A Million Acres on the Block: Colville Reservation Slated for Settlement
Secretary of the Interior James R. Garfield's annual report listed the Colville and Coeur d'Alene reservations among the Indian lands being prepared for opening to settlement in 1908.
"Laws have been enacted for the disposal of the following Indian lands: Colville reservation, Wash., 1,000,000 acres; Flathead reservation, Mont., 1,000,000 acres; Yakima reservation, Wash., 1,145,000 acres; Blackfeet reservation, Mont., 500,000 acres; Lower Brule reservation, S.D., 55,000 acres; Coeur d'Alene reservation, Idaho, 310,000 acres; Rosebud reservation, S.D., 835,000 acres; Lemhi reservation, Idaho, 64,000 acres. Steps are now being taken preliminary to the opening of these lands next year," states the annual report of James R. Garfield, secretary of the interior, which was made public recently. Mr. Garfield's report was dated December 31, 1907, so that in all probability the Colville and Coeur d'Alene reservations will be thrown open to settlement this year. The public land service netted the government more than $9,000,000 in 1907, according to Mr. Garfield's resume of the dealings of the department.—Exchange.
“Steps are now being taken preliminary to the opening of these lands next year.”
The 1908 opening of the Colville and Coeur d'Alene reservations was part of a broader federal push to convert tribal land into homesteads, a policy that reshaped the Inland Northwest. The promise of 'free' land came at the expense of Indigenous nations who had already lost much of their base.
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