Kutenai
Kutenai is pronounced kʊt-ən-ai (ʊ as in 'oo' from book and ə as in 'a' cat). Land: The Kutenai live in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and as
far north as British Columbia, and Alberta. Their homelands stretch from west of the Rocky Mountains to Arrow Lake in British
Columbia. The majority of
Kutenai today share the Flathead Reservation with Confederated Salish
tribes.Organization: They are divided into eight separate bands including the Tunaxa, Tobacco Plains, Jennings, Libby, Bonners, Ferry, Ft. Steele, Creston,
and Windermere. The word "Kutenai" may have originated from Kutunaiua, a Blackfoot word meaning "slim people." There are several other possible explanations for the tribe's name.History: Their first contact with European settlers was
around 1800. Canadian traders brought the Kutenai to the attention of
their employers hoping to establish trade. the European settlers were the
first to initiate trade, and the Kutenai weren't hard to coax. In 1855,
Governor Isaac Stevens presented the "Hell's Gate" treaty.
This treaty established reservations for many of the tribes and controlled
interactions between the Kutenai and their European neighbors. Many of
the Kutenai fled to Canada because of this.
Until recently the Kutenai maintained their semi-nomadic life-style
living on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian boarder.
Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not
claim expertise on the Kutenai.
Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the web address of this page.
If you are Kutenai, your feedback is much appreciated.
Kootenai Tribe of Idaho: http://www.kootenai.org/main.html
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation: http://www.cskt.org/
Char-Koosta News - Official Newspaper of the Salish and Kootenai
Tribe: http://charkoosta.com/links.html
Resources:
Malinowski, Sharon, Sheets, Ann. The Encyclopedia of Native American
Tribes Volume lll. London: Gale Pub., 1998.
Smith, H. Allen. Kutenai Indian Subsistence and Settlement Patterns
of Northwest Montana. Washington State University, 1984.
Written By: Ryan Utterback
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