President Andrew Johnson Authorizes Fort Hall Indian Reservation [otd 06/14]

President Johnson, 1870-1880.
Library of Congress.

On June 14, 1867, President Andrew Johnson signed a very brief Executive Order that authorized two reservations “as recommended by the Acting Secretary of the Interior.” One such reservation, located in southeast Idaho, was for the Shoshone and Bannock Indians. The input used by the Acting Secretary proposed a boundary that supposedly encompassed about 1.8 million acres. As written, the border description made no sense, but it was accompanied by a hand-drawn map that proved “good enough” at the time.

There was also another slight "catch" involved. The Shoshone and Bannock bands for whom the reservation was created had not yet said they would stay there. Various accords signed in 1863, including the “Box Elder Treaty” [blog, July 30], had been peace agreements, not reservation assignments.

Those treaties were largely meant to allow safe passage for white travelers through regions where the Shoshones commonly roamed. In return, government agents would give the bands provisions and other goods. The agreements outlined where the terms generally applied, but did not constraint the bands to remain within those (vague) boundaries.

This loose approach soon became untenable, largely due to white settlement. Many hunter-gatherer societies live “on the edge” of hunger. That was certainly true in the arid country occupied by the Sho-Bans (a modern term). White settlers naturally occupied the most productive lands first. Thus, they depleted natural food sources out of all proportion to their small initial numbers.

By 1865-1867, many bands had become dependent upon the government allotments just to avoid starvation. Officials decided the only workable answer was to move the tribes onto reservations. There, they could be taught to become self-sufficient farmers. Just over a year after Johnson’s executive order, the tribes acquiesced to the "Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868," in which they agreed to occupy the reservation.

In return, the government made many promises. A reservation physician would provide medical service. Also, craftsmen (carpenter, blacksmith, etc.) would be available to teach these skills to the Indians. Tribesmen who made "good faith" efforts to cultivate the land would receive, for up to four years, an allotment of seed and necessary farm implements.

Fort Hall Reservation Indians, ca. 1875. Library of Congress.

A number of buildings would be erected at government expense, and each Indian would receive an annual allotment of warm clothing, or the materials to make those garments. Other clauses promised an allowance that might be used for food, presumably to carry them through the period until they could raise their own.

The Bridger Treaty also reserved the southern Camas Prairie for their use, and defined a new region in (future) Wyoming – today’s Wind River Indian Reservation. Negotiators assumed that the main reservation had already been fixed by Johnson’s Executive Order. However, a survey in 1873 had trouble dealing with the ambiguities in that first loose definition. As finally set, the Reservation encompassed about 1.2 million acres. (See Relief Map here.)

Sadly, the Sho-Ban suffered through years of broken promises: inadequate food and clothing, no seed or training, and so on. All that, plus white violation of the Camas Prairie provision, would set off the Bannock War of 1878 [blog, June 8]. Moreover, by the end of the century, re-negotiations drastically reduced the size of the reservation to around 540 thousand acres.

In 1936 and 1937, the tribes created a governing constitution and bylaws, and organized themselves into a Federally-chartered corporation. Today the Sho-Ban can, by and large, provide reasonable services and opportunities for their people.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

Charles Joseph Kappler (ed.), Indian affairs: Laws and Treaties, Volume I, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. (1903).

Brigham D. Madsen, The Northern Shoshoni, The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (1980).

Shoshone Bannock Tribes web site.