Fort Hall reservation

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Fort Hall Reservation is an Indian reservation in the US state of Idaho , the 1867 for Boise- and Bruneau Shoshone - Indians built. In 1868 the Fort Hall Shoshone and Bannock and in 1907 the Lemhi and Sheepeater Shoshone were relocated there. The reserve is on the Snake River Plain near Pocatello . The name comes from Fort Hall , a historic trading post of the fur traders , who become an important stopping place on the Oregon Trail was.

history

Originally the Fort Hall reservation comprised 1,800,000 acres (7,300 km²). It was gradually reduced to 524,000 acres by the 1950s .

1877 built the Union Pacific Railroad , a railroad line from Ogden ( Utah ) through the reserve to Oregon . To this end, and to make room for the expanding town of Pocatello , the reserve area was renegotiated in 1881. Furthermore, the Dawes Act of 1887 shrank the reservation so that in 1900 it was only half of the original area. In 1956, under the Dawes Act, 277,900 acres (1,125 km²) of the reservation's former tribal land were parceled out, 204,600 acres (828 km²) were still in tribal ownership and 41,400 acres (168 km²) were administered by the US government.

After 1890, the Fort Hall Shoshone took over the sun dance from the Eastern Shoshone and in 1915 the peyote cult .

The reserve is characterized by water scarcity. At the beginning of the 20th century, white farmers in particular preferred projects to improve the water supply. The Indians living there also hardly benefited from the timber industry and phosphate mining in the reservation. The Fall-Hall-Shoshone culture was suppressed and their language banned.

With the Indian Reorganization Act , which came into force in 1934 , the rights shifted in favor of the Indians. They were allowed to elect a tribal council and take the economic development of the reserve into their own hands.

There is great poverty in the Fort Hall Reservation. Income is much lower than in the area and unemployment is high. In the second half of the 20th century, the Fort Hall Shoshone and Banock achieved increasing lease and mineral rights income.

Todays situation

Today the Fort Hall reservation houses a library , a truck stop, a casino , a museum and a weekly newspaper. The traditional festivals are held according to a regular calendar. Thanks to careful adaptation to white culture, many traditional cultural elements have been preserved.

See also

List of Indian reservations

literature

Web links

Coordinates: 43 °  N , 112 °  W