TREATY WITH THE FLATHEADS, &C. JULY 16, 1855. 975 Treaty between the United States and the Flathead, Kootenay, and Upper Pend d’Oreilles Indians. Ooncluded at Ikll Gate in the Bitter Root Valley, July 16, 1855. Ratifed by the Senate, March 8, 1859. Proclaimed by the President of the United States, April 18, 1859. JAMES BUCHANAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, TO ALL AND SINGULAR TO wnou THESE PRESENTS SHALL coms, onnnrrno : July 16, 185,; WHEREAS a treaty was made and concluded at the treaty ground, at Hell Gate, in the Bitter Root Valley, on the sixteenth day of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, between Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory of Washington, on the part of the United States, and the hereinafter named chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the confederated tribes of the Flathead, Kootenay, and Upper Pond d’Oreilles Indians, on behalf of and acting for said confederated tribes and duly authorized thereto, by them, which treaty is in the words and figures following, to wit: Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at the treaty CQ¤t1‘¤¤ii¤8 ground at Hell Gate, in the Bitter Root Valley, this sixteenth day of July, P°‘m°S' in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by and between Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory of Washington, on the part of the United States, and the undersigned chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the confederated tribes of the Flathead, Kootenay, and Upper Pencl d’Oreilles Indians, on behalf of and acting for said confederated tribes, and being duly authorized thereto by them. It being understood and agreed that the said confederated tribes do hereby constitute a nation, under the ,name of the Flathead nation, with Victor, the head chief of the Flathead tribe, as the head chief of the said nation, and that the several chiefs, headmen, and delegates, whose names are signed to this treaty, do hereby, in behalf of their respective tribes, recognise Victor as said head chieti ARTICLE I. The said confederated tribes of Indians hereby cede,re- Cession of linquish, and convey to the United States all their right, title, and interest gmits 50S2s in and to the country occupied or claimed by them, bounded and described m ° ws' as follows, to wit: Commcncing on the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains at the forty- Boundaries. ninth (49th) parallel of latitude, thence westwardly on that parallel to the divide between the Flat-bow or Kootenay River and Clarke’s Fork; thence southerly and southeasterly along said divide to the one hundred and fifteenth degree of longitude, (115°,) thence in a southwesterly direction to the divide between the sources of the St. Regis Borgia and the Coeur d’Alene Rivers, thence southeasterly and southerly along the main ridge of the Bitter Root Mountains to the divide between the head waters of the Koos-koos-kee River and of the southwestern fork of the Bitter Root River, thence easterly along the divide separating the waters of the several tributaries of the Bitter Root River from the waters flowing into the Salmon and Snake Rivers to the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains, and thence northerly along said main ridge to the place of beginning. ARTICLE II. There is, however, reserved from the lands above ceded, RSSBWS-tI0H- for the use and occupation of the said confederated tribes, and as a general Indian reservation upon which may be placed other friendly tribes
