Archaeological artifacts date the Missoula
Valley's earliest inhabitants to the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago
with settlements as early as 3,500 BCE. From the 1700s until European
settlements began a hundred years later, the land was primarily used by
populations of the Salish, Kootenai, Pend d'Oreille, Blackfeet, and Shoshone
tribes. Located at the confluence of five mountain valleys, the Missoula Valley
was heavily traversed by local and distant native tribes that periodically went
to the Eastern Montana plains in search of bison, leading to inevitable
conflict. The narrow valley at
