The Bitterroot Valley, Homeland of the Selíš

The panel dates the Hellgate Treaty to 1885; it was signed on July 16, 1855. Its word conditional is the heart of the matter. Article 11 promised that the Bitterroot above Lolo Creek would be carefully surveyed and examined, that the president would set part of it aside for the Séliš if it proved better suited to them, and that none of it would open to settlement until then. No thorough survey was ever made. On November 14, 1871, President Grant declared the valley surveyed, found it no better suited, and ordered the Séliš removed.

What the plaque says

The Bitterroot Valley, Homeland of the Selíš Since Coyote first prepared this place for human beings, the Bitterroot Valley has been the homeland of Salish-speaking peoples of western Montana -- the Qlispé (Kalispel or Pend d' Oreille) and the closely-related Selíš (Bitterroot Salish or "Flathead"). Their tribal ways helped maintain its great natural abundances. The Lolo area -- called Tmsmti or No Salmon, has always been favored for its deer hunting. Bitterroot and camas carpeted the valley. Long ago, the Selíš lived between here and the Yellowstone. Smallpox epidemics and war with rifle-armed Plains tribes led them to concentrate within the Bitterroot. They continued to hunt buffalo east of the mountains. In 1885, the Hellgate Treaty designated the valley south of Lolo Creek a "conditional" reservation. Elders still recall with bitterness and grief their forced removal to the Flathead Indian Reservation in 1891. The Bitterroot Valley remains of great spiritual and material importance to the Selíš, who revisit and utilize their cherished homeland, the resting place of countless ancestors.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Travelers' Rest State Park — 0.6 mi
  The one Lewis and Clark campsite with proof in the ground: hearths, gun lead and a latrine still laced with mercury.
• Fort Fizzle — 4.3 mi
  A log barricade built to stop the Nimiipuu in 1877. They climbed the ridge behind it and walked around.
• Fort Missoula — 7.1 mi
  An 1877 Army post that held Italian seamen and Japanese immigrant men behind its fence in World War II.
• A Carousel for Missoula — 9.7 mi
  A cabinetmaker's promise to the city council: give it a home, and he would carve the horses.

More markers nearby

• Lewis and Clark in Salish Territory — steps away
• The Lolo Trail — 1.1 mi
• Lewis and Clark on Lolo Creek — 4.3 mi
• Fort Fizzle — 4.3 mi