Government to Build School for Pend Oreille Indians as Settlers Push for Removal
A new school is planned for Indigenous families opposite Cusick, but the report reveals settler pressure to move them off prime hay lands and allot the land instead.
It is reported that the government will soon establish a school for the Indians living opposite Cusick on the Pend Oreille river. Up to this time the Indians of the valley have had no school privileges nor has any attention been paid to them by the government.
The school is doubtless the result of the petition addressed to the department last winter asking the removal of the Indians to some reservation. As they are living at present they are a menace to the health of the community, and there is usually some disease epidemic among them which is hard to stamp out, and as they will not heed quarantine restrictions, they spread the diseases among the settlers. They are occupying some of the very best hay lands in the valley and making but little use of them.
However, they objected to being moved, and the department has decided to have the lands allotted to them, which will be done soon by Clair Hunt, who has had charge of the allotments in the Spokane reservation.
“They are occupying some of the very best hay lands in the valley and making but little use of them.”
This 1909 report captures the paternalism and land hunger behind federal Indian policy. The promised school came alongside allotment—a system that broke up communal lands and aimed to assimilate Native people. Today, the Pend Oreille and other tribes continue to fight for sovereignty and land rights, making this a story about whose home this was and is.
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