Economics

Economic Stimuli and Conditions: Pablo, MT Flathead Indian Reservation

Report presents facts about the economic  conditions that exist on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Pablo, Montana and how these influence the livelihood of the American Indians living on the reservation.

Talib A. Hester

August 20, 2009

Flathead Indian Reservation

Location

The Flathead Indian Reservation is located north of I-90 between Missoula and Kalispell. There are an abundance of mountains  that border the 1.2 million acres of the reservation. This patch of land is inhabited by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. The population is made up of varied tribes; the Salish, the Kootenai and the Pend d’Oreilles. These tribes have 6,800 recognized tribal members of which 3,700 live on the reservation. Points of interest on the reservation are: Flathead Indian Museum, Flathead Lake State Park, The National Bison Range/Pablo National Wildlife Refuge, Ninepipes Lodge, National Wildlife Refuge and State Wildlife Management Area, St. Ignatius Mission, and The People’s Center in Pablo.

History

The Flathead Reservation, founded in 1855, occupies 1,242,969 acres with approximately 43% being tribally owned. Most of the Euro-American owned land is in the arable valleys while most of the tribal land is mountainous. The reservation population in 1960 was approximately 14,830–of which 13.3% were legally Indian—living in small towns (under 2,500) and dispersed on ranches. The economy is based on lumbering and ranching–two large lumber mills are on the reservation, and a number of others nearby.

A contrasting fact about the various bands of Indian tribes that call this region home is that the Salish peoples were forced onto the reservation from the west. The Kootenai are native to Montana and the discovery of the Pend d’Oreilles established the fact that they had inhabited the reservation more than 14,000 years ago, and other relics point towards the Kootenai having roots in that date far beyond the area’s known history. The Kootenai were displaced into two core bands. One band lived to the northeast and had a way of life based on bison hunting. The other band lived in the steep western mountain ranges and had a standard of living focused on rivers and lakes. The Salish lived territorially in Washington, Idaho, and western Montana but ventured as far east as the Bighorn Mountains. As the tribe moved east, they had to change from a routine based on salmon fishing to one more reliant upon native plants and buffalo. During the 1700s, these two tribes — the Salish and the Kootenai — shared common hunting and gathering grounds.

Economically, 1910 marked the last part of the survival economy support on the principles of blessed reciprocity. Prior to allotment and homesteading, the reservation subsistence economy (which in pre-reservation times was based on bison) had been transferred to cattle roaming the large unfenced reservation. Separating and enclosing the land put an end to the Indian cattle. Since then the Indians have, solely based upon need, been a part of the market economy of western Montana. The per capita income from tribal assets is quite small after being divided among members.

Montana Indians’ history has fostered the current economic situation.  Stubborn and stron-willed contemporaries continue to be responsible for keeping it going. The reservation cultural environment selects certain adaptations which are not necessarily the same as those in the larger Euro-American society. In the following section , I will attempt to discuss the social classes of today.

The social classes of the Flathead Reservation were obtained using the technique of “Matched agreements.” The ranking was done by five people on behalf of opposing divisions of the reservation’s Indian population. Each judge was asked separately to gather information on an incidental survey of 202 household heads into the classes which they perceived. Some of the major characteristics of these four classes, derived from a questionnaire administered to the same 202 households are summarized in the following Table (I).

Table (I)

Major Characteristics of the Four Social Classes on the Flathead Reservation

Class	I	II	III	IV
Culture Racially	Least Indian	Less than half Indian	More than half Indian	80% are half Indian
Mean Annual Income	$8,100	$6,000	$5,000 (may be high)	$2,200
Occupation	Skilled manual and above	Skilled and semi-skilled	Semi-skilled and unskilled	Only 15% gainfully employed household heads
Marital-Family Situation	Stable; good family reputation	Stability high; few female household heads	Some instability; 16% female household heads	Instability defining characteristic
Euro-American Voluntary Association	Almost 100%	50%	25%	Very few
Educational Level (in year) of Men and Wives	Men–10.6 Women–11.3	Men–9.9 Women–10.3	Men–9.3 Women–10.0	Men–4.9 Women–5.3

Based upon this social hierarchy an Indian person does not have to be extremely well knowledgeable to enter into a profession which will place him or her in the upper echelon of the local status system. Also, in direct correlation there are far more fewer jobs on the reservation that have need of particularly high educational levels. Many in classes I and II are ranchers, a very prominent occupation amongst these people, but here the likelihood of being left good land and having a good credit rating are primary. These are not in any proportionate fashion associated to formal education.

Another industry employing a large number of Indians is the lumber mills. The mill occupations are permanent, not seasonal, but depending on the individual.  He may work temporarily, as in the case of target workers, or permanently. The last choices draw a noteworthy parallel with societal categorizing. In the local status system and in the local employment market a high degree of education is not required.

Except for a few professionals and the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) there is little demand for highly educated people on the reservation. On the whole, the highly educated have to leave the reservation, and many do. Of the 1,966 on-reservation Indian population, 13.97% were 15-19 years old while the percentage in the 20-24 age bracket was 9.37%. The people do not return permanently in any statistically measurable numbers at a later age. Presumably, for off-reservation employment, the more education one has the better the position in which he will be employed.

This is not the case for the immediate reservation community in which the child is raised. He or she sees that there is no great or immediate advantage in staying in school past the legal requirement of 16 years of age. That typically means somewhere in high school. By the time a student reaches high school he or she has had all the education he needs for the vast majority of jobs he or she can justifiably look forward to obtain, regardless of education. Under these conditions it is not surprising that the chance to work at a mill or in some similar service field where he or she can be financially independent comes down to be an economic burden on his family, and/or assist the family income is a more reasonable alternative than staying in school a few more years.

Economic Stimuli

The Flathead Reservation is a well-developed agricultural area with farms, ranches and communities scattered throughout the inhabited portions of the Reservation. Wood products such as lumber, crop growing, land preservation and cultivation and tourism are significant means of commerce. The Flathead Nation’s tribal council employs the greatest number of peoples living on the reservation. Additionally, camping, mountain climbing, fishing and hunting are all activities that most of the populace on the Flathead Reservation and visitors enjoy. Countless, tribal powwows are open to respectful visitors and bring outsiders to the reservation busting the sell of hotel rooms, gas usage, and merchandise sales.

As Montana citizens, tribal members who live on the reservation are eligible to vote and do vote in city, county and state elections. Some hold elective and appointed state and local offices. All services provided by the state and local governments are equally available to Indians and non-Indians. The only schools on the Reservation are those operated by school districts of the State of Montana. The State and local governments have built and maintain a system of state highways, county roads and streets on the Reservation which are used by Indians and non-Indians without restriction. While some towns have predominantly Indian sectors, generally Indians and non-Indians live together in integrated communities. Banks, businesses and professions on the Reservation provide services to Indians and non-Indians alike.

In early June 2008, Indian and non-Indian business and government leaders met at the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Economic Development Summit to converse about cooperative business enterprises and production affiliations. The tribal government’s stance was that any association with external corporations would more than likely bring about the largest successful ways to create otherwise non-existent employment and monetarily rewarding opportunities on the reservation. In fact tribal leaders were optimistic about this chance because of the advantage of the tribal sovereignty to promote and capitalize on opportunities available within the reservation. A Montana Economic Development Summit organized by U.S. Senator Max Baucus has led to an increased number of scaled down summits in and around the state to deal with case by case economic development issues.

Local officials are also looking abroad for economic development models, with provinces in Alberta, Canada providing an example centered on industrial diversification, improving Internet and telecommunications transmission and improving transportation through road and rail reworking.

Houses and Residents

(Urban population: 0, Rural population: 1,775)

• Houses: 661 (594 occupied: 363 owner occupied, 231 renter occupied) Housing density: 136 houses/condos per square mile
• Median price asked for vacant for-sale houses and condos in 2007 in this state: $228,803.
• Median contract rent in 2007: $471 (lower quartile is $158, upper quartile is $722)
• Median rent asked for vacant for-rent units in 2007: $584
• Median gross rent in Pablo, MT in 2007: $618
• Housing units in Pablo with a mortgage: 112 (0 second mortgage, 0 home equity loan, 0 both second mortgage and home equity loan)
  Houses without a mortgage: 67

Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $112,603 (it was $39,400 in 2000)

Pablo:	$112,603
Montana:	$170,000

Lower value quartile – upper value quartile: $98,757 – $250,393

Household income:

• Less than $10,000: 95
• $10,000 to $14,999: 50
• $15,000 to $19,999: 40
• $20,000 to $24,999: 73
• $25,000 to $29,999: 73
• $30,000 to $34,999: 81
• $35,000 to $39,999: 61
• $40,000 to $44,999: 28
• $45,000 to $49,999: 4
• $50,000 to $59,999: 14
• $60,000 to $74,999: 22
• $75,000 to $99,999: 11
• $100,000 to $124,999: 0
• $125,000 to $149,999: 0
• $150,000 to $199,999: 0
• $200,000 or more: 15

Conclusion

The Flathead Nation of Indians on the reservation of western Montana thrives in a region in which the most economically stimulating producers are ranching and logging. The three Indians tribes: the Salish, the Kootneai and the Pend d’Oreilles are divided into four distinct social classes which have several major dissimilarities between them on an array of socioeconomic factors. Education is not, however, with the exception of class IV, one of the variables that shows a relationship considerably with social class. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the employment opportunities on the reservation are open to anyone who has had more than a few years of formal education. This situation does not provide any selective pressure on the economically to go to aspire to obtain lucrative positions that will sustain an individual family for extended generations as their focus on simply on sustaining in the here and now.

Works

Anonymous, The Montana-Wyoming Indian, Billings, Billings Area Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1965, p. 61.

C. Thomas Brockmann, Social Classes of the Modern Flathead Indian Reservation, Tokyo: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, II: 188-190.

Harry H. Turney-High, The Flathead Indians of Montana, Menasha: American Anthropological Association, Memoir 48, 1937 and Harry H. Turney-High, Ethnography of the Kutenai, Menasha: American Anthropological Association, Memoir 56, 1941.

Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 83, Issue 4, 7 December 2007, Pages 327-33.

Montana Department of Commerce, Economic Adjustment Strategy: August 12, 2008.

Montana Department of Economic Development, State Data Center. (2008). Thematic Maps of Montana:  Percent bachelor’s degree or higher based on U.S. Census. Retrieved August 30, 2009.

S. M. Miller and Martin Rein, “Poverty, Inequality and Policy,” in Howard S. Becker, editor, Social Problems: A Modern Approach, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1966, 426-516.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2000). American FactFinder reference maps: Lake County, MT. Retrieved August 26, 2009.

U. S. Census Bureau. (2000). Profile of selected social characteristics: Lake County, MT. Retrieved August 25, 2009.

W. L. Davis, A History of St. Ignatius Mission, Spokane: C. W. Hill Printing Co., 1954, p. 3