President Grant signed an executive order in April, 1872 creating the original Colville Reservation. This reservation included the territory between the Pend Oreille and Columbia Rivers. The order was altered in July of the same year and established the Colville-Salish Reservation with the Columbia River to the east and south, the Okanogan River to the west and the International Boundary to the north. The reservation was set aside for the Interior Salish Tribes: the Okanogans, the Lakes, the Colvilles and the San Poil-Nespelems. Prior to the arrival of white men the above tribes were estimated to have a population of 10,000 members. By the beginning of the 19th Century, that number was reduced to approximately 2,000. As the pressure from white settlements increased, more and more Indian families moved onto the reservation and included the Nez Perce as well as representatives of the Columbia Plateau Tribes.
In 1884 Chief Joseph Tonasket of the Okanogans and members of his family and band moved into this area and settled in Curlew on the Kettle River and on the upper San Poil. Tonasket was a progressive farmer who used modern agricultural equipment to raise hay for his extensive herds of cattle, sheep and horses. In 1887 the General Allotment Act was passed by Congress. Its purpose was to assimilate the Indians into the general society by allotting reservation lands to members of the Indian Tribes and opening the surplus lands to homesteading. On July 1, 1892 the north half of the reservation was returned to the public domain except for 660 eighty acre allotments or approximately 1/4 of the total land in the north half. The agreed payment of $1,500,000 for the north half was not ratified by Congress until the tribes agreed to relinquish the south half as well.
The Baptist Tonasket Ranch on the upper San Poil portrayed in the painting was on allotted land. The Indians were outstanding horsemen, "cowboys", and loved to race their prize stock. The Baptist Tonasket ranch site was later acquired by the Tagg Family.
In 1896 the north half of the reservation was opened to mining and the south half in 1898. Homesteading on the north half was allowed in 1900 and on the south half in 1914. As a result of the failure of the General Allotment Act to achieve its objectives the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1932. Shortly thereafter what was left of the reservation came under the authority of the Colville Tribal Council.
REPUBLIC AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
BEAUTIFICATION PROJECT
TOURISM, LANDSCAPING
& SIGNAGE PROJECT
This project was planned beginning in the fall of 1994 with an original total project cost of 562,500. Today, as we near completion, funding has been increased by the USFS Republic Ranger District and Colville National Forest Rural Community Assistance WACERT funds and local funds for a total cost of S136, 500. There has been hundreds of hours of volunteer labor by 12 members of the Beautification Committee. Royer & Associates, Cal Jordan & Associates, Ferry County. Stotts Construction, HECLA Mining Company, City of Republic. Giddings Construction, Echo Bay Mines, Republic Ace Building Supply, Wood Sign Company, Ferry County P.U.D. and numerous private and public contributors to make this project possible.