Bannock

Bannock, North American Indian tribe that lived in what is now southern Idaho, especially along the Snake River and its tributaries, and joined with the Shoshone tribe in the second half of the 19th century. Linguistically, they were most closely related to the Northern Paiute of what is now eastern Oregon, from whom they were separated by approximately 200 miles (320 km).

According to both Paiute and Bannock legend, the Bannock moved eastward to Idaho to live among the Shoshone and hunt buffalo. Traditional Bannock and Shoshone cultures emphasized equestrian buffalo hunting and a seminomadic life. The Bannock also engaged in summer migrations westward to the Shoshone Falls, where they gathered salmon, small game, and berries. They traveled into the Rockies each fall to hunt buffalo in the Yellowstone area of what are now Wyoming and Montana.

Bannock social organization was based upon independent bands, and the autumn hunting expeditions allowed band chiefs to acquire power over one sector of hunting and subsistence activities. These trips traversed Shoshone territory, requiring a good deal of cooperation with that tribe. Much of the Bannocks’ eastern territory was contiguous with the Shoshone’s western lands; as close and friendly neighbours, they often camped side by side, and intermarriage was common. The two tribes also shared a common enemy in the fierce Blackfoot, who controlled the buffalo-hunting grounds in Montana. The Fort Hall reservation in Idaho was established for the Shoshone in the 1860s, and many Bannock soon joined them; very close interaction and continued intermarriage blended the two cultures, and the tribes began to use the combined name “Shoshone-Bannock.”

Before colonization the Bannock were not numerous, probably never reaching more than 2,000. However, they had considerable influence in inciting their more pacific neighbours to revolts and raids against the U.S. settlers in the area. Famine, frustration over the disappearance of the buffalo, and insensitive reservation policy by the U.S. government led to the Bannock War in 1878, which was suppressed with a massacre of about 140 Bannock men, women, and children at Charles’s Ford in what is now Wyoming.

Early 21st-century population estimates indicated more than 5,000 individuals of Shoshone and Bannock descent.