After being forcefully deprived of much of their land when the reservation was opened to white settlement in 1910, tribal members have worked to regain control over tribal affairs and re-establish their economic independence. In 1936, the Tribes were formally organized as the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation, governed by an elected, ten-person tribal council. The Tribes own one of the most valuable hydropower dam sites in the Pacific Northwest and have leased it to the Montana Power Company until 2015. Tribal timber is harvested on a sustained-yield basis. Tourism and a growing number of small manufacturing plants provide further employment.
Many tribal members work for the tribal and federal programs that serve the reservation community.
Education has received special attention. The tribes operate a Job Corps training center near Ronan for young Indian people across the U.S. Two Eagle River School , a school for teenagers who might otherwise drop out of public school, is operated by the Tribes near Pablo, the seat of the tribal government. Salish Kootenai College , also located near Pablo, has a student body nearing 1,000 and a library containing 55,000-plus volumes. Part of the library collection includes 1,200-plus published items pertaining especially to the Salish and Kootenai people. The new tribal museum, the People's Center , is open to the public year-round.