The Bitterroot Salish (or Flathead, Salish, Séliš) are a Salish-speaking group of Native Americans, and one of three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana. The Flathead Reservation is home to the Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles tribes also. Bitterroot Salish or Flathead originally lived in an area west of Billings, Montana extending to the continental divide in the west and south of Great Falls, Montana extending to the Montana-Wyoming border. From there they later moved west into the Bitterroot Valley. By request, a Catholic mission was built here in 1841. In 1891 they were forcibly moved to the Flathead Reservation. Alternative names The Bitterroot Salish are known by various names including Salish, Selish, and Flathead. The name "Flathead" was a term used to identify any Native tribes who had practiced head flattening. The Salish, however, deny that their ancestors engaged in this practice. Instead, they believe that this name caught on because of the sign language which was used to identify their people: Pressing both sides of the head with your hands which meant "we the people". Language The people are an Interior Salish-speaking group of Native Americans. Their language is also called Salish, and is the namesake of the entire Salishan languages group. The Spokane language (npoqínišcn) spoken by the Spokane people, the Kalispel language (qlispé) spoken by the Pend d'Oreilles tribe and the Bitterroot Salish (séliš) languages are all dialects of the same language. According to Salish history, the Salish speaking people originally lived as one large nation thousands of years ago. Tribal elders say that the tribes started to break into smaller groups as the population became too big to sustain its needs in just one central location. Centuries afterward, the Salish languages had branched into different dialects from various regions the tribes dispersed to. These regions stretched from Montana all the way to the Pacific Coast. Centuries following the dispersion, the separated groups of Salishan peoples became increasingly distinct which resulted in variations on the language. The Salish language had developed into sub-families with unique languages as well as their own unique dialects. The eastern sub-family is known as Interior Salish. The three dialects within Interior Salish are Flathead (Séliš), Kalispell (Qlispé) and Spokane. History Origins The tribes' oral history tells of having been placed in their Indigenous homelands, which is now present-day Montana, from when Coyote killed the