A Confluence of Cultural and Water History with the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, Montana
Faculty Mentor
Richard Orndorff
Document Type
Poster
Start Date
10-5-2023 11:15 AM
End Date
10-5-2023 1:00 PM
Location
PUB NCR
Department
Geology
Abstract
The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, formerly known as the Kerr Dam, is the first Native American-owned dam in the United States. Now owned and managed by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the dam blocks the flow of the Flathead River near Polson Montana. The concrete gravity-arch dam was completed in 1938 (it is one of two dams on the Flathead River) by the Montana Power Company, and it was initially named Kerr Dam after the company president, Frank Kerr. The Kerr Dam, south of Flathead Lake, was considered a blight and a sign of the white man’s landgrab and genocide of Native American culture and language. But the dam was purchased at a price of $18.2 million in 2015 by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and it was renamed the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam. It is now a source of hope for the Tribes, and a source of power and water for their economic future. By following the Tribe’s history starting in 1855 with the Hellgate Treaty, it demonstrates the enormous impact of water on the Tribe’s past, present, and future.
Recommended Citation
Hansen, Allisen, "A Confluence of Cultural and Water History with the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, Montana" (2023). 2023 Symposium. 11.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2023/res_2023/p2_2023/11
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
A Confluence of Cultural and Water History with the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, Montana
PUB NCR
The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, formerly known as the Kerr Dam, is the first Native American-owned dam in the United States. Now owned and managed by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the dam blocks the flow of the Flathead River near Polson Montana. The concrete gravity-arch dam was completed in 1938 (it is one of two dams on the Flathead River) by the Montana Power Company, and it was initially named Kerr Dam after the company president, Frank Kerr. The Kerr Dam, south of Flathead Lake, was considered a blight and a sign of the white man’s landgrab and genocide of Native American culture and language. But the dam was purchased at a price of $18.2 million in 2015 by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and it was renamed the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam. It is now a source of hope for the Tribes, and a source of power and water for their economic future. By following the Tribe’s history starting in 1855 with the Hellgate Treaty, it demonstrates the enormous impact of water on the Tribe’s past, present, and future.
