This Week in Tribal History

Mary Rogers, Tribal Preservation Department

July 7, 1876 from The New Northwest: The Deerlodge valley and country were a sort of neutral ground among the surrounding tribes of Indians and was not occupied by any of them, at least not during the historical period. The cause of this would seem to have been the frequent incursions of the Blackfeet. (Safford) "the name of the country, valley, and town is derived from the hot spring mound or Butte near Belanger's Hotel in the upper part of the valley, which was then called by the Snake Indians 'the white-tailed deer lodge,' from the fact of those deer being very abundant in the swamps in that vicinity and from the resemblance that the mound bore to an Indian lodge of a winter's morning when the steam rose from the hot spring on its summit like smoke from a lodge."

July 6, 1877 from The New Northwest: "Persons and letters from Bear and Yreka says the Indians are cutting out an old trail from Nevada Creek on Big Blackfoot over to Sun River. While this is somewhat unusual employment for them, we presume no significance would be attached to it in less excited times. There were recently some forty lodges encamped on Camas Prairie, near Eureka, and having obtained whiskey, were ugly…"

July 3, 1909 from The Sanders County Signal: "Charley MacGowan, a half-breed Indian, and a ward of the government, was brought to Missoula today and locked up in the county jail charged with theft. Charley was brought in from Camas Prairie, on the reservation, by a United States deputy marshal and will have a hearing late this afternoon before United States Commissioner Smith."

July 2, 1915 from The Plainsman: Charley Allard herded 16 buffalo, 20 steers & Horses to Missoula for stampede celebration

July 5, 1917 from The Plainsman: “Kalispell-Each Indian in the Flathead tribe is being paid $200 by the government, as the result of the accumulation of a surplus to the tribe’s credit. About 2,500 Indians will participate in the distribution.”

July 1, 1924 from The Helena Weekly Herald: One of the rare fishing stories of the season from Louie Demers of Arlee. While fishing at Lake Ronan recently he caught an immense fish of some kind that took rod and all away from him and hiked off up the lake.

July 7, 1927 from The Plainsman: "Charles Purish, a Flathead Indian, was knocked down and killed by Northern Pacific train No. 41 near Perma on July 4. The unfortunate man had gone to sleep on the track after indulging, it is said, in too much firewater, and it was impossible to stop the train before it hit him. Coroner Billmyer took charge of the body."

July 3, 1947 from The Ronan Pioneer: Bureau of Reclamation Plans to increase height of Hungry Horse to 535 feet. This makes it the third or fourth highest in the world. “Anticipated water storage behind the dam will be 3,500,000 acre-feet of water instead of the 2,000,000 acre-feet or less originally scheduled.”

July 1, 1948 from The Ronan Pioneer: Power from Kerr Dam used to help build Hungry Horse Dam.

If you have any questions or comments please contact Mary Rogers at 675-2700, ext 1320, or Communication Director, Rob McDonald at ext. 1222. Newspaper articles may be suggested for the Preservation archives if the article includes the newspaper name, date and is from 1975 or earlier.