L&C through Salish Eyes

Ron Therriault is a past council chairman of the Salish-Kootenai Confederated Tribes. Tribal politics! There’s nothing like them, says Therriault. They’re a world unto themselves. It’s not at a distance. It’s nose to nose, toes to toes. You want to talk to the chairman, you want to talk to your council representative, you find him in the woods, you knock on his front door. There’s no secretary, or no buffer between you and tribal government. And that’s the way you’d better learn to operate.

He also has taught in the Native American Studies program at Kootenai-Salish College on the reservation, in Pablo, Montana.

My worlds have been many things. When I came back, came home, what I found was a large number of older people that were really making a strong effort to bring back knowledge, the culture, the wisdom . . . . I became a teacher in a developing Native American Studies program for Kootenai-Salish College. The idea was this was the key, to be able to use that education to move our people.

That was my motivation. I felt that the right kind of education would allow us to be who we are, and still live in this world, and be able to progress.

When this interview was videotaped Mr. Therriault was a visiting instructor in the Native American Studies department at the University of Montana, Missoula

Transcript:

Passing Through

I like to think of the time . . . We’re looking at 1805 and Lewis and Clark . . . to look at the people as they were at that time. What were the stories the tribe had as far as contact. There are a few stories. Very few. I think the only actual reference that we get in stories from the tribal side is years later, in the 1870s, when Charlo, who was speaking for his people, who were the Bitterroot Salish.

Charlo was the son of Victor, who was the son of the chief who had met Lewis and Clark. Charlo had related what his people had told him, his parents, and that was that they looked at Lewis and Clark as being a light from the east. In other words, they looked at them as something good because that’s where the sacred place is to the Salish—to the east, with the sun, because they were sun worshippers in their very old societies. So they looked at [them] as being a light, a good thing. They didn’t understand what Lewis and Clark were all about. The exploration—I think they understood that. They understood the passage. To the tribes that was acceptable because these were people that were passing through. They’re not going to stay here. They’re not going to take up that one commodity that’s been a constant fight between the Indian and the non-Indian—land. So they weren’t a threat, in that sense. Other stories that I hear . . . One of the things that the Salish always come up with is that when the chief saw these people that were approaching, there were a couple of things that he marked. One—In a sense they looked like warriors, and that had to with York, being black. Oftentimes a warrior coming from or going to a battle paints himself with black. And the reason there even varies within the tribes. Black is a sign of death, or moving into that side, and red’s a sign of life. So if he paints himself black or red, then he’s looking at two ways of going into this battle, and one way, hopefully, of coming out. But he’s accepting what the battle can bring—life or death.

So they saw that, and that added some confusion. But then they had the woman with them, and warrior groups didn’t travel with women. And that made a big difference also, because although it was confusion, what the chief used at that time was just common sense: let’s wait and see. See what their actions are.

Well, their actions were not the aggressive actions. First of all, a war party’s going to try to conceal themselves. They’re not going to be out in the open, or on the flat, where you can see them moving freely. And so, he took all those things into consideration—at least this is what you get from the stories—and just determined that these people were not a threat. And of course, there weren’t that many of them to begin with.

I’m sure, at that time, even though it’s not noted anyplace, there are indications that the Salish had already seen the white man as such, or what they would call a white man—men of other races. They probably have seen them, and they’re incorporated in different ways into their history—their oral history. Even to the point of Shining Shirt, who was supposedly a tribal person, but who was wearing that breastplate of the Conquistadors—and therefore picked the name of Shining Shirt —but he was a prophet. But they never really make clear whether he was tribal or not tribal. One assumes he was tribal, but he had this shirt. Well, that shirt came from someplace, and probably out of the Southwest—probably with the Conquistadors.

But in any event, they weren’t overly shocked or overly taken by Lewis and Clark because Lewis and Clark did not pose a threat. They were simply passing through, and that was acceptable. So the tribes would treat them as visitors, as friends. In fact, that’s the normal tribal concept of treating people back then. It was probably a mistake, a bad habit to keep up, because later when people were coming in, they still looked at them the same way.

“Oh, you’re going to visit us?”

“Well, we’re going to be here for a short while.”

Until the fences appeared, and a shotgun on each fencepost. Then you have a whole different concept of what people are doing to you. But initially, the contact seemed to have been good. Lewis and Clark were wise in the fact that they did things that mark a good man: they were generous, they shared what they had. And the Salish in turn shared food, and whatever they had.

And, of course, Lewis and Clark were interested in those horses, because that was their key to moving on. So the trade goods, and all that stuff that was sort of like an appetizer.

Trade Means Trouble

And trade goods . . . if we look back on our societies, you can point to the trade goods and you can start to see where that’s where the tribes started to get into trouble, because the culture’s going to change. People may not realize it, but it doesn’t matter what culture you’re in, any time a new item comes into that culture, and you use it—like, whether it be the pipe ax, or wire, awls, needles, whatever it may be—it replaces something that was in the traditional culture. As it replaces that something, then what was traditionally used, and the motivation for using it, will fade. The trap is, of course, it will become . . . As you forget how to make and utilize the old materials, you become part of being trapped by the new materials, because they’re only available from the white society, or from the trade society. So therefore, once you get spoiled, you’ve got to go to that society to get those same goods.

Of course, I believe they were all made like everything else is madein this world. They’re supposed to break down. That’s why they make spare parts. So it keeps the tie-in. I think it’s always like the gun. The gun could be a 23-pound club, or it could be a weapon of great violence, but the gun itself was nothing, because you needed the shot, the shell, the flint, the powder, and the spare parts. So, you needed to stay in contact, and on a trading basis, to keep all these things coming in to you, because otherwise you have a 23-pound club. Which is great, it puts you down and out, but it doesn’t serve the purpose it was meant to.

So when I look at that point in time, I don’t think it was really much to the Salish, other than to know that someone’s here. Someone’s coming. What may be amazing to people, I think, is the fact that the tribes here, in 1805, knew so little about people that had been on this continent for almost 200 years. And what had taken place in those 200 years was probably the complete destruction of many tribes. But the tribes here did not know about that relationship, so they saw it at something new, much like Charlo was to say later, they saw it as that light—light from the east—a good thing, something they could depend on. But it opened the door, because that first contact was good, that first contact was friendly.

Life Cycle

And I think that there were a lot of things already happening to the Salish, that their culture had started to change so much. And the one question that always came up was about the horse. The horse, people always put in the Indian’s world, and in their own minds, they seldom think of Indians without thinking of horses. But, the Salish really didn’t have the horse until about 1725—someplace in there. And there are some people that study the subject who can tell you, “Yeah, it was Saturday afternoon at three o’clock, and the weather was such-and-such.” I mean, they go to great detail. Probably for no good purpose at all, because what matters is, the horse did come, and it changed the whole concept that the tribes had.

Now, when Lewis and Clark made that contact, and vice versa—and it depends which side of the story you’re on, who made the contact—First of all, I’m sure the tribes figured “These guys are lost,” because no-one else had ever showed up there. And the way they treated them was not as a knowledgeable war-party, but as a party of people that . . . “Hey, these guys are just out here roaming around, totally lost.” And they’re some help, because they did help them about the trails west—where to go.

But you think about that time . . . Their culture, the Salish culture had already changed this great amount because of the horse. First of all, if you look prior to the horse, you’re looking at people that traveled eight, nine miles a day on foot. That sort of restricts the movement that they take. They carried everything they owned. And oftentimes, if a group was to travel, they would carry about 20, 25 pounds each person. Older women may carry the children, small children, or younger children carry small children. But everyone carried something. And the young man, he may carry a pack, and he may dog-trot for 8, 9 miles to a new campsite that scouts had already picked out, drop his pack there, because there’d be security staying there, and then dog-trot back to the old camp, pick up another pack. And [that] may be good reason why they were all skinny, and not like we are today—or I am—we’re not all that way. But it’s the idea that they moved constantly. But they always moved at that slow pace. Because time was a factor that was done by seasons, done by moons, and done by years. But they followed a life-cycle, and that life-cycle . . . .

Oftentimes people say well, the Indians were all nomadic. To someone that did not understand how the Indians were surviving, yes, they would have been nomadic. But they traveled a cycle of life. When Lewis and Clark made the contact with them, he would have missed two of those cycles already. He would have missed spring—and that was the beginning, that’s when . . . like the New Year, that’s when your ceremonies have to do with the renewal of the earth, because that’s when the earth renews itself. Not on 1 January. Everything’s dead on 1 January. It’s either frozen in place. But to the Indian it was the natural cycle. So the natural cycle would start to live in the spring, and that’s when the tribe’s cycle would start. And they would move with root gathering. Usually the root crops were in early spring, maybe April but more likely in May, June. And the root-crop cycle is so short that after a certain point they’re no longer edible. So they would have to gather an immense amount in a very short time. So they’d travel through these valleys to gather them—the bitterroot, and other crops that they’d use—whatever it was. And then the hunting would start, and even in this hunting they would follow a cycle, and even end up going for bison. Now they didn’t necessarily have to go all the way east of the mountains. There used to be bison in these valley areas also—over at Deer Lodge, over in that area. Down . . . The old, traditional, ancient areas of the Salish were around Three Forks, and south down to Dillon. That was their original territory, and there were bands that centered around that area. And if you look at the map, you see how they were able to drop down out of . . . through Dillon, and through the Big Hole, and back up into these valleys here. But they traveled a cycle of life, rather than being nomadic. And I think the biggest thing was that it was slow, and deliberate. And it had to be, because these people spent probably 95 percent of their time—the Salish did—just trying to survive.

It wasn’t that they didn’t have fun. We know they had a sense of humor, because without a sense of humor they would have disappeared a long time ago. But the big effort was simply to survive. And when you look at how we are today, if we were to take away all of the produced things that we go to the store and buy, there’d be a whole lot of dropping dead going on out there, because we have few skills. There are a lot of people that are getting those skills now. And again . . . even with the tribes. But there are many people that have no idea. . . . If it’s not in the market, they’re lost. Well, these people . . . Their market was the natural area around them. So they had to balance that, and I think that’s where the old “living in balance with the earth” thing comes in.

The Difference

I like to stay away from that romanticizing, because what happens—even Indians have a tendency to romanticize themselves. And they do that to such a point that they become almost godly. And the trap to that is, if someone becomes almost so godly and spiritual that he’s not even of this earth, then it’s not hard to get rid of him. Because really, he’s sort of a ghost. And many people forget, and the Indian forgets, at times, they were human beings. Very much human beings, that had pain, cried, fears, the whole thing. And people like to pull that away, because then it gives that stereotype Indian that we like to look at—”Oh, my God, my heart’s palpitating because, look at this wonderful, great warrior, noble savage.” Drives me up the wall.

But, all of a sudden, all of this traveling, and movement, was done in a precise order, for survival purposes. But then you put the horse in that, and all of a sudden everything changes. Not only can you move faster, and you can cover more room, but you can move faster to get into more conflict. Because as the horse develops, the area . . . Like we always say, we had the horse before the Blackfoot, but the Blackfoot, who were already making good contact with traders, usually Hudson Bay Company, because they didn’t care for the American traders, they had the gun. I don’t care how fast your horse is, you can’t outrun that rifle. So horses become a pretty good attraction for enemies that you may not have had before. They can chase you, and you can outrun them. It depends on who has the good horses.

The Salish were always noted for having very good horses. It became part of their life. But the horse was not a small thing in this society. The horse was a massive change. And when I say massive change . . . They developed a whole culture around the horse. Even for medicines, and for the spirit of the animal, and for the decorations the animal used. The whole thing was all developed on that one creature, and it also became pretty much an economic stability. How many horses, you know. Who has . . . So they used it.

When Lewis and Clark . . . and that contact was made in ’05 . . . That tribal history was already in a massive change. They had the horses. That’s what people were looking for, were the horses. Even Clark, Lewis and Clark. But they were still following that same life cycle, the tribes were, the Salish. And so they could move freely up and down these valleys. It would speed everything up. And when you speed everything up what usually happens is not only do you live a little bit better because you can get things quicker, faster, and get to them. You die a little bit better, too. Because your enemies can get to you quicker. And away from you. And when you’re on foot, and you’re a war party, a small war party, you don’t want to go running across a couple of mountain ranges to try to knock somebody off, because you’ve got in mind, “I’ve gotta run home, now.” And if the people you’re attacking are smart, they’re gonna dog you all the way home, if you ever get home. But the horse! That’s the difference!

So it would be a great animal. But if you look at a comparison, jump forward in the future, if anything’s impacted us more than the horse, it would be not a creature, or a critter. In the modern times it would be education. And I’ll talk about that. Those are the magic changes. And the horse was sort of a natural thing, because of the nature of how the people were living. But education became a necessity also, because of how the people were living. And not just education for the sake of education, but what kind of education?

The Power

The relationship, as it changed . . . There were other critical events that they talk about. Lewis and Clark just sort of opened the door. But it was going to happen. So if it was a total negative issue, you can’t blame Lewis and Clark, because if it hadn’t been him it would have been someone else. It’s like Columbus. We’re always beating poor old Christopher to death. Well if it hadn’t been him it would have been somebody else. And it might have been someone who knew what he was doing. Then we would’ve really been in trouble from early on. But as it was, it was going to happen. It was inevitable, because the world around us . . . they were searching and expanding, and it just had to happen.

But when you look at turning points, I think you have to look at Lewis and Clark probably being the smallest and the least effective, as far as changing the tribal way. The coming of the missionaries, the gathering of the missionaries. That was always misinterpreted by the Salish. The Salish knew about the missionaries and knew of their existence in the 1830s, because there were different tribes had visited the Salish, and further to the north, they had visited and talked with tribes like the Iroquois, who had already been exposed, a hundred years earlier, to missionaries. They already had the stories. And when they came they talked about these people that had this massive power. So much power that even the white man would bow before them. And so, the Indian could understand, “Yeah, that’s a lot of power.” Especially since their relationship with the non-Indian, they could see the power that even the traders had.

So there was a thing going on there, but they went looking for the priests, the Jesuits, especially in through here, for power, not religion. And then you’ve got the old story. They show up and they’ve got one idea, which is, they’re going to bring the religion. And the tribes wanted the power—the power usually either to defend themselves, or defeat their enemies. And there are stories within the tribe that are endless, about that relationship. But even the fact that after the 1850s, after the establishment of St. Mary’s down here in the Bitterroot, the Jesuits lost out. The tribes wouldn’t stick around them, and there were different reasons given. And like all things that go wrong, everyone was trying to find someone else to blame for the reason. Which is OK.

But basically, the tribe didn’t want to give up their way of life. And the Jesuits interfered. The Salish were not well known for taking prisoners. You take a prisoner, you got to feed him, you got to drag him along. Just do him in, right there. And of course that wouldn’t go well with the Jesuits, because the idea is, you should forgive them. It’s that type of thing that caused that early conflict. I think they’d caught a young Blackfoot warrior trying to steal a horse, and they wounded him. Then of course they wanted to . . . “Why waste your time with him. Let’s do ‘im in.” But the Jesuits intervened, and had them not only get the man back on his feet, but give him a horse to ride home with. That type of thing did not go well with the tribes, because they were still in that old relationship. They appeased the Jesuits, but then the favors started to fall aside, because they were simply interfering in how the tribes lived. There’s a big difference with that living, because the native spirituality is not a separate thing from living. It’s all together. In any event, the Jesuits definitely had an impact.