392 Fort Hall [See Map for Location] Total area 546,500 acres Tribally owned 251,890 acres Individually owned (BIA realty, 2004) 243,480 acres Federal trust (BIA realty, 2004) 32,632.88 acres Population (2010 census) 5,767 Tribal Enrollment (Tribal Enrollment Dept., 2015) 5,846 Total labor force (2009-2013 ACS) 2,527 High school graduate or higher (2009-2013 ACS) 77.6% Bachelor’s degree or higher (2009-2013 ACS) 11.5% Unemployment rate (2009-2013 ACS) 17.6% Per capita income (2009-2013 ACS) $16,276 CULTUREAND HISTORY The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall are comprised 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. The tribes generally subsisted as hunters and gatherers, traveling during the spring and summer seasons, collecting foods for use during wintermonths.Theyhuntedwildgame, fished theregion’s streams and rivers (primarily for salmon), and collected native plants and roots, such as the camas bulb. 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. 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 the measure 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 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. Most of the land was 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” on Shoshone-Bannock lands. In 1907 the Lemhi Band of Shoshones was terminated, and remaining families were relocated to Fort Hall. The 1887 Dawes Act initiated the allotment of the Fort Hall Reservation. This process was completed by 1914, with over 347,000 acres having been distributed among 1,863 individual land allotments between 1911 and 1913 alone. By the time allotment was terminated, nearly 36,000 acres had been alienated from Native ownership through sales, patents in fee, or certificates of competency. Surplus lands were ceded to Pocatello or sold to non-Natives, thus creating the checkerboard pattern of land ownership that now exists within the reservation boundaries. In 1936 the tribes approved a constitution and bylaws for self-government under the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The tribes ratified a corporate charter in 1937. As of 1992, 96 percent of the Fort Hall Reservation was once again under Indian control, either through federal trust or ownership by individual tribal members. GOVERNMENT The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are organized under the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act and operate under a constitution approved on April 30, 1936. The charter was ratified the following year. The tribes are governed by the Fort Hall Business Council comprised of seven members elected by the general membership for two- yearterms.TheCouncilmaintainsauthority over all normal business procedures, including the development of lands and resources and all matters of self-government. The tribesoperate numerous governmental departmentsand programs, including administration,records, energy, publicsafety, public affairs,enrollment, finance, property management, fire, fish and wildlife, fish and game, Head Start and early childhood development, land use, trans- portation, health, TERO, planning, water resources, solid waste, and others. In 2011 education, employment and training, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, vocational rehabilitation, and the community access programs (social services) consolidated into a new human development division. These offices are located in the west wing of the tribal business center in Fort Hall. The tribes maintain their own judicial system and tribal courts, prosecutors office, and police department. The federal government maintains authority over crimes that fall under the Major Crimes Act. The tribes share jurisdiction over such matters. The state of Idaho exercises jurisdiction under PL-280 over civil and criminal matters on the reservation, such as truancy, juvenile delinquency, child welfare, matters of mental illness, public assistance, domestic relations, andmatters involvingmotor vehicles. The tribes maintain jurisdiction over issues of personal property, water rights, ownership of property, treaty rights, and tribal land rights. In 2010 the police department, tribal courts, fish and game division, and corrections moved into a new justice center building. Facilities include both adult and youth offender detention space and storage space for evidence and records. The dispatch office works with all law enforcement agencies and the department of public safety for all services in addition to ambulance and fish and game officers. In 2015 the tribes will begin operating their own Title IV-D child support services program. Reorganization of the economic development department resulted in the creation of the tribal planning department whose primary goal is to develop revisions to the comprehensive plan which was first adopted in 1976. Other goals include providing technical support to tribal government departments, promoting economic development, and providing services to tribal members. ECONOMY Tribal government is supported in large part from revenue earned from leasing agricultural lands and from gaming. Right-of-way agreements also contribute to the general fund.Another large portion of revenue is earned through various imposed taxes. Economic Development.An economic development plan is being developed through a comprehensive economic development strategy by the tribes and the Economic DevelopmentAdministration (EDA). Its mission is to prioritize projects that the tribes and EDA may invest in. Projects include agricultural expansion, a Lube Oil venture, casino development, and a host of other developments thatremain tobeapprovedby thebusinesscouncil. The tribes recently became a partner in an organization called Coalition of Large Tribes (COLT), which aims to boost economic development through engagement with other large tribes, including the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA), the Oglala Sioux, Crow, Navajo Nation, and Blackfeet tribe. COLT was organized to provide a unified advocacy base for tribes that govern large trust land bases and that strive to ensure the most beneficial use of those lands for the tribes and individual land owners. TheTradingPostGrocery isa10,000squarefootfull-service grocery market. The grocery features a full line of free- rangebuffalo products made with meat harvested from
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