538 LOCATION AND LAND STATUS The Fort Hall Reservation is located in the eastern Snake River Plain of southeastern Idaho. It is comprised of two separate segments that lie north and west of the town of Pocatello. The Snake River, Blackfoot River, and the American Falls Reservoir border the reservation on the north and northwest. The reservation was established by an Executive Order under the terms of the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868. It originally contained 1.8 million acres, an amount that was reduced to 1.2 million acres in 1872 as a result of a survey error. The reservation was further reduced to its present size through subsequent legislation and the allotment process. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Topography ranges from relatively lush river valleys to rugged foothills and mountains. Elevations vary from 4,400 feet at the American Falls Reservoir to nearly 9,000 feet in the southern mountain areas. CLIMATE The nearby town of Pocatello experiences summer temperatures ranging between 68°F and 88°F. The winter temperature often drops into the low teens. Average rainfall is 11.5 inches per year. The snowy season lasts from September through May with an average of 43.3 inches annually. CULTURE AND HISTORY The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall comprise members of the eastern and western bands of the Northern Shoshone and the Bannock, or Northern Paiute, bands. Ancestral lands of both tribes occupied vast regions of land encompassing present-day Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and into Canada. The tribes are culturally related and, though both descend from the Numic family of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic phylum, their languages are dialectically separate. When the Northern Paiutes left the Nevada and Utah regions for southern Idaho in the 1600s, they began to travel with the Shoshones in pursuit of buffalo. They became known as the Bannocks then. The tribes generally subsisted as hunters and gatherers, traveling during the spring and summer seasons, collecting foods for use during the winter months. They hunted wild game, fished the region's abundant and bountiful streams and rivers (primarily for salmon), and collected native plants and roots. Fort Hall Fort Hall Reservation Federal reservation Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation Bannock, Bingham, Caribou, and Power counties, Idaho Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation P.O. Box 306 Pima Drive Fort Hall, ID 83203 888-297-1378 208-237-0797 Fax Total area (BIA realty, 2004) 522,671.07 acres Total area (EPA) 547,570 acres Tribally owned (BIA realty, 2004) 271,775.42 acres Individually owned (BIA realty, 2004) 218,263.77 acres Federal trust (BIA realty, 2004) 32,632.88 acres Population 2000 census 5,762 Tribal enrollment (Tribal source, 2004) 4,673 Health care service in the United States is steadily shifting toward a more preventative focus, and the Coeur d'Alene Wellness Center's focus on preventive health care and positive lifestyle behaviors is consistent with these trends. It is a critical shift in Native health care because of the importance of chronic disease management in American Indian communities. Clearly, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe realized the importance of building a healthy, fit community and of offering services that have long been available to non-Indians, and in so doing, it has begun to build a healthier society. Yet the tribal government deserves recognition not only for the size, quality and comprehensiveness of the facility it created, but also for its commitment to finding innovative solutions to potential organizational and funding barriers. Both the idea and its implementation warrant replication throughout Indian Country. Lessons: · Indian nations can complement acute and primary health care services with broader approaches that seek to promote healthy lifestyles. Such approaches are especially important given that American Indians suffer disproportionately from chronic diseases that can be ameliorate by behavioral change. · Tribal medical and wellness centers should focus on quality of care. One way to ensure high quality services is to empower a board to make decisions based explicitly on user needs; another is to institutionalize quality control mechanisms. · Wellness centers can operate without significant infusions of tribal revenue when a sufficient proportion of their clients possess private insurance. If neighboring communities have similar health care needs, tribes may consider joint ventures as an attractive option. Buffalo served as the most significant source of food and raw material for the tribes. After the introduction of horses during the 1700s, hundreds of Idaho Indians of various tribal affiliations would ride into Montana on cooperative buffalo hunts. The last great hunt of this type occurred in 1864, signaling the end of a traditional way of life. Fort Hall was established in 1834 as a trading post. It became a way station for settlers traveling along the Oregon and California trails that cut through tribal lands. Relations between the tribes and the Euro-American settlers were strained at best. In 1863 more than 200 Shoshones were massacred along the Bear River. The attack was led by volunteer soldiers from California, and it was one of the first and largest massacres of Native peoples west of the Mississippi River. In 1864 the government attempted to confine the tribes to a reservation with the Treaty of Soda Springs, but it failed to gain ratification. The Fort Hall Reservation was established for the tribes by an Executive Order in 1867. The 1868 Treaty of Fort Bridger confirmed the agreement. This treaty established both the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. The treaty stipulated the establishment of a separate reservation for the Bannock band, but the promises were breached and the band remained at Fort Hall with the Shoshones. Although the tribes were initially permitted to leave reservation lands for summer hunting and gathering practices, settlers rallied against it, and the Bannock Wars of 1878 ensued. Tribal members participating in the conflict were returned to Fort Hall. The population of the reservation increased when other Northern Shoshone bands were forcibly moved to Fort Hall. In 1888 the tribes were forced to cede over 1,800 acres of their 1.2 million-acre reservation to accommodate the development of the town of Pocatello located nearby. Around the turn of the century, Pocatello had grown so dramatically that the tribes were forced to agree to the cession of an additional 420,000 acres. For this they received approximately $600,000. The bulk of the lands were made available to the public through a land rush, a competition of sorts where individuals and families staked claim on designated lands during a race. On June 17, 1902, 6,000 settlers took part in the "Day of the Run" land rush of the Shoshone-Bannock lands.
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