A01=Peter Ronan
Author_Peter Ronan
Category=JBSL11
Category=NHB
Category=NHK
Category=WQH
Ehtnic Studies
Eneas
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Ethnohistory
Federal Indian Agent
Flathead Indian Reservation
Indian Affairs
Indian Chiefs
Indigenous Studies
Kootenai Indians biography
Kootenai property
Kootenai rights
Montana history
Native American History
Native American Studies
Plains Indian history
Salish and Kootenai Tribes
Tribal Chief
U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Upper Flathead Valley
Product details
- ISBN 9781934594377
- Dimensions: 254 x 178mm
- Publication Date: 01 Oct 2025
- Publisher: Salish Kootenai College
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Chief Eneas Bigknife: Kootenai Indian Patriot and Diplomat has been assembled from excerpts of the letters of Flathead Indian Reservation agent Peter Ronan written to the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs about Ronan’s dealings with Eneas Bigknife, chief of the Flathead Reservation Kootenai Indians between 1865 and 1900.
Agent Ronan was impressed with Chief Bigknife’s dedication to his community and his struggle to protect Kootenai rights and property. The Kootenai band on the Flathead Reservation was small—only 315 members in 1877—and vulnerable to physical extinction from intertribal conflict with the Plains Indian tribes and later to hostile white settlers in the Upper Flathead Valley. Since the Kootenai settlement was approximately sixty-five miles from the Flathead Agency in the Jocko Valley, Ronan relied on Bigknife to keep the peace between the Kootenai Indians and local white men. Bigknife used his government salary to purchase agricultural equipment and tools to help the Kootenai expand their farms and horse and cattle herds. He struggled to get the biased white legal system to give justice to the Kootenai Indians who were assaulted and murdered by white men.
Agent Ronan was impressed with Chief Bigknife’s dedication to his community and his struggle to protect Kootenai rights and property. The Kootenai band on the Flathead Reservation was small—only 315 members in 1877—and vulnerable to physical extinction from intertribal conflict with the Plains Indian tribes and later to hostile white settlers in the Upper Flathead Valley. Since the Kootenai settlement was approximately sixty-five miles from the Flathead Agency in the Jocko Valley, Ronan relied on Bigknife to keep the peace between the Kootenai Indians and local white men. Bigknife used his government salary to purchase agricultural equipment and tools to help the Kootenai expand their farms and horse and cattle herds. He struggled to get the biased white legal system to give justice to the Kootenai Indians who were assaulted and murdered by white men.
