The Five Tribes of Idaho

LEO TETON (Shoshone-Bannock) 2021 Grand Marshall, Eastern Idaho State Fair, Blackfoot Idaho.

PHOTO BY SUMMER POPEJOY JACKMAN

BY RANDY’L TETON (SHOSHONE-BANNOCK)

As an enrolled member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, I was born and raised on the Fort Hall Reservation in southeastern Idaho, and like my ancestors before me, we have hunted, gathered, and lived off these lands for time immemorial. We have ancient place names for the mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, animals, and even the rocks.

When we think of Idaho, we think of majestic mountains, outdoor fishing, and hunting. But in the shadow of those mountains and rivers, our people, who have long inhabited these lands and continue to do so today, are often overlooked. This article is to acknowledge the first peoples of Idaho before state lines existed. Today, five federally recognized tribes populate this state. In the north, the Nez Perce, the Coeur d’Alene, and the Kootenai have existed for centuries. Further south, there are the Shoshone-Bannock and Shoshone-Paiute, and each tribe has a distinct cultural heritage, language, history, and story to tell.

Idaho’s topography varies greatly, from high desert plains in the south to vast pine forests in the north with 115 mountain ranges in between. Our first peoples walked the Snake River Plain, Salmon River country and mountains, the Panhandle, and western Idaho. Each area differs dramatically in climate, geography, plants, animals, fish, minerals, and rivers, lakes, and streams and each tribe has a unique connection to the lands occupied by their ancestors.

The tribes are considered sovereign nations within the state and each has its designated land base, government, and creation story of how they came to exist. There’s so much rich Native American history that doesn’t appear in textbooks or schools, especially because the tribal perspective is missing. Our story is still unfolding as far as how we have adjusted from being removed from our ancestral lands to present-day reservation lands. Ultimately, we have evolved into becoming “your friendly neighbor.” Hoping to promote a better understanding of our history and culture, some Tribes have invested in casinos, resorts, and spas. But our true value has nothing to do with gambling.

Many don’t know that a reservation is similar to a small rural city. Tribes have government offices to conduct tribal government business, healthcare facilities, schools, a post office, grocery stores, gas stations, and often, a judicial center to enforce our own law and order. We face similar city-related issues, like a shortage of housing development, lack of infrastructure for a growing population, and dilapidated government buildings. Out of necessity, tribes have learned to advocate with unified voices at state and federal levels, seeking inclusion and fair representation in governmental decision-making. But that is another story.

In Idaho, our numbers are lower than any other group, although we still remain as the first peoples of this land. According to a 2019 U.S. Census study, the Native American population in Idaho is 23,136 (includes self-identified Native Americans). Many of us reside off the reservation in the nearby cities that border the reservation.

According to a 2020 Economic Impact Study, the five tribes of Idaho own over 963,323 acres throughout Idaho and have 9,553 enrolled members (and growing). Compared with Idaho’s total landmass of 44 counties, the five tribes of Idaho would be ranked 20th in terms of area. However, 151,779 acres of reservation land is actively cultivated, producing an estimated direct revenues/expenditures amount of $135.6 million annually to the state of Idaho.

In other words, our individual nations may be vernacularly lumped together as “Native Americans” or “Indigenous,” but our culture and languages are far more distinct from each other.

The Coeur d’Alene Tribe (CDA) are located in northwest Idaho on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation and refer to themselves as the ‘Schitsu’umsh,’ meaning ‘Those who were found here’ or ‘the discovered people.’ Their original lands expanded five million acres throughout northern Idaho into parts of western Montana and eastern Washington State. Currently, the reservation is 344,990 acres with 2,500-plus tribal members.

The 2020 Tribal Economic Impact study notes that the Coeur d’Alene Tribe is the second largest employer in north Idaho. Tribal membership elects a seven-member Tribal Council that serves three-year terms. According to Jennifer DeGraffenreid, with CDA Public Relations, “Our Tribe continues to provide consistent employment through our organizations. Our leaders have put a high focus on natural resource preservation and protection in order to foster the lands and restore damages done over hundreds of years.”

Education is prioritized by supporting the students through higher education, as well as supporting Idahoans outside the Tribe. Their successful education grants program has contributed millions of dollars to schools and nonprofits all across the state. “We are a small tribe,” says DeGraffenried, “but we are a committed community that stands by those who need it most and cheer on those who continue to strive and improve themselves.”

In 2016, Coeur d’Alene tribal members carved this shovelnose canoe, one of many efforts to maintain traditions associated with tribal life on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

PHOTO BY JACK MCNEEL

For example, the Tribe operates a quality medical facility for the entire region that has served as a replicable model across Indian Country. It started as a small clinic near the old tribal headquarters with limited services for the community. Over time, the clinic blossomed into a comprehensive medical facility, not only offering affordable medical and dental care to anyone who walks through the doors, but also providing ophthalmology, chiropractic, specialized diabetes care, behavioral health care, and a committed, community health department. The facility is called Marimn Health (a tribal word meaning ‘to treat’) and has expanded into three separate facilities on the reservation: the healthcare building, the Wellness Center, and the most recent addition, the Coeur Center. The new Coeur Center is a family facility, offering a basketball court, a pool with a slide and lazy river, plus a permanent home for the Tribe’s Boys and Girls Club. Marimn Health is a true community facility, open to anyone in need on a financial sliding scale.

The CDA Tribe has successfully integrated business to serve their tribal members, but historical challenges persist today. Currently, land reacquisition is a priority. After hundreds of years of federal government downsizing the aboriginal territory, and lands being sold to non-members, the reservation has become a checkerboard of ownership. DeGraffenreid states, “We want more autonomy over the remainder of our lands, and in order to gain that we have to reacquire acreage and nurture it back to health and protect it as we do our current land base. As the true and intended stewards of this land, we must do all we can to ensure that it is restored to our environmental standards.”

To learn more about the CDA Tribe check the monthly newspaper Council Fire or cdatribe-nsn.gov.

The Kootenai Tribe is located in northwest Idaho on the Kootenai Reservation near Bonners Ferry and refer to themselves as the ‘Ktunxa,’ meaning “licks the blood” in the Salish language, which refers to how warriors once licked their blades after battling an enemy. The Kootenai Nation consists of seven bands, including two in the U.S.–the Kootenai of Idaho and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe of the Flathead Reservation in Montana. The remaining five bands reside in Canada. As a whole, the seven bands share one symbol referred to in their tribal logo, featuring three moons on a war shield and representing the three larger bands. Currently, the reservation sits on 12.5 acres with 168-plus tribal members.

Unlike other tribes, the Kootenai of Idaho never signed a treaty with the federal government, which led to the loss of their homeland on the Kootenai River. Landless and in need of help, the Tribe stayed at St. Michael’s Mission until the Department of the Interior provided housing. These housing units still stand today, a dilapidated reminder of the painful history that led 67 members of the Tribe to famously declare war on the United States in 1974.

“My grandmother Amy Trice led a war against the United States,” Vice Chairman Gary Aitkin, Jr. explains proudly. Tribal elder Amy Trice is documented in history as a “Trailblazing Woman” at the Idaho State Museum for her war on Idaho on September 20, 1974. It was a peaceful war, but the bold audacity of the declaration brought the nation’s attention to the plight of the Idaho Kootenai, and at long last, the Tribe was deeded 12.5 acres of land. This was no small victory and proved to be a positive turn for the future. In 1986, the Tribe opened the Kootenai River Inn and in 1996, a casino to generate gaming revenue to assist the Tribe’s growth. According to the 2020 Tribal Economic Impact study, the Kootenai Tribe is the largest employer in Boundary County, Idaho. The Tribe is a founding partner of the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative (KVRI), which is a memo of understanding signed in 2001 between the Tribe, the City Mayor of Bonners Ferry, and the County Commissioner of Boundary, benefitting the local and regional economy.

Guadalupe Ponce collecting a wild adult sturgeon for the Kootenai Tribe’s hatchery, 2010.

KOOTENAI TRIBE OF IDAHO, FISH & WILDLIFE

“Under the MOU,” says Vice Chairman Aitkin, “we are working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on recovering one of our traditional subsistence foods, the burbot fish.” The burbot is the only freshwater cod species in North America and the Kootenai River is the only place in Idaho with a native burbot population. Today, the Tribe helps maintain the fish habitat, managing a hatchery opened in 2014 and employing 30 people. The Kootenai’s resilience and determination now ensure that future generations will learn how to stewart this rare resource and the local ecosystem that sustains it. kootenai.org.

Young Shoshone-Bannock tribal members fishing in the South Fork of the Salmon River, 2011. Tribal members are taught traditional methods of spearing fish.

PHOTO BY ENRIQUE PATINO, NOAA/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribe is located in southeastern Idaho on the Fort Hall Reservation. We refer to ourselves as ‘Newe,’ meaning ‘The People.’ The Tribe consists of several bands of Shoshone and Bannock and was once a larger group with the other Shoshone Tribes throughout Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. In 1868, the Tribe signed the Fort Bridger Treaty, designating the reservation as a “permanent homeland” on 544,000 acres for its growing membership of 6,000-plus. The Tribe is governed by the Fort Hall Business Council, consisting of seven members, each elected for staggered, two-year terms.

According to the 2020 Tribal Economic Impact Study, the Tribes is the fourth largest employer in the region and has added more than 4,400 jobs and $400 million annually to the eastern Idaho economy. The study also found that the 110,000 acres of agricultural lands owned by the tribes and individual tribal members produce an estimated $125 million annually in crop revenues.

The Tribe also maintains a profitable ‘Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Enterprises,’ overseeing a herd of 300 buffalo, the Donzia Gift Shop, three gas stations, the Trading Post Grocery store, and the Blue Corner Store. The Tribe also maintains a website, social media channels, and a weekly newspaper, The Sho-Ban News.

The Shoshone-Bannock have learned how to advocate wisely for the Tribe. The Fort Bridger Treaty states, “...they [the tribes] shall have the right to hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States so long as game may be found thereon.” This unique ability allows for tribal members to exercise hunting rights on and off the reservation under the Tribe’s management. The reservation is known throughout southeast Idaho to have the best fishing and pheasant hunting in the ‘Bottoms Area.’ This land is only accessible with a Trespass Permit and is home to the Tribe’s buffalo herd, wild horse herd, and the original Fort Hall Trading Post. The Tribe’s Fisheries Department offers a limited number of ‘non-member’ fishing permits to the public from May 7 through November 21. For more information, visit shoshone-bannock.tribalsites.com/vendor/fish-and-wildlife.html.

The natural environment and wildlife have always been inextricably linked to the first peoples. In 1990, the Shoshone-Bannock took action on their commitment to stewardship and petitioned the federal government to list sockeye salmon as an endangered species to draw awareness to all salmon stocks in Idaho. And in April 2021, the Tribe joined a strong, intertribal effort across the Northwest to find a common voice on Congressman Simpson’s ‘Northwest in Transition’ proposal to ‘Save the Salmon.’ Chairman Boyer states, “The Tribes unite to support everyone who lives within the Columbia River Basin. We need a comprehensive approach to the issues of how we manage the Snake River because our salmon are running out of time.”

The Tribe’s ultimate goal, aligned with that of Congressman Simpson, is to remove the Lower Four Snake River dams to help restore the fish runs. “This will help protect our culture so our future generations can hunt the salmon like our ancestors,” says Chairman Boyer. To learn more: sbtribes.com/saveidahosalmon.

Artist Delmar Kelly and tribal chair Ted Howard at Bruneau Canyon Overlook, 2017. The Shoshone-Paiute Tribes collaborated with the Bureau of Land Management to develop interpretive signage at the site as part of an educational outreach campaign.

Bureau of Land Management, Photo by Bob Wick

The Shoshone-Paiute Tribe is located in both Idaho and Nevada on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Owyhee County, Idaho. The ‘Newe-Numa’ (meaning ‘the people’ in both Shoshone and Paiute) consists of both the Western Shoshone and Northern Paiute bands. The reservation sits on 289,819 acres and has 2,300 tribal members. In 1877, an Executive Order established the reservation and in 1936, their first tribal government was founded. Today, the Tribe is governed by a seven-member Business Council with staggered, three-year terms. The reservation spans two states, but the heart of the government is operated in Idaho. According to Chairman Brian Thomas, “An elder once told me that our Shoshone people were once one people.” In recognition of the Tribe’s presence in Boise, tribal members from Burns Paiute in Oregon, Fort Hall of Idaho, Fort McDermitt Paiute of Nevada, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs of Oregon, and Duck Valley gather at the Eagle Rock Park for the annual ‘Return of the Boise Valley People.’ Cultural gatherings such as this help maintain the oral traditions of storytelling, history, and language for future generations to understand their connections to one another.

Like other tribes, the Tribe’s business interests directly coincide with the natural environment. “Elk have always been abundant on the Duck Valley Reservation,” says Chairman Thomas. “As part of the fish and wildlife management, we host an auction for five bull tags for a five-day guided elk hunt on the reservation.” The Tribe also offers guided antelope hunts to non-tribal members from July 15 through October. Fishing permits to three rainbow trout fisheries are available at Lake Billy Shaw (fly fishing) and Mountain View and Sheep Creek Reservoirs. shopaitribes.org/spfish/.

Physical distance separates the Shoshone-Paiute from other Idaho tribes and the economic opportunities of major population centers. The remote reservation, a wild and beautiful locale with rivers, canyons, high desert terrain, and mountains, makes life somewhat difficult for the community to access needed supplies or services. An average drive from the reservation to a local Walmart is about 100 miles. “In the early days of the reservation, the lands were rich in farmland and had abundant timber. Today, I am concerned about the water quality on the reservation,” says Chairman Thomas. “And wildfires have burned what forest area we have and our only source of firewood. We appreciate the government-to-government relationships we have with the Sawtooth National Forest and the City of Hailey. They have provided our elders and community with much-needed firewood.” The Tribe plans a community project of planting trees that will help provide for the next seven generations. shopaitribes.org/spt/.

The Nez Perce Tribe is located in north-central Idaho on the Lapwai Reservation and refer to themselves as Nimipuu, meaning ‘The People.’ The Tribe’s name, Nez Perce, is a French word meaning ‘pierced nose’ originating from French-Canadian fur trappers in the 18th century. Currently, the reservation sits on 770,000 acres with over 3,500 tribal members. The Tribe is nomadic and follows the seasons into areas of Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. The Tribe is governed by a nine-member council called the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee (NPTEC) who serve staggered three-year terms.

Nez Perce Tribe Department of Fisheries manages spring Chinook at one of many of the Tribe’s Idaho hatcheries

NEZ PERCE NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK

According to the 2020 Economic Impact Study, the Nez Perce is the third largest employer and provides 1,338 employment opportunities to the region. The Tribe and individual tribal members own 19% of the land on the reservation; 385,227 acres are considered cropland, 261,954 acres are used for grazing, and 100,159 acres are forestlands. Today, the Tribe owns and operates the following successful enterprises: Clearwater River Resort & Casino, The Itse-ye-ye-Casino, two convenience stores, Red Wolf Golf Club, and the Zims Hot Springs.

According to the Tribe’s Communications Manager Kayleoni Scott, “The Nez Perce Tribe has one of the largest and most successful fisheries programs in the United States. We brought back the coho salmon to the region after it was declared extinct in 1986.” In 2021, coho salmon made an historic return. In addition to salmon recovery, the Tribe manages several hatcheries, including Cherry Lane and Kooskia, on the reservation.

The Tribe has been diligent in supporting U.S. Congressman Mike Simpson’s Columbia Basin Fund initiative to restore the lower Snake River by breaching its four dams and investing in the local communities. The initiative has gained national media attention and unified support from other tribes impacted by the loss of salmon runs in the lower Snake River. Nez Perce Tribal Chairman Samuel N. Penney says, “Our salmon are in crisis. There’s simply no other way to describe the current circumstances.” To learn more: simpson.house.gov/salmon/.

Photos are on display and courtey of Idaho State Museum