Courtesy Photo
The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes would like to welcome visitors to the Fort Hall Reservation, located in Southeastern Idaho.
The tribal government offices and most tribal business enterprises are located eight miles north of Pocatello in Fort Hall.
The Fort Hall Reservation was established by the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868 as a 1.8-million acre homeland for the four distinct bands of Shoshone and one Northern Paiute band, the Bannock, that once inhabited this region. Between 1868 and 1932, the reservation land base was reduced by more than two-thirds.
Today, the reservation consists of 544,000 acres nestled between the cities of Pocatello, American Falls and Blackfoot, and is divided into five districts: Fort Hall, Lincoln Creek, Ross Fork, Gibson and Bannock Creek.
The tribes are proud to say that 96 percent of that land remains in tribal and individual Indian ownership.
More than 70 percent of the tribes’ approximately 5,300 enrolled tribal members still reside on the reservation. The tribes employ nearly 1,000 Native and non-Native people in various trades. The tribal government is increasingly focused on building the tribes’ economy and ensuring the protection and enhancement of the reservation land base for generations to come.
Many attribute the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition to a young Shoshoni woman named Sacagawea, whose people now reside on the Fort Hall Reservation.
Sacagawea guided the explorers through vast areas that were once the homeland of her people, the Shoshone-Bannocks.
Her tribes migrated through the region following the food supply— digging camas roots in southern Idaho in the spring, spearing salmon in central Idaho in the summer, hunting for buffalo in the Yellowstone area in the fall and wintering on lands at Fort Hall.
You can travel through history with the tribes by visiting their museum, located just off the Interstate 15 Fort Hall Exit between Blackfoot and Pocatello.
Enjoy a buffalo steak from the tribes’ herd at the nearby Buffalo Horn Grill inside the Fort Hall Casino. And don’t leave Fort Hall without checking out the world renowned beadwork by local artisans at the Clothes Horse.
