Native Americans have lived in Montana for more than 12,000 years, based on
archaeological findings. The "Flathead" Salish and Kalispel are the easternmost of the
Salishan tribes, and are considered by tribal elders to be "the head or parent tribe" from which other Salishan groups dispersed downstream. Kootenai groups stretch north and west into what is now Idaho and Canada, with only the southeastern Ksanka band being primarily connected to the Flathead Reservation. The Kootenai left artifacts in prehistoric time. One group of the Kootenai in the northeast lived mainly on
bison hunting. Another group lived on the rivers and lakes of the mountains in the west. When they moved east, they could rely less on
salmon fishing, but turned to eating plants and
bison. During the 18th century, the Salish and the Kootenai tribes shared gathering and hunting grounds. As European-American settlers entered the area, the different cultures of peoples came into conflict. In 1855 the United States (US) made the
Treaty of Hellgate, by which it set aside a reservation solely for use of the Flathead, encompassing an area including much of Flathead Lake. By the late 19th and early 20th century, the federal government had adopted a policy of allotting lands to individual Indian households from their communal holdings, in order to encourage subsistence farming and adoption of European-American ways. Although the Flathead opposed such European-style allotments and farming, the US Congress passed the 1904 Flathead Allotment Act. Construction of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project using the Mission Mountains as the water source was also authorized by Congress. Thousands of acres on the reservation were reserved for town sites, schools and the
National Bison Range. The Flathead were given first choice of either of land per household. According to their treaty, the tribes have the right to off-reservation hunting, but the state believed it could regulate those activities. State game wardens were responsible for a violent confrontation in 1908 with a small Pend d'Oreilles hunting party, which resulted in deaths of four of the Native Americans, in what is known as the
Swan Valley Massacre. A court challenge to their hunting rights reached the US Supreme Court, which upheld tribal treaty rights to hunt off-reservation in their former territory. After allotments of land to individual households of members on the tribal rolls, the government declared the rest of the communal land to be "surplus" and opened the reservation to
homesteading for
White settlement. United States Senator
Joseph M. Dixon of Montana played a key role in getting this legislation passed. Most tribal members chose land close to the mountains where wild game still roamed, so prime farmland in the middle of the valleys was available. When it opened in 1910, 81,363 applications by whites were received for 1,600 parcels of land. Lottery winners took only 600 tracts, leaving 1,000 tracts still open. These were taken in what the tribe considers a subsequent "land grab". The distribution of the lands caused much resentment by the Flathead as homesteaders started fencing the land, claiming water rights from streams and diverting water for irrigation.{{cite news|title=Allotment Act placed Indians in unfamiliar territory|url=https://missoulian.com/allotment-act-placed-indians-in-unfamiliar-territory/article_db8e01bc-c919-11df-99ec-001cc4c03286.html |first=Vince|last=Devlin ==Management==