The Mission Mountain Wilderness

The tribal side of the range was set aside by the tribes themselves: the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes drew its boundaries in 1979 and adopted its management plan in 1982, the first tribal wilderness formally established. Its most unusual rule is a summer closure. Every year from July 15 to October 1, about 10,000 trailless acres around McDonald Peak are shut to people, because grizzlies climb to the high snowfields there to feed on army cutworm moths that gather in July, August and September. The closed ground is about a tenth of the range.

What the plaque says

The Mission Mountain Wilderness The mountains rising to the east lie in the Mission Mountain Wilderness Area and the Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness. The range is more than a natural wonder, it is the first place in America where an Indian nation has designated tribal lands as a wilderness preserve. The crest of the range forms the eastern boundary of the Flathead Reservation. On the east side 73,877 acres are managed by the Flathead National Forest; on this side 89,500 acres are under the purview of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai (Flathead) Tribes. Both wildernesses are managed cooperatively and are open to everyone, though differences in management styles reflect tribal needs and traditions on the west side. A few tribal elders can still trace the routes of old hunting trails through the Missions. Hunters used them to cross to the eastern Montana plains to hunt buffalo. The mountains hold sacred sites where tribal members go alone to fast and seek spiritual guidance for their lives. Other spots are traditional summer camps where families pick berries, gather medicinal herbs, plants, roots and cut tipi poles. Clarence Woodcock of the Flathead Cultural Committee expressed the tribes' deep-rooted spiritual and cultural ties to the mountains: "They are lands where our people walked and lived. Lands and landmarks carved into the minds of our ancestors through Coyote stories and actual experiences. Lands, landmarks, trees, mountain tops, crevices that we should look up to with respect."

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• CSKT Bison Range — 11 mi
  The herd the tribes saved, the government forced them to sell, and the range they finally got back.
• St. Ignatius Mission — 12 mi
  A brick church painted wall to ceiling by the mission cook, beside the boarding schools the mission ran for Native children.

More markers nearby

• Fort Connah — 5.3 mi
• The Mission Valley — 14 mi
• The Flathead Indian Reservation — 15 mi
• The Swan Massacre of 1908 — 21 mi