The Lemhi Shoshone are a tribe of

Northern Shoshone Northern Shoshone are Shoshone of the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho and the northeast of the Great Basin where Idaho, Wyoming and Utah meet. They are culturally affiliated with the Bannock people and are in the Indigenous people of the Grea ...

, also called the Akaitikka, Agaidika, or "Eaters of Salmon".Murphy and Murphy, 306 The name "Lemhi" comes from Fort Lemhi, a Mormon mission to this group. They traditionally lived in the

Lemhi River The Lemhi River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 3, 2011 river in Idaho in the United States. It is a tributary of the Salmon River, which in turn is a tributary ...

Valley and along the upper Salmon River in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

. Bands were very fluid and

nomad Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

ic, and they often interacted with and intermarried other bands of

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ), also known by the endonym Newe, are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the United States with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshon ...

and other tribes, such as the

Bannock Bannock may mean: * Bannock (British and Irish food), a kind of bread, cooked on a stone or griddle served mainly in Scotland but consumed throughout the British Isles * Bannock (Indigenous American food), various types of bread, usually prepare ...

.Murphy and Murphy, 288 Today most of them are enrolled in the

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation of Idaho The Fort Hall Reservation is a Indian reservation, Native American reservation of the federally recognized Shoshone-Bannock people, Bannock Tribes (Shoshoni language: Pohoko’ikkateeCrum, B., Crum, E., & Dayley, J. P. (2001). Newe Hupia: Shosh ...

Traditional culture

The Akaitikka are

Numic Numic is the northernmost branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It includes seven languages spoken by Native American peoples traditionally living in the Great Basin, Colorado River basin, Snake River basin, and southern Great Plains. Th ...

speakers, speaking the

Shoshone language Shoshoni, also written as Shoshoni-Gosiute and Shoshone ( ; Shoshoni: soni ta̲i̲kwappe'', ''newe ta̲i̲kwappe'' or ''neme ta̲i̲kwappeh''), is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken in the Western United States by the Shosho ...

.Murphy and Murphy, 287 Fishing is an important source of food, and salmon, and trout were staples. Gooseberries and camas root, ''

Camassia quamash ''Camassia quamash'', commonly known as camas, kwetlal, small camas, common camas, common camash or quamash, is a perennial herb. It is native to western North America in large areas of southern Canada and the northwestern United States. Descri ...

'' are traditional vegetable foods for the Lemhi Shoshone. In the 19th century, buffalo hunting provided meat, furs, hides, and other materials.Murphy and Murphy, 286

History

During the 19th century, the Lemhi Shoshone were allied with the Flatheads and enemies of the

Blackfeet The Blackfeet Nation (, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Montana. Tribal members primarily belong ...

. The

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

encountered the Lemhi at the Three Forks of the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

in 1805. In the 1860s, Indian agents estimated the Lemhi population, which included Shoshone, Bannock, and

Tukudeka The Tukudeka or Mountain Sheepeaters are a band of Shoshone within the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Shoshone.Shimkin 335 Before the reservation era, they traditionally lived in the central Sawtooth Range of Idaho and the mountains of what is ...

(Sheepeaters), to be 1,200.Murphy and Murphy, 289 Tendoy was a prominent Lemhi chief in the mid-19th century. He was half-Shoshone and half-Bannock. He became the Lemhi's leading chief in 1863 after Tio-van-du-ah was killed in

Bannock County, Idaho Bannock County is a county in the southeastern part of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, the population was 87,018, making it the sixth-most populous county in Idaho. The county seat and largest city is Pocatello. The county was established in 18 ...

. The Lemhi Reservation, located along the Lemhi River, west of the

Bitterroot Range The Bitterroot Range is a mountain range and a subrange of the Rocky Mountains that runs along the border of Montana and Idaho in the northwestern United States. The range spans an area of and is named after the bitterroot (''Lewisia rediviva ...

and north of the

Lemhi Range The Lemhi Range is a mountain range in the U.S. state of Idaho, spanning the eastern part of the state between the Lost River Range and the Beaverhead Mountains. The highest point in the range is Diamond Peak (Idaho), Diamond Peak at , the third ...

was created in 1875 and terminated in 1907. Most of the residents were moved to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. Others remain near Salmon, Idaho. Robert Harry Lowie studied the band and published ''The Northern Shoshone'', a monograph about them in 1909.shoshoneindian.com
"Shoshone Books", ''The Shoshone Indians.'' 21 May 2003 (retrieved 13 June 2010)

Notable Lemhi

Sacagawea Sacagawea ( or ; also spelled Sakakawea or Sacajawea; May – December 20, 1812)Sacagawea
."

Notes

References

*Murphy, Robert F. and Yolanda Murphy. "Northern Shoshone and Bannock." Warren L. D'Azevedo, vol. ed. ''Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 11: Great Basin.'' Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1986. . *Madsen, Brigham D. "The Lemhi: Sacajawea's People." The Caxton Printers, Ltd. Caldwell, Idaho 83605, 1979. .

External links

Sacajawea and her people, the Lemhi Shoshone
{{authority control Northern Shoshone Native American tribes in Idaho Uto-Aztecan peoples