This collection includes talks or petitions by Salish and Kootenai chiefs found in the surviving historical record. The Salish and Kootenai Indians of the Flathead Indian Reservation confronted many crises in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The physical and cultural survival of the tribes was challenged by epidemics, intertribal warfare with larger enemy tribes, and an invasion of white settlers. The tribes had to fight to have their voices heard and to get the United States government to keep its promises.

Fortunately, the tribes had capable leaders who spoke up for their interests and negotiated with visiting government officials. The chiefs were able to get sympathetic white men to write letters supporting their efforts to keep a reservation in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana and pressure the government to honor other promises made in the 1855 Hellgate Treaty. In later negotiations their white neighbors coveted tribal land and assets.

Many of the chiefs' statements were preserved in English by newspaper reporters and government clerks. The interpreters in the meetings had to struggle to explain white American cultural concepts of property and right and wrong. They were also challenged in trying to explain Salish and Kootenai values to the white officials.
Agnes Oshanee Kenmille (1916-2009) was a Salish Indian elder and master craftswoman from the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. She was a hard worker who struggled to raise her children and survive during a century of cultural and economic change on the reservation. Despite being orphaned at the age of thirteen and widowed three times, she was always able to cope and be an inspiration to those around her.

For years she taught hide tanning and traditional crafts at the Salish Kootenai College and Two Eagle River School in Pablo, Montana. Through her hard work and craft work, she supported herself and her children.

As Tony Incashola, former director of the Salish-Pend d'Oreille Culture Committee, remembered her: "She was like a magnet--she drew people to her. She put her heart into her work, and that's why it was in such demand--people wanted a part of her, and owning something she made was a way to have that."

This book is compiled from interviews with Kenmille and a portfolio of color photos of her craft work.