Kootenai River

The river is named for the Kootenai People that lived and hunted in this part of the Montana and adjoining territories in Idaho and Canada. There are seven Bands of Kootenai People, five in Southern British Columbia, one in Idaho and one in Montana. The Jennings Band of Kootenai (Ksanka) settled south of the Flathead Lake in 1855 with the Confederated Salish of the Flathead Indian Reservation. The river was central to the economic life of the Kootenai People as an important traditional fishing area. Kootenai Falls Kootenai Falls is one of many places that the Kootenai People revere with great respect and honor. The falls, as the solo barrier to navigation from the headwaters to Kootenay Lake, marked a transition zone between the Upper and Lower Kootenai bands. “The site plays an important role in the historic and ongoing cultural and spiritual lives of the people.” Pat Lefthand called the falls “the Kootenai’s most sacred site and the heart of our spiritual life.”