Idaho’s First Nations: An Ancient Human Landscape
Long before Idaho became the 43rd state in 1890, its mountains, river canyons, and high deserts were the ancestral homeland of numerous Native American nations. Southern Idaho belongs to the Newe, the Shoshonean peoples who speak the Shoshone, Bannock, and Northern Paiute languages. The English name Shoshone derives from So-so-goi, often translated as “those who travel on foot”—a reflection of a deep, mobile relationship with a vast arid landscape. Among the Newe’s most celebrated figures is Sacagawea, born in a Shoshone village near the border of present-day Idaho and Montana, who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition through the Rocky Mountains in 1805. Her nation’s story, and that of Idaho’s other Indigenous peoples, forms the foundation of the state’s history—one marked by resilience as well as one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s record: the Bear River Massacre.
The Indigenous Nations of Idaho
Idaho’s Native peoples were never a single entity but a mosaic of distinct nations, each with their own languages, territories, and traditions:
- The Shoshone (Newe) – Southern Idaho’s Shoshonean peoples, including the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, whose winter camps lined the Bear River. Their seasonal round of hunting, root digging, and salmon fishing was finely tuned to the Great Basin and Snake River Plain environments, as explored more broadly in our survey of Native American cultures.
- The Bannock – A Northern Paiute-speaking people who migrated north into Shoshone country in the 1700s and became closely allied with the Shoshone, sharing territory and eventually a combined reservation.
- The Coeur d’Alene (Schitsu’umsh) – whose ancestral homeland centers on Coeur d’Alene Lake in northern Idaho, a region of abundant waters, camas meadows, and fisheries.
- The Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) – whose traditional lands span the Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Montana plateaus, famous for their horsemanship and their tragic 1877 attempt to flee U.S. military pursuit toward Canada.
- The Kootenai (Ktunaxa) – a transboundary nation whose territory extends from northern Idaho into British Columbia, Canada.
These nations managed Idaho’s ecosystems for millennia through practices such as seasonal burning and careful harvest cycles—traditions examined in our article on how Native Americans used fire to cultivate land and shape ecosystems.
The Bear River Massacre: January 29, 1863
The most catastrophic single event in Idaho’s Native history occurred near modern-day Preston, Idaho, during the depths of winter. On January 29, 1863, a U.S. Army militia commanded by Colonel Patrick E. Connor attacked a winter camp of the Northwestern Shoshone along the Bear River. An estimated 500 Shoshone people—including women, children, and elders—were killed. The Bear River Massacre stands among the deadliest episodes of violence against Native Americans in recorded U.S. history, with more than twice the death toll of the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.
The atrocity unfolded within a wider pattern that defined the American West: epidemic disease, broken treaties, forced displacement, and military raids devastated Indigenous populations across Idaho, just as they did throughout the continent. The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, though nearly destroyed that winter, survived—today the tribe works to preserve the massacre site as sacred ground and to educate the public about what happened there.
Trappers, Explorers, and the Transformation of the Snake River Country
Because of its remote, rugged terrain, Idaho was among the last areas of what became the United States to be reached by Anglo-American explorers. Meriwether Lewis and members of the Corps of Discovery entered Idaho in 1805. In August of that year, William Clark attempted to find a passage across the Salmon River but was turned back by churning rapids and sheer rock walls—the river later earned the nickname “River of No Return.”
Fur trappers soon followed, exporting valuable pelts to European markets. In the 1840s, the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail was blazed through southern Idaho, bringing missionaries, pioneers, and prospectors across Shoshone and Bannock lands. When gold was discovered in the Boise Basin on August 2, 1862, a major gold rush drew thousands of fortune-seekers into the territory, intensifying pressure on Indigenous communities and escalating the conflicts that culminated in the Bear River attack.
Ancestral Lands Lost: Treaties, Displacement, and Survival
The mid-1800s brought a cascade of broken government promises and forced removals. The Nez Perce, who had once welcomed and provisioned Lewis and Clark, lost the vast majority of their treaty lands; their 1877 flight and pursuit by the U.S. Army remains one of the most consequential episodes in Native American history. The Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai, and Shoshone-Bannock peoples were confined to reservations a fraction the size of their ancestral territories.
Later policies deepened the wound. As in much of the nation, Native children were funneled into government and church-run boarding schools designed to sever their cultural ties—a legacy examined in our feature on government boarding schools and the forced separation of Native American children. The protection of ancestral graves and sacred sites remains an ongoing struggle, as discussed in our report on why grave robbers won’t leave Native American burial sites alone.
From Territory to Statehood: Idaho Becomes the 43rd State
President Abraham Lincoln signed an act creating the Idaho Territory in 1863, placing the future state’s founding in the same year as the Bear River Massacre—a stark reminder of how territorial expansion and violence against Native peoples were intertwined. It took nearly three more decades for Idaho to achieve statehood.
By the late 1800s, the territory was divided between the LDS-dominated south and the largely anti-LDS north. In 1884, the Idaho Legislature passed a “test oath” barring members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from voting or holding office. Republicans in Congress, eager to strengthen their numbers, pushed for statehood, and on July 3, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill admitting Idaho as the 43rd state. A new star was added to the American flag the very next day, July 4.
Taming the Snake River: Irrigation, Reclamation, and Disaster
The Snake River is the lifeline of southern Idaho’s otherwise parched landscape. In 1905, work was completed on Milner Dam, funded in part by Pennsylvania steel magnate Frank Buhl. The dam diverted Snake River water into thousands of miles of canals, transforming millions of acres of sagebrush into farmland—one of the era’s largest reclamation projects, and one that consummated the dispossession of Native homelands already underway.
Tragedy struck again generations later. The Teton Dam in eastern Idaho, completed in 1975, failed catastrophically on June 5, 1976, sending a wall of water downstream that killed 11 people and devastated communities.
Historical Context & Key Cultural Takeaways
- Deep antiquity: Idaho’s Native nations—Shoshone, Bannock, Northern Paiute, Coeur d’Alene (Schitsu’umsh), Nez Perce (Nimiipuu), and Kootenai (Ktunaxa)—inhabited and stewarded these lands for millennia before any European American set foot there in 1805.
- Bear River’s significance: The January 29, 1863 massacre of an estimated 500 Northwestern Shoshone was among the deadliest single attacks on Native Americans in U.S. history, exceeding even Wounded Knee.
- Simultaneity of statehood and violence: The Idaho Territory was created in the same year as the Bear River Massacre, illustrating how U.S. territorial expansion proceeded hand in hand with Indigenous dispossession.
- Sacagawea’s legacy: The Shoshone woman who guided Lewis and Clark was born near the Idaho-Montana border, linking Idaho’s Newe people directly to one of the most famous expeditions in American history.
- Contemporary resilience: Idaho’s tribes, including the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, remain living nations—preserving languages, commemorating massacre sites, and asserting sovereignty today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Native American tribes are indigenous to Idaho?
The principal Indigenous nations of Idaho are the Shoshone and Bannock (Newe) peoples of the south, the Northern Paiute, the Coeur d’Alene (Schitsu’umsh) of the north, the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) of the west-central plateaus, and the Kootenai (Ktunaxa) of the far north, whose territory extends into Canada.
What was the Bear River Massacre?
On January 29, 1863, U.S. Army troops under Colonel Patrick E. Connor attacked a Northwestern Shoshone winter camp near present-day Preston, Idaho, killing an estimated 500 people. It was among the deadliest massacres of Native Americans in U.S. history—more than twice the death toll at Wounded Knee in 1890.
What does the name “Shoshone” mean?
The English name Shoshone derives from So-so-goi, generally understood to mean “those who travel on foot,” reflecting the people’s deep familiarity with traversing their vast Great Basin and Snake River homeland.
How is the Bear River Massacre site honored today?
The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation leads ongoing commemoration and education efforts at the site, working to preserve it as sacred ground and to make certain the victims and survivors are remembered accurately in public history.
When did European Americans first arrive in Idaho?
Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery entered Idaho in 1805, making it the last of the future U.S. states to be explored by European Americans. Clark’s unsuccessful attempt to cross the Salmon River that August gave rise to the river’s enduring nickname, the “River of No Return.”
Conclusion: A Living Legacy
Idaho’s story is inseparable from its Native nations. From Sacagawea’s Shoshone homeland to the winter camps along the Bear River, from Nez Perce plateau country to Coeur d’Alene Lake, the Indigenous history of Idaho is one of extraordinary adaptation, catastrophic loss, and remarkable endurance. Understanding the Bear River Massacre and the displacement that accompanied territorial and statehood milestones is essential to an honest account of the Gem State—one that honors the Newe, Schitsu’umsh, Nimiipuu, and Ktunaxa peoples whose descendants still live on and care for these lands today.
