“My country was like a flower and I gave you the best part”- Eneas, Kootenai

“Bloom” features a portrait of a young woman named “Agath” who shows up in historical photos taken on the Flathead Reservation around 1905-1907. “Agath” is most likely an English speaker’s misunderstanding of the Salish pronunciation for the name Agnes. After some further digging in the photographic archives, I believe that “Agath” is actually a young Agnes Incashola. 

Due to the age I perceive Agnes to be when she shows up in the photographic record, she most likely grew up as part of the first generation of Salish people that would be raised ONLY on the Flathead Reservation, forcibly removed physically and metaphorically from the traditional homelands in the Bitterroot Valley. She will live to see the passing of the Allotment Act, the death of Chief Charlo, the transition for the Salish, Kootenai, and Qlispel people from their homelands to life on the Flathead Reservation, to the opening up of the Flathead Reservation to non-Native settlement. 

Behind Agnes is an abstract rendering of the petals of an Arrowleaf Balsamroot plant. Balsamroot grows throughout the Mountain West including the Flathead Reservation and Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys.  Balsamroot is a hardy and resilient plant. It is winter tolerant, drought resistant, regrows after fire, and survives grazing and trampling.  It was used for generations by the Salish and other Tribes as a food source. Even further behind Agnes and the Balsamroot  is a muted copy of the Hellgate Treaty which had promised the Tribes land to remain “undisturbed” on. 

Bloom features Agnes and the Balsamroot as physical symbols of the resilience of Indigenous people in the face of changing and adverse environments. 

Bloom is available at Radius Gallery.