The U.S. Department of Interior has transferred 18,800 acres into a trust for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) of the Flathead Reservation in Montana more than a century after it was illegally seized from the tribes by the federal government.
The land encompasses the National Bison Range (NBR), part of a conservation effort authorized by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908.
Though the land played a vital role in preserving the wild bison population, it came at the cost of annexing the tribal lands of the Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
“The establishment of the National Bison Range was an historic use of lands to preserve wildlife, but we must also acknowledge that this act reduced the Salish and Kootenai peoples’ homeland by thousands of acres,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland said in a news release. “The return of these lands back to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes is truly a significant milestone in their relationship with the Interior Department and the United States.”
The transfer of the land represents the culmination of a century-long struggle to reclaim the land for the CSKT.
In 1908-1909, the United States government unlawfully seized the land which now comprises the NBR from the Salish and Kootenai Tribes. In 1971, the U.S. Court of Claims found that the U.S. had not paid fair market value for the land at the time, having only paid $1.56 per acre, according to the NBR website.
The 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act made the transfer possible by repealing the original statute that created the NBR. The law calls for transitioning the management of the lands from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service to the tribes over a two-year period.
