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this had been their home in the
past. Bridger (Ind. Aff. Rep., 363, 1859) had known them in
this region as early as 1829.
Bonneville found
them in 1833 on Portneuf River, immediately
north of the present Ft Hall reservation.
Many of this division affiliated
with the Washaki Shoshoni,
and by 1859 had
extensively intermarried with them. Ft
Hall reservation was set apart by
Executive order in 1869,
and 600 Bannock, in addition to a large number of Shoshoni,
consented to remain upon it.
Most of them soon wandered away, however, and as late as 1874
an appropriation was made to enable
the Bannock and Shoshoni scattered
in southeast
Idaho to be moved to the
reservation.
The Bannock at Ft Hall were said
to number 422 in 1885. The
northern division was
found by Gov. Stevens in
1853 (Pac. R. R. Rep., 1,
329, 1855) living
on Salmon River in
eastern
Idaho. Lewis and
Clark, who passed through the
country of this
north division in 1805, may have
included them under the
general term Shoshoni, unless, as is most likely, these are
the Broken Moccasin Indians they
mention (Expel., Coues ed., II, 523, 1893). In
all probability these Salmon
River Bannock had recently crossed the mountains
from the eastward owing to
pressure of the Siksika,
since they claimed as their
territory southwest Montana,
including the rich areas
in which are situated Virginia
City, Bozeman, and other towns
(Ind. Aff. Rep., 289,
1869). Stevens (1853)
states that they had been more than decimated
by the ravages of smallpox and the inroads of the Siksika. It is
probable that at no
distant time in the past, perhaps before they had acquired
horses, the various groups of
the entire Bannock tribe
were united in one locality in southeast
Idaho, where they were neighbors
of the Shoshoni proper,
but their language is
divergent from the latter.
The Bannock
were a widely roving tribe, a characteristic
which favored their dispersal and
separation into groups. Both the
men and the women are
well developed; and
although Shoshonean in language, in
physical characters the Bannock
resemble more closely the
Shahaptian Nez Percé than
other Shoshonean Indians. Kroeber reports that the language of the
Fort Hall Bannock
connects them closer with
the Ute than with any other Shoshonean
tribe. At the same time Powell
and Mooney report that the tribes
of west Nevada consider the Bannock very nearly related to
themselves.
The loss of hunting lands,
the diminution of the bison herds, and the failure of
the Government to render timely
relief led to a Bannock
outbreak in 1878, the
trouble having been of long standing.
During the exciting times of
the Nez Percé war the Bannock were forced to remain on
their inhospitable reservation,
to face the continued encroachment of the whites,
and to subsist on goods provided
from an appropriation
amounting to 2½ cents per capita per diem.
During the summer a drunken Indian of the tribe shot and
wounded two teamsters; the
excitement and bitter
feeling caused by his arrest,
Nov.
23,
1877, resulted in the
killing of an agency employee.
Troops were called for,
and the murderer was pursued, captured,
tried, and executed. This episode
so increased the excitement of the Indians that, fearing
what was assumed to be
threatening demonstrations, the troops
surrounded and captured two
Bannock camps in Jan.,
1878; but most of the Indians were afterward released. On
account of insufficient food the Bannock
left the reservation in the
spring and went to Camas Prairie, where they killed several
settlers. A vigorous campaign under
Gen. Howard resulted in the
capture of about
1,000 of them in August,
and the outbreak came to an end
after a fight on Sept.
5, at Clark's ford, where
20 Bannock lodges were attacked and all the women
and children killed.
Bridger states that when he first knew them (about 1829) the
southern Bannock numbered 1,200
lodges, indicating a population
of about 8,000. In 1869 they were estimated as not exceeding
500, and this number was probably an overestimate as
their lodges numbered but 50,
indicating a population of
about 350. In 1901 the tribe
numbered 513, so intermixed,
however, with the
Shoshoni that no attempt is made to enumerate them
separately. All the Bannock
except 92 under Lemhi agency are gathered on Ft Hall reservation,
Idaho. Practically
nothing is known of the former
organization of the Bannock or of their divisions. The names
of four divisions were obtained
by Hoffman, and a fifth is
given
by Schoolcraft. These
are:
Kutshundika, or Buffalo-eaters
Penointikara, or Honev-eaters
Shohopanaiti, or
Cottonwood Bannock
Yambadika, or Root-eaters
Waradika, or Rye-grassseed-eaters
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