Overview

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.  

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9781496244369

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Reviews

“This is a masterful analysis of the lengthy political and legal struggles between the traditional tribal authorities, the chiefs, and the U.S. government as represented by federal, territorial, and local officials, on and off the Flathead Indian Reservation, for the period 1875–1910. Robert Bigart breaks new ground by concentrating on the local aspects in great and illuminating detail. This book will undoubtedly set a new standard for subsequent reservation studies covering this topic.”—William E. Farr, professor emeritus of history at the University of Montana, Missoula

Author Information

Robert J. Bigart is librarian emeritus at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana. He is the author or editor of numerous books about the Salish and Kootenai tribes, including “A Great Many of Us Have Good Farms”: Agent Peter Ronan Reports on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, 1877–1887 and Justice to Be Accorded to the Indians: Agent Peter Ronan Reports on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana, 1888–1893, both of which he edited.  

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