342:, Carrington brought out the original 1872 Garfield agreement to corroborate Charlo's claim that he never signed it. In spite of Carrington's efforts to gain his trust, Charlo at first refused to remove to the Flathead. According to Carrington's account, Charlo "declared that 'he never would sign , but kill himself first.'" Charlo brought up the government's broken promises regarding the Hellgate treaty and asked for the "literal execution" of that treaty, but Carrington did not respond to his request. Charlo emphasized that he and the Bitterroot Salish had remained friendly to the whites in spite of all their broken promises. Carrington argued that Charlo needed to remove to the Flathead to stop the young Salish men from gambling, drinking, brawling, and stealing. Charlo promised to think all night about Carrington's offer. Later that day, a group of young Salish men got drunk and started a brawl. Charlo had to break it up, and he whipped the offenders.
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themselves and whom the young men would not help. He said that 'the young men would hunt and sell their game for fire-water, and he could not stop it,' that 'they followed the words of bad white men and stole what they wanted to eat, without working for it.'" After this speech, Charlo signed the agreement, saying, "The Great Spirit said to me last night, 'Trust the white Chief.' Charlot loves his people! Charlot will change and do right! Charlot will sign the paper, and then, the white chief can write down what
Charlot wants." In exchange for Charlo's agreement to remove to the Flathead Reservation, Carrington made promises: the Salish would receive food assistance until the move, their burial places near St. Mary's Mission would be protected, the people would receive good cabins on the Flathead Reservation on parcels of their choosing, every family with children would receive a cow, and Charlo would receive new wagons and Arlee's farm.
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people could remain in the
Bitterroot if they became "land-holding U.S. citizens." In the face of military threat, Charlo refused to sign the agreement. To secure a signature, government officials recognized Arlee as chief. Charlo's signature was forged on the published version of the agreement, and Arlee led part of the tribe to the Flathead Reservation in 1873. Charlo still refused to leave, and he never forgave or spoke to Arlee again. Most of the Salish people remained with Charlo in the Bitterroot, and some received "permanently inalienable" patents to farms in the valley. They continued to consider themselves an independent tribal community, although the government viewed them as U.S. citizens who had severed tribal relations.
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Salish had been promised assistance with fencing and plowing their new farms, and each family with children had been promised a cow. But although agent Peter Ronan requested funds to fulfill these promises, they were never granted. Charlo also expected that his people would receive rations until they received the money from the sale of their land in the
Bitterroot. But when Ronan ran out of beef for the rations, the government delayed to provide more. Charlo felt betrayed by the broken promises. According to Ronan, "I have no complaint to make against Chief Charlot—he is a just and agreeable man, but is a believer in the fulfillment of promises."
325:. The destruction of the buffalo herds in the 1870s and 1880s devastated the Salish economy and forced them to expand their farms and herds. An unprecedented drought in 1889 brought the people almost to starvation. As the tribe's situation grew desperate, Charlo began to consider the U.S. government's offer of land on the Flathead Reservation. At the same time, Congress passed a bill allowing for the sale of Salish land in the Bitterroot, with the proceeds to be paid to the Salish owners in cash or spent by the government on their behalf. The people would then be removed to the Flathead Reservation.
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their farms in the
Bitterroot that spring. Even if they had wanted to, the drought of 1889 had left them so impoverished that they could not afford seed, and in spite of its promise of assistance, the government failed to provide more than starvation rations. By the winter of 1890, Charlo's people were forced to barter away their horses, harnesses, plows, and even stoves in order to feed themselves. When Carrington finally returned and met with Charlo on July 29, 1891, Charlo insisted that he would "talk no business, until people are fed."
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sleep. Then, the Great Spirit gave me these thoughts. "Charlot, go with your people. They will starve, or freeze here. Nobody will buy your land if you stay. Go and pick out good land and build houses before winter. Shut your ears to lies which bad people tell you." So I come, to say, we will all go, and go together. We don't want any soldiers with us, or any other whitemen except White Chief and Joe McLaren.
294:"Since our forefathers first beheld (Lewis and Clark), more than seven times ten winters have snowed and melted ... We were happy when (the white men) first came. We first thought he came from the light, but he comes like the dusk of the evening now, not like the dawn of the morning. He comes like a day that has passed, and night enters our future with him ...
257:, S.J., watched the council proceedings and thought that the treaty was a farce, writing, "What a ridiculous tragi-comedy the whole council proved. It would take too long to write it all down—ah well! Not a tenth of it was actually understood by either party, for Ben Kyser speaks Flathead very badly and is no better at translating into English."
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did not look back. Elders later remembered the journey as a funeral march. It took three days to travel the sixty miles to the Jocko Agency where agent Peter Ronan welcomed the people with a feast. After a twenty-year struggle, Charlo had ensured his people's survival, but it came at the cost of their independence.
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in the
Bitterroot Valley, and it became a religious and social center for the tribe. It also became Montana's first permanent white settlement. So, as Charlo came of age, his people were caught in a diplomatic dance to build alliances with tribes to the west, to defend their ancestral buffalo hunting
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I could not sleep at first, last night. I remember my father Victor and that his people expected me to do what he would approve, for their good. I told everybody to come together in the morning as soon as the sun was up to say prayers to the Great Spirit. That made me feel better, and I could go to
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arrived in
Montana to negotiate with Charlo and convince him to sign an agreement that would allow the sale of his allotment in the Bitterroot. Charlo's signature would express the willingness of Bitterroot Salish to leave their ancestral homeland and move to the Flathead. Carrington worked to gain
368:
Charlo organized the march himself and insisted that it take place without a white military escort. However, Salish oral histories indicate that troops were present during the removal. On
October 15, 1891, Charlo called the people to gather. After praying, they announced that they would go. Charlo
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Carrington promised Charlo that he would return in the spring to arrange for the land sales and for the move, but
Congress failed to provide funds for the move until July 1, 1891. Charlo and his people, counting on Carrington's promise that the move would take place in 1890, did not plant crops on
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After his arrival at the
Flathead Indian Reservation, Charlo spent much of his time seeking fulfillment of the unfounded promises made by Carrington. Charlo had been promised the farm of Arlee, but Arlee had willed it to his granddaughter. In its place, Charlo accepted the Jocko Agency farm. The
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arrived to carry out the order in 1872, the conflict over land claims nearly escalated into a military clash. The diplomacy of Charlo and other Salish leaders calmed the situation. Garfield negotiated an agreement through which part of the tribe moved to the
Flathead Reservation. The rest of the
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Valley and a provisional second reservation in the Bitterroot Valley. The treaty called for a survey of the Bitterroot Valley, after which the president would decide which valley would be "better adapted to the wants of the Flathead tribe." The treaty also promised to keep the Bitterroot Valley
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in 1896. It described his attitude, "Charlot feels that he and his people were deeply injured by these officials and has never forgiven the white race for this injury. It is doubtless true that some of the promises made by General Carrington at the time the transfer was made have never been
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The next day was Sunday, November 3. Charlo attended Mass, and afterward he went to Carrington's headquarters in Stevensville. There, he made a "full statement of the poverty and wretchedness of the Flatheads of the valley, especially naming several very aged men and women who could not help
177:
to secure good farms and assistance for the Bitterroot Salish. Charlo spent the rest of his life attempting to hold the U.S. government accountable to fulfill its promises and defending his people's rights to reservation land against white efforts to open the reservation for homesteading.
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Sales of Salish land in the Bitterroot took longer than Carrington had promised, and after holding a council on October 11, 1891, the Salish decided to go ahead with the move even though their farms remained unsold. Charlo gave the news to Carrington that afternoon:
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failed to ratify the treaty until 1859, leaving the Salish in limbo. When the treaty was finally ratified, the government bungled nearly every provision. Most notably, the government never fully surveyed the valley as promised, and, distracted by the
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Charlo was appointed chief in August 1870 upon the death of his father, Victor. Charlo continued Victor's policy of peace, but he also continued to defend his people's claim to the Bitterroot Valley against the claims of white settlers.
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A speech printed in 1876 by Montana newspapers expressed the devastation and betrayal felt by Charlo towards the white settlers and the U.S. military and government representatives. In part it read:
456:
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266:, let languish the question of whether to create a reservation in the Bitterroot Valley. It also failed to keep white settlers out of the Bitterroot as had been promised.
190:. His father was Victor (Xweɫxƛ̣ ̓cín, Many Horses or Plenty-of-Horses). Charlo grew up in the Bitterroot Valley, his people's ancestral home, where every landscape had a
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Charlo's trust, visiting him at his farm before the negotiations began and giving him gifts of cigars and food supplies. When the negotiations finally began in
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300:(But) he has filled graves with our bones ... His course is destruction; he spoils what the spirit who gave us this country made beautiful and clean. ...
883:
Bigart, Robert (Spring 2010). "'Charlot loves his people': The Defeat of Bitterroot Salish Aspirations for an Independent Bitterroot Valley Community".
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After the extermination of the buffalo herds, Charlo struggled for twenty years to maintain his people's economic independence in their homeland, the
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story, tribal event, or family story linked to it. Charlo's people practiced a seasonal round, traveling once or twice a year to the plains to hunt
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sponsored a bill to open the Flathead Reservation to homesteading. Charlo fought against the opening of the reservation until his death in 1910.
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In the Name of the Salish and Kootenai Nation: The 1855 Hell Gate Treaty and the Origin of the Flathead Indian Reservation
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Charlo successfully defended his people's claim to the Bitterroot Valley as long as they could hunt buffalo east of the
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How often does he come? You know he comes as long as he lives, and takes more and more, and dirties what he leaves.."
166:
907:
Getting Good Crops: Economic and Diplomatic Survival Strategies of the Montana Bitterroot Salish Indians, 1870–1891
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In his poverty we fed, we cherished him — yes, befriended him and showed him the fords and defiles of our lands.
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rights in the face of pressure from Plains tribes, and to maintain peace with the growing population of whites.
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from 'Journals Of The Lewis & Clark Expedition' (Print Edition by University Of Nebraska Press, July 1989)
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was signed, and it became a major force that influenced Charlo's path. This treaty between the Salish,
198:. During Charlo's childhood, the Bitterroot Salish were recovering from a population decline caused by
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862:
Baumler, Ellen (Spring 2016). "A Cross in the Wilderness: St. Mary's Mission Celebtrates 175 Years".
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Charlo married a woman named Margaret, and they had three children: Martin, Ann Felix, and Victor.
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Charlo was born sometime around 1830, before any permanent white settlement existed in what is now
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from 1870 to 1910. Charlo followed a policy of peace with the American settlers in Southwestern
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The treaty effectively weakened the Salish tribe's legal claim to the Bitterroot Valley. Father
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Charlo died on January 10, 1910. His son Victor became chief in his place. The town of
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His laws never gave us a blade, nor a tree, nor a duck, nor a grouse, nor a trout. ...
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and the U.S. government provided for the Flathead Indian Reservation in the lower
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issued an executive order to remove the Salish from the valley. When Congressman
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fulfilled, and the grouty old chief has some reason for his hostility."
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533:. Pablo, Montana: Salish Kootenai College Press. pp. 9–16.
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closed to white settlement until the survey had been completed.
165:. When Charlo's people were finally forced to remove to the
622:"The Living, Breathing Natives Who Made Lewis and Clark"
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Victor or Xweɫxƛ̣ ̓cín (Many Horses or Plenty-of-Horses)
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125:(Claw of the Little Grizzly or Small Grizzly-Bear Claw)
790:"History of the Salish Tribe in the Bitterroot Valley"
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202:and by wars fueled by the westward movement of
117:Chief Victor (Many Horses or Plenty-of-Horses)
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977:Citation reference for Chief Charlo's words
529:Bigart, Robert; Woodcock, Clarence (1996).
834:"Chief Charlo Elementary School > Home"
31:
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407:, and Chief Charlo Elementary School, in
173:, Charlo negotiated with retired general
957:Lewis and Clark expedition journal entry
940:Official site of the Confederated Tribes
910:. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
381:An article about Charlo appeared in the
885:Montana The Magazine of Western History
864:Montana The Magazine of Western History
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206:that had driven the Salish off of the
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1017:19th-century Native American leaders
1007:People from Missoula County, Montana
992:20th-century Native American leaders
814:"Charlo Montana Travel Information"
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333:In October 1889, retired general
963: (archived October 18, 2010)
154:and with the soldiers at nearby
391:In 1904, Montana's Congressman
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620:Duncan, Dayton (2004-08-16).
457:"The Flight of the Nez Perce"
109:Martin, Ann Felix, and Victor
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904:Bigart, Robert (2012).
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171:U.S. federal government
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340:Stevensville, Montana
967:Chief Charlo's House
335:Henry B. Carrington
278:In 1871, President
175:Henry B. Carrington
37:Charlo, painted by
950:2007-09-28 at the
323:Continental Divide
219:St. Mary's Mission
626:High Country News
409:Missoula, Montana
384:Anaconda Standard
284:James A. Garfield
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329:Negotiation
84: 1830
59:Preceded by
986:Categories
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799:2012-12-22
631:2022-10-06
515:2012-12-22
467:2012-12-22
442:2012-12-22
415:References
182:Early life
973:Excerpt 9
420:Citations
264:Civil War
243:Kootenais
213:In 1841,
948:Archived
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876:26322905
309:—
259:Congress
200:smallpox
122:Nickname
106:Children
101:Margaret
959:at the
350:Removal
311:Charlot
196:buffalo
188:Montana
169:by the
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192:Coyote
138:(also
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98:Spouse
53:leader
20:Charlo
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270:Chief
925:2021
912:ISBN
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90:Died
77:Born
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