From time immemorial, the Bitterroot Valley has been a central part of the aboriginal territory of the Salish people. Although the tribe is now based on the Flathead Indian Reservation north of Missoula, the Bitterroot remains a place of great importance to them. Salish place names offer a powerful way of understanding the tribal relationship to the land. Some place names describe the physical features of a place, or the resources that were abundant there. Others refer back to the stories of Coyote and the creation of the world at the beginning of human time. These ancient names testify to the sustainable tribal presence in the landscape reaching back thousands of years.