Salish Native Paul Charlo Posing With Rifle and Little Boy

This wonderful historical photo shows Paul Charlo posing with a little boy and a rifle.  The little boy may well be his son. 

Paul Charlo was the grandson of the famous Chief Charlo, chief of the Bitterroot-Salish from 1870 to 1910.  Like many of his contemporaries, Chief Charlo had a complicated relationship with the white settlers of the last quarter of the 19th century.  Like his father, Chief Victor, Chief Carlo was ambivalent about the white's intrusion onto his ancestral land, but he chose not to fight them, instead pursuing a tenuous peace. 

The memory of Charlo persists in, among other places, various Montana place names, including the town of Charlo, Montana and the name of a street and Middle School in Missoula. 

Paul Charlo, his grandson, lived from 1879 to 1957.  He is buried in Jocko Valley Cemetery nearly Arlee, Montana.  Arlee, coincidentally, is named after the Salish Chief "Alee" (the r was added by whites) who proceeded Chief Charlo.  While Chief Charlo refused to go to the alotted reservation, some of his tribe did decide to do so, and they selected Alee as their leader.