FLATHEAD, or (properly) SALISH INDIANS, a tribe of Indians belonging to the Salishian family to which they gave their name, with uncompressed skulls as distinguished from the "peaked-heads" who did compress their skulls, and who gave the others the name of Flatheads. These Flatheads are a superior tribe, originally dwelling around the Flathead Lake and River in northwestern Montana; much respected by the traders and explorers as at once very brave against their enemies (chiefly the Blackfeet) and honorably requiting friendly treatment. The famous Flathead mis sion, known as Saint Mary's and located in the Bitter Root Valley, Mont., was one of the most successful in the Northwest and was established among them in 1841 by the Jesuit missionary P. J. De Smet. On 16 July 1855 the Flathead, Kutenai and Upper Pend d' Oreille Indians turned over their lands by treaty to the United States. They were thereafter located there on reservations, the whole territory being known as Flathead Indian Reservation. By various
acts, passed since 1904, most of these lands have been opened to settlement, irrigation, etc. In 1909 the number of Flathead Indians was officially given as 598. Consult Baudot, V., 'Au Pays des Peaux-Rouges, etc.> (Lille 1911) ; Curtis, E. S., 'Indian Days of the Long Ago> (Yonkers 1914); Hodge, F. W. ed., 'Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico) (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, 2 vols., Wash ington 1907-10) ; O'Connor, Jas., 'The Flathead Indians' (in American Catholic Historical So ciety of Philadelphia, Records, Vol. III, p. 85, Philadelphia 1891); Ronan, P., 'Historical Sketch of the Flathead Indian Nation, etc.' (Helena 1890); Smead, W. H., 'Land of the Flatheads, etc.' (Missoula 1905); U. S., Public Lands Committee, 'Flathead Indian Reserva tion Acts Relating to the Flathead Indian Res ervation, etc.' (compiled by C. W. Draper, Washington 1914).