Our Story

Louis and I married in May 2015, and we started our company a few months later. It was always my dream to provide Kootenai cultural tours to define, introduce, grow, and sustain our traditions and values. I offered my first tour at the age of 14 while working in Summer Youth Programs. At 16, I continued to do tours and also worked as an Assistant Curator for the People’s Center, where I helped preserve artifacts. I also helped with the preservation of Kootenai Chief Koostahtah’s buckskin gloves. Gloves were significant in our tribe, and only Chieftains with high leadership positions wore these types of gloves.

We are a family owned and operated business and have been developing our eco-friendly campsite site on family property around the lake in Elmo, Montana since 2017. The land is primitive, pure, beautiful, unique and sacred. Our property sits on late Kootenai Chief Baptiste Mathias property, and this property has been within our family for several years. There’s a lot of wildlife in the area and we feel that building organically will help preserve the land, water and wildlife. Camp Kapapa is one of the few areas left around the lake that is untouched and we plan to keep it that way.

Tours

Glacier National Park, Bison Range, Flathead Lake, National Bison Range and local museum tours were among the tours offered in the past. We would love to take you on a tour if our schedule allows and we are available. If interested in a tour please send your inquiry via our tour form. 

Innovative

Caring for the land was something instilled in me by my grandparent’s at a very young age and I have passed these same values on to my children. My great-grandmother taught me an old Kootenai teaching about mother earth. The air is her breath, the trees are her hair, the rocks are her bones and the water is her blood. Our earth is a living being and she must be cared for. We never take more than is needed and only when necessary but only until something is given in return.

We have taken nothing from the land but improved it with grant monies and sweat equity. After looking at all of the development around the lake and the congestion, I knew something had to be done. Therefore, we wanted to incorporate our cultural values into a contemporary approach. We also wanted to respect mother earth by preserving the land and sharing a little bit about who we are as indigenous people of Western Montana.

If time permits, we would love to guide you through the area or share with you some of the history at our story telling lodge.

Quality

When it comes to quality we are the real deal.

Due to our belief system in conserving the land, our cultural backgrounds, and work ethic, we have incorporated our values into the creation of our campsite.  You’ll see this in all the details and complimentary services offered.  Everything that we have built has been done so with the highest standards.