For millennia, the Blackfoot River corridor has been part of the homeland of the Salish and Pend d'Oreille people. They and visiting members of other tribes used a vast network of trails to criss-cross this region of great abundance, rich in game, fish, roots and bulbs, berries, medicinal plants, paint, and countless other resources. Long before modern highways, the Clearwater Junction area, known in Salish as Čćnpá, was also a junction in the Salish-Pend d'Oreille transportation system. From here, trails reached in four directions: east past the Ovando area, called Sntntnmsqá, then across the Continental Divide by several passes to the buffalo-rich prairies of the Dearborn, Sun, and Missouri Rivers; south across the hills to the Clark Fork River; west down the confluence with the Clark Fork, called N?aycčstm, and places beyond; and north toward Placid Lake, called Čtáll?e, and Seeley Lake, called Ept Ćixwćwt. From the Seeley-Swan, trails led east to the Bob Marshall Wilderness, west toward the Jocko and Mission Valleys, and north to the mouth of the Swan River at Bigfork, called Nqeytkwm. These ancient trails, placenames, and hundreds of others continue to hold great importance to the Salish and Pend d'Oreille people today.