The Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness

The Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness
by Tom McDonald

The striking peaks found in the Mission Mountains of the Flathead Nation of Western Montana, crown a wilderness range unique in the United States both in majesty and management. Standing more than a mile above the farmlands and towns of the Mission Valley, the western front of the range provides one of the most spectacular valley landscapes in the Rocky Mountain Region. But the range is more than a natural wonder. It is the first place in America in which an Indian Nation has matched, and possibly exceeded, the Federal Government in dedicating lands managed as a wilderness preserve.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes traditionally occupied a 20 million acre area stretching from Central Montana to Eastern Washington and north into Canada. The signing of the Hellgate Treaty of 1855 ceded the vast majority of those ancestral homelands to the United States government, while reserving 1.243 million acres now known as the Flathead Indian Reservation. The loss of this vast wilderness meant the potential loss of traditional Indian society. Every aspect of the Tribes’ culture, from hunting and food gathering, to ceremonial and religious activity, was dependent on a wilderness setting.

To the Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai Indians, the Mission Mountains were one part of this wilderness homeland, distinct in its incredible ruggedness and extreme weather, but no more wild or primeval than anywhere else. And, like other features of the landscape, the Mission Mountains influenced the culture and economy of the Tribes. The area could be crossed only through certain passes, used for hundreds of years by many different Tribal bands, and still used today for hunting, fishing, plant gathering, and cultural activities.

The first attempt by the Tribes to officially protect the Mission Range occurred in 1936, during a period of extensive trail construction by the Indian Civilian Conservation Corps in the mountainous areas of the Reservation. The Tribal Council voted to set aside 100,000 acres of the western slope of the Mission Mountains as an Indian-maintained national park. The Tribes were to retain ownership of the lands, but planned to parallel the National Park Service in its administration of the area. The main goals were to encourage Tribal member use of the park with traditional encampments and activities and to provide an economic opportunity for Indian guides to bring visitors into the park. Nothing ever came of the Tribal Council action. Correspondence suggests the idea died in Washington DC, in the office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, while performing their trust responsibilities for the Flathead Nation.

Ironically, one year later the Mission Range was classified as a roadless area by the same Office of Indian Affairs, but the Tribes objected because it was classified without the consent or input of the Tribes. Some of the land was determined to be better suited for other uses by the Tribes. The Mission Range Raodless Area was declassified in the Federal Register in 1959.

During the mid 1970’s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Flathead Agency proposed to log portions of the remaining roadless areas on the western front of the Mission Range on behalf of the Tribes. The proposal fueled a renewed interest in preserving the Mission Mountains in a natural state and the Tribal Council decided to set aside approximately 91,778 acres as a Tribal Wilderness in 1979. This decision came about through a number of Tribal individuals and groups. Three greatly respected yayas (grandmothers) raised the initial protest to the proposed logging and led the way for other community leaders to organize the “Save the Mission Mountains Committee”. The committee circulated a petition in 1975, asking the Tribal Council to designate a Mission Mountain Primitive Area in which logging would be banned. Soon after this the Tribal Council seriously began to consider some type of wilderness protection.

Several proposals were advanced, all of which lacked overall management considerations other than prohibiting logging. A proposal containing the least acreage included only that land unfeasible for timber harvesting. Advocates of this proposal were concerned about the loss of income from reduced commercial timberlands.

The Save the Mission Mountains Committee proposed a boundary that came to the base of the mountain range and included private and roaded lands, which made it politically not viable. Their interest centered on protecting aesthetic values and preserving the wilderness character of the area, thereby helping to retain some of the cultural and spiritual values important to the Tribes.

In 1976, the Tribal Council (at the recommendation of Thurman Trosper a tribal member and retired US Forest Service employee and past President of the Wilderness Society), contracted with the Wilderness Institute of the University of Montana to develop a draft boundary and management proposal for a Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness Area. Two years later, the Institute presented the drafts, which were a compromise of previous proposals, to the Tribal Council for review. The Tribal Council took no action on the Institute’s management proposal and boundary until a year later when they approved the draft boundary and decided to create a new Tribal program to oversee the interim management of the area. This program, called the Wildland Recreation Program, was also charged with developing a wilderness management plan to meet the specific needs and values of the Tribes.

The Program completed the plan in the spring of 1982 and on June 15, 1982, the Tribal Council voted overwhelmingly to approve Ordinance 79A, The Tribal Wilderness Ordinance, and the Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness Management Plan. The Tribal Council’s action was historic. It was the first time that an Indian Tribal had decided on its own accord to protect a sizeable portion of its lands as wilderness and provide policy and personnel to fulfill its purpose. The first section of the Tribal Wilderness Ordinance states that:

Wilderness has played a paramount role in shaping the character of the people and the culture of the Salish and Kootenai Tribes; it is the essences of traditional religion and has served the Indian people of these Tribes as a place to hunt, as a place to gather medicinal herbs and roots, as a vision seeking ground, as a sanctuary, and in countless other ways for thousands of years. Because maintaining and enduring resource of wilderness is vitally important to the people of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the perpetuation of their culture, there is hereby established a Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness Area, and this Area described herein, shall be administered to protect and preserve wilderness values.

The Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness covers approximately 91,778 acres. It ranges in elevation from 4,000 feet to nearly 10,000 feet at the mountain peaks. Approximately 34 miles long and averaging five miles wide, the wilderness extends from Moss Peak on the north end to the Jocko/Seeley Lake Road at the south end. Geographic features include forested slopes and high mountain valleys, rocky cliffs, rugged rocky peaks, subalpine and alpine lakes, creeks, and some small glaciers. There are nine major watersheds and drainages in the Wilderness Area of the Mission Range. In addition approximately 113 lakes greater than one acre in size can be found in the cirque basins created by the glaciers that formed this landscape.

The development and management of the Mission Mountain Tribal Wilderness Area has been a critical decision, not just for members of the Tribe, but also for the plant and animal communities who too have suffered generationally from shrinking habitat. Within this singular decision and action lie traditional beliefs and values about the role of stewardship that speaks hope to the next generation.