46 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 10 



reservation by furnishing seeds, instruction, and as many agricultural 

 tools as their limited means permitted. The Indian Agent's report for 

 1857 stated that they had made "very marked progress in cultivating 

 the soil" in the 3 years since the Mission was established. Apparently 

 some families found farming much to their liking. However, the 

 Agents' reports during the two succeeding decades emphasized the 

 preference of the majority for traditional economic pursuits. The 

 1865 Report stated that the Pend d'Oreille had made less progress in 

 agriculture than had the Flathead. In 1869 the Agent wrote: "The 

 greater portion of the Pend d'Oreille tribe and Kootenays still depend 

 upon the chase for subsistence. The buffalo hunt, their main depen- 

 dence, becomes each year less reliable." Yet in 1875 the Agent re- 

 ported: "The greater number .... make regular annual excur- 

 sions to the east side of the Rocky Mountains on their accustomed buf- 

 falo hunts." (Ann. Rep. Comm. Ind. Aff., 1857, p. 379; 1865, p. 247; 

 1869, p. 295; 1875, p. 304.) As long as buffalo could be found on 

 the plains beyond the mountains the majority of the Pend d'Oreille 

 preferred the blood-quickening excitement of running buffalo to the 

 quiet, steady toil of tilling the soil. 



The Indians' addiction to the seminomadic life also hampered the 

 efforts of the missionaries to educate their children. A mission day 

 school was established. But when Indian families moved camp to 

 hunt, fish, gather roots or berries, they took their children with them. 

 This continual interruption of their schooling for extended periods of 

 time resulted in haphazard educational progress on the part of the 

 children. (Ibid., 1865, p. 241.) 



In their devotion to the traditional hunting economy, the majority 

 of the Upper Pend d'Oreille, like the Flathead, postponed the prob- 

 lem of adjustment to an agricultural economy until after the buffalo 

 were gone. In two other important respects, however, the cultural 

 conflicts of the Upper Pend d'Oreille were more easily resolved 

 than were those of the Flathead. The former never became estranged 

 from their Mission, as had the Flathead in the late forties and fifties. 

 St. Ignatius Mission has been in continuous existence since 1854. 

 Also the Upper Pend d'Oreille were spared the frustration which 

 the prolonged, unsuccessful struggle to retain their homeland brought 

 to the Flathead. When Chief Chariot led his loyal little band of Flat- 

 head from the Bitterroot Valley onto the Jocko Reservation in 1891, 

 the Upper Pend d'Oreille possessed nearly two generations of experi- 

 ence as reservation Indians. 



