BANNOCK

Indian tribe of the Great Basin area of North America. In historical times and probably before 1700 the Bannock ranged through southern Idaho, especially along the Snake River and its tributaries. Linguistically they were most closely related to the Northern Paiute of eastern Oregon, from whom they were separated by 200 miles (320 km). According to both Paiute and Bannock legend, the Bannock went to Idaho to live among the Shoshoni and hunt buffalo. The culture of the Bannock was very much the Plains type in its emphasis on buffalo, the horse, and a seminomadic life. Seasonal migrations carried them west during summer to the Shoshone Falls for salmon, small game, and berries, and northeast in the fall to hunt buffalo in the Yellowstone area of Wyoming and Montana. The latter expeditions allowed the band chief to acquire power over hunting and subsistence activities and also required a good deal of cooperation with the Shoshoni, among whom the Bannock lived and with whom they shared a common enemy in the fierce Blackfoot, who controlled the buffalo-hunting grounds in Montana. The Bannock were not numerous, probably never reaching more than 2,000, but they had considerable influence in inciting their more pacific neighbours to revolts and raids against the whites. Famine, frustration over the disappearance of the buffalo, and insensitive reservation policy by the U.S. government led to the Bannock War in 1878, which was suppressed with a massacre of about 140 Bannock men, women, and children at Charles's Ford in what is now Wyoming. The independence and cultural autonomy of the Bannock did not survive the confinement of reservation life; by 1900 there were only about 500 Bannock left, much intermarried with Shoshoni, their tribal identity and warrior traits extinguished.