel legal theories to justify collecting county taxes from the “mixed blood” people on the reservations. Duncan McDonald and Charles Allard Sr. ran a hotel and a stage line on the reserve. Sources describe a community that actively looked out for its interests and fought to protect tribal independence and assets.
Indians Were Prosperous
Documents of Salish, Pend D'Oreille, and Kootenai Indian History, 1900–1906
Häftad, Engelska, 2021
323 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
By the beginning of the nineteenth century the crescendo of economic change on the Flathead Reservation was reaching a climax. Income was not distributed equally on the reservation even though by 1905 the Indians were basically self-supporting and most of the poorer tribal members had enough to get by.But the surrounding white community cast covetous eyes on tribal assets-especially the land. In 1903, Congressman Joseph Dixon led an assault on the tribes to force the sale of reservation land to white homesteaders at far below its real value. Tribal leaders realized they were being robbed and protested vigorously-to no avail. With the loss of their assets in land, the tribes’ future income declined, leaving them poorer than white rural Montanans. As part of the allotment policy, tribal members wrestled with a formal enrollment to determine who had rights on the reservation. White businessmen also moved to claim possession of the dam site at the foot of Flathead Lake. While the tribes were fighting against the coerced allotment, they fought the State of Montana over taxes and hunting rights. In the background alcohol and crime impacted some tribal members.
"Us Indians Don't Want Our Reservation Opened"
Documents of Salish, Pend D'Oreille, and Kootenai Indian History, 1907–1911
Häftad, Engelska, 2021
323 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The written records of Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai Indian history between 1907 and 1911 are dominated by continued complaints against allotting and opening the reservation. A long string of letters and a series of delegations to Washington, DC, left no doubt that the Indian leaders and tribal members opposed the opening. Tribal members recognized that the allotment policy was driven by white men’s greed and desire to get tribal assets at bargain prices. Most of the complaints that made it to the Indian Office files are from, or were initiated by, Sam Resurrection.To make matters even worse, in 1908 Senator Joseph Dixon secured funding for the Flathead Irrigation Project. The project would destroy most of the private irrigation ditches the Indian farmers had dug over the years and make the tribes pay for the construction of the irrigation project, which mainly benefited white homesteaders. The tribes fervently protested against this use of their assets-the land-to reward Dixon’s political backers. The allotment and opening of the Flathead Reservation devastated the new tribal economy based on livestock and agriculture.
"We Want Freedom and Citizenship"
Documents of Salish, Pend D'Oreille, and Kootenai Indian History, 1912–1920
Häftad, Engelska, 2021
377 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
The nine years between 1912 and 1920 were a period of economic and political struggle for the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. The Indian people toiled to maintain their economic independence despite the theft of most of their land assets. The new Flathead Irrigation Project destroyed most of the private irrigation ditches tribal farmers had dug over the years. Some tribal members opened businesses and organized rodeos, but many ventures were frustrated by government policies, fire, and drought.While trying to adapt to the economic impact of allotment, the tribe also fought against paternalistic and exploitive government policies. Until 1916 half of tribal income from timber and land sales was used to operate the agency and construct an irrigation project that largely benefited white settlers. During most of the 1912 to 1920 period, Flathead Agent Fred C. Morgan and his allies on the Flathead Business Committee fought the more radical Flathead Tribal Council over agency policies. The Flathead Tribal Council especially fought against congressional appropriations to construct the irrigation project as long as the construction was to be paid for with tribal funds or with liens on tribal allotments.
177 kr
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Warrior Athletes tells the story of ten prominent twentieth-century Salish and Kootenai Indian athletes from the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana: Charles Allard Jr. was a University of Montana football star and the 1901 captain of the Grizzly football team. Two Feathers, William Matt, and Henry Matt wrestled professionally in Montana and the Pacific Northwest from 1903 to 1905. Nick Lassa played on the Carlisle Indian School football team in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from 1914 to 1918. Between 1918 and 1921 he played football for the Haskell Indian Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, and was a member of the only all-Indian National Football League team from 1922 to 1923. Jimmy Dupuis fought regular boxing matches in western Montana from 1930 to 1940. Frenchy Roullier and Sam Clairmont were basketball stars at Ronan High School, Mount Saint Charles College, and western Montana independent basketball teams from 1925 to 1940. Archie McDonald played football for the Haskell Indian Institute in Kansas and the Montana State University Grizzlies at Missoula from 1930 to 1939. Marvin Camel was the only Native American two-time world boxing champion and boxed professionally from 1973 to 1990.
377 kr
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Named a 2023 Best Historical Material from the American Library AssociationThis collection includes talks or petitions by Salish and Kootenai chiefs found in the surviving historical record. The Salish and Kootenai Indians of the Flathead Indian Reservation confronted many crises in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The physical and cultural survival of the tribes was challenged by epidemics, intertribal warfare with larger enemy tribes, and an invasion of white settlers. The tribes had to fight to have their voices heard and to get the United States government to keep its promises.Fortunately, the tribes had capable leaders who spoke up for their interests and negotiated with visiting government officials. The chiefs were able to get sympathetic white men to write letters supporting their efforts to keep a reservation in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana and pressure the government to honor other promises made in the 1855 Hellgate Treaty. In later negotiations their white neighbors coveted tribal land and assets.Many of the chiefs’ statements were preserved in English by newspaper reporters and government clerks. The interpreters in the meetings had to struggle to explain white American cultural concepts of property and right and wrong. They were also challenged in trying to explain Salish and Kootenai values to the white officials.
199 kr
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Chief Eneas Bigknife: Kootenai Indian Patriot and Diplomat has been assembled from excerpts of the letters of Flathead Indian Reservation agent Peter Ronan written to the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs about Ronan’s dealings with Eneas Bigknife, chief of the Flathead Reservation Kootenai Indians between 1865 and 1900.Agent Ronan was impressed with Chief Bigknife’s dedication to his community and his struggle to protect Kootenai rights and property. The Kootenai band on the Flathead Reservation was small—only 315 members in 1877—and vulnerable to physical extinction from intertribal conflict with the Plains Indian tribes and later to hostile white settlers in the Upper Flathead Valley. Since the Kootenai settlement was approximately sixty-five miles from the Flathead Agency in the Jocko Valley, Ronan relied on Bigknife to keep the peace between the Kootenai Indians and local white men. Bigknife used his government salary to purchase agricultural equipment and tools to help the Kootenai expand their farms and horse and cattle herds. He struggled to get the biased white legal system to give justice to the Kootenai Indians who were assaulted and murdered by white men.