The Bannock of Idaho

First published in 1958, The Bannock of Idaho tells the story of broken agreements, diminishing food supplies, and of a proud and independent people who refused the blandishments of white civilization. The Bannock, a branch of the Northern Paiute, acquired the horse in the eighteenth century and developed a culture similar in many ways to that of the Plains Indians. Possessed of an aggressive and warlike spirit, the Bannock soon achieved the reputation of being skillful horse thieves and courageous warriors. The first white explorers left accounts of their difficulties with the proud and turbulent Bannock, and Bannock warriors soon became the scourge of the western roads from Fort Bridger to Humboldt Sink and Fort Boise. This ended when General Patrick E. Connor’s California Volunteers defeated a combined force of Shoshoni and Bannock in 1863 in the nation’s largest massacre of Indians at Bear River.