BY KAREN BOSSICK
It’s called the Virginia City Treaty of 1868. And it ceded 32,000 square miles claimed by the Mixed-Band of Shoshone, Bannock and Sheep Eater people in the southwestern Montana Territory, for a permanent treaty reservation in central Idaho.
The treaty was never ratified, but the federal government acted as if the 32,000-square-mile land cession by Chief Tendoy was.
The story is now being told in the documentary, “In Good Faith,” which will be screened free of charge at 6 p.m. tonight—Wednesday, May 15—at Ketchum’s Community Library.
And the research behind the film is now being used to negotiate for land restoration or a land claim settlement between Native Americans and the federal government—something that could change the history of southwestern Montana.
The 57-minute documentary was filmed by students and faculty at Washington State University-Pullman in Montana and Idaho over eight years. Producer Jared Chastain and Historian Orlan Svingen will lead a discussion following the film.