IT HAS SKUNK CABBAGE - A slight breeze moved through the Swan Valley, shaking the quaking aspen leaves like a thousand tambourines as heavy black moss hung from golden branches of tamarack, silent sentinels to a massacre site where a solemn group gathered Saturday to remember spirits of the past.

On a Sunday morning, 100 years ago, a peaceful Pend d'Oreille camp became a death scene for a family hunting deer and elk on treaty lands bordering the Flathead Reservation.

The date: Oct. 18, 1908.

The place: The upper Swan Valley near Holland Lake at a place the Salish and Pend d'Oreille called It Has Skunk Cabbage.

The time: The Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille tribes had signed the Hellgate Treaty 53 years earlier, a forced agreement that allowed them to hunt and fish on traditional lands bordering the newly created Flathead Reservation.

On Saturday, the Salish-Pend d'Oreille Culture Committee held two commemorative ceremonies, one at the massacre site, and another at a public event at Holland Lake, in honor of the eight-member hunting party, half of them killed by a state game warden who objected to the family hunting in the valley between the Mission and Swan mountain ranges.

"They stood for culture, a value system they lived every day," Tony Incashola, tribal elder, told the group who gathered at It Has Skunk Cabbage. "When the treaty was signed, they trusted they could hunt and gather in their aboriginal territory without fear."

Even though the massacre is indelibly etched in the memory of family survivors, the story rarely has been told outside the tribe. John Peter Paul, whose mother survived the attack, would wait nearly a century before he agreed to let the Salish-Pend d'Oreille Culture Committee share the story.

Paul's mother, Clarice Paul, was six months pregnant when the game warden stormed the hunting camp. She shot the warden after he killed her husband and three other members of the camp. She gave birth to John Peter Paul three months later. Paul grew to be a respected cultural leader on the Flathead Reservation.

Three of Paul's children -Phillip Paul, Nancy Grant and Josephine Quequesah - attended the commemorative ceremonies and to pay tribute to the slain hunting party. "I'm angry about what happened," said Phillip Paul. "But my grandmother always said not to get mad over things like that. She said it wasn't good to remember things like that. You can't bring back the dead."

John Peter Paul, also known as Holds on Tight to the Enemy, visited the massacre site for the first time in 1997. He died about four years later at age 92.

"It was such a somber event that took place, the family never wanted to talk about it much," said Incashola. But Paul "felt the story needed to be told. He asked us to do it."

Clarice Paul rarely talked about the day when her relatives were gunned down as they hunted to build up their winter supply of meat.

"It's an emotional thing," said Quequesah. "It would be great if I could see what went on."

After an exhaustive research of oral history and state historical documents, the Salish-Pend d'Oreille Culture Committee will reveal the tragedy in a soon-to-be published book, "The Swan Massacre: A Story of the Pend d'Oreille People."

Here are some details from the story:

Antoine Scwi led the hunting group, which included his wife, 13-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. Two other couples joined them, including Clarice Paul and her husband. The group traveled and camped along old trails through the Swan Valley and along the South Fork of the Flathead River. They set up camp at It Has Skunk Cabbage.

The animals were getting fat and it was a good time of year to hunt, said Incashola.

State warden Charles Peyton visited the Pend d'Oreille camp three times, bringing a nearby ranch hand with him the first time. On the second and third visits, he brought a German immigrant laborer.

The women were alone in camp with the 13-year-old boy and an elderly man. Peyton demanded to see the group's hunting licenses. He scared them as he tore through their belongings inside their tepees. He showed contempt and disregard for a hunting permit from the reservation agent. The warden said it was "no good." He used it as an excuse to return.

Peyton's third visit became more antagonistic. He barged into the tepee where the group was relaxing. John Peter Paul's father was sitting on a blanket and playing solitaire when the warden grabbed his rifle. The two wrestled over it. Peyton drew a pistol on Paul's father before leaving.

The group decided to pack and leave in the morning.

Peyton returned as they were getting on their horses. An argument broke out and the warden began firing. He shot Paul's father, then turned his gun on the group's leader. Then he shot the old man.

The women fled as Peyton fired at them. The boy shot Peyton, knocking him to the ground. The immigrant laborer, who was with Peyton, shot the boy. After the shooting stopped, the women went back to their dying husbands.

Peyton was still alive.

He started to reload his gun.

Clarice Paul was a devout Catholic. She didn't want to shoot him. All the men in the hunting party were either dead or dying. The women would die next if she didn't shoot. She killed Peyton and then got on a horse and rode all day to a nearby Indian hunting camp where they gave her dry clothes.

The next morning, she led them back to It Has Skunk Cabbage.

"I was always in awe of her because I knew she killed the game warden," said Bud Cheff Jr., a rancher whose father was friends with the Paul family. "She was just a little tiny gal, but she was strong and brave."

(Reach reporter Jodi Rave at 800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@;lee.net.)