Kootenai (tribe)

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The Kootenai (also spelled Kutenai) or Ktunaxa (pronounced in English as Template:IPA) are an indigenous people of North America. They are one of three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana, and they form the Ktunaxa Nation in British Columbia. There are also populations in Idaho and Washington in the United States. The Flathead Reservation is home to the Bitterroot Salish and Pend d'Oreilles tribes as well.

The tribes constitute a distinct stock (Kitunahan). There is evidence that they formerly lived in the eastern plains and were driven into the mountains by the Blackfeet.

Kootenai Group Near Tipis (ca. 1900)

Kootenai

Kootenai girls, photographed by Edward S. Curtis in 1911.

1 History
2 Member Nations
- 2.1 Kootenai Indian Reservation
3 See also
4 Literature
5 References
6 External link

History

On September 20, 1975, the Kootenai Tribe headed by Chairwoman Amy Trice declared war on the United States government. Their first act was to post soldiers on each end of the highway that runs through the town and they forced people, at gunpoint, to pay a toll to drive through the land that had been the tribe’s aboriginal land. The money would be used to house and care for elderly tribal members. Most tribes in the United States are forbidden to declare war on the U.S. government because of treaties, but the Kootenai Tribe never signed a treaty. The dispute resulted in the concession by the United States government and a land grant of 10.5 acres that would become what is now the Kootenai Reservation. [1]

Member Nations

The Ktunaxa are comprised of members of seven bands or nations, five of which are in British Columbia, Canada and two are in the United States.<ref>Who We Are - Ktunaxa Nation</ref>

Template:Unicode/Columbia Lake Band (near Windermere, British Columbia)
Template:Unicode/St. Mary's Band (near Cranbrook, British Columbia)
Template:Unicode/Tobacco Plains Band (near Grasmere, British Columbia)
Template:Unicode/Lower Kootenay Band (near Creston, British Columbia)
Template:Unicode/Shuswap Band (near Invermere, British Columbia)
Template:Unicode/Kootenai Tribe of Idaho (near Bonners Ferry, Idaho)
Template:Unicode/Ksanka Band (Elmo, Montana)

Kootenai Indian Reservation

The Kootenai Indian Reservation lies in central Boundary County, Idaho, about 40 km south of the Canadian border, and about 3 km west-northwest of the city of Bonners Ferry. It has a land area of only 0.076575 km² (18.922 acres) and a 2000 census resident population of 75 persons.

Literature

A. F. Chamberlain, "Report of the Kootenay Indians of South Eastern British Columbia," in Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, (London, 1892)
John Maclean, Canadian Savage Folk, (Toronto, 1896)