Shoshone and Bannock Tribes
The Shoshone and Bannock Tribes originally roamed through what are now Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada and Idaho in search of food. A Presidential Executive Order established the 1.8-million-acre reservation in 1867.
An 1872 survey error reduced the size of the reservation to 1.2 million acres and other encroachments over the years further reduced the reservation to its present 544,000-acre size. There continues to be a dispute between the tribe and the federal government over ownership of the Camas Prairie, which historically played a crucial social and economic role for the tribe.
The reservation encompasses members of the Shoshone, Bannock and Lemhi tribes, but due to intermarriage and close family relationships, they generally refer to themselves as Shoshone-Bannocks.
The Reservation is named for historic Fort Hall, first established as a fur trading post in 1834 near the Snake River by Nathaniel Wyeth. In later years Fort Hall became an important supply and rest stop for the seemingly endless flow of settlers to the West. Today the tribes on the Fort Hall Reservation are organized as a sovereign government to provide services to tribal members and non-Indians.
Right: The Shoshone-Bannock cultures inhabit an important regional and cultural crossroad, from the historical, buffalo cultures of the east to the salmon-based peoples of the Plateau. The north/south influences include the sheep eater Lemhi's to the north and the Numa and Newe people of the south. Evidence of this cultural mixing can be seen in the porcupine quill work, flat bead work, feather bustle and head roach designs and traditional hide tanning that remain important reflections of the cosmopolitan nature of Shoshone-Bannock life at Fort Hall.
