 Sho-Ban News - Fort Hall, Idaho
TENDOY — A group of Shoshone-Bannock tribal members conducted a prayer ceremony Friday at the Chief Tendoy monument to bless all living things such as the sagebrush, berries and other living things. Prayer leaders Lee Juan Tyler and Snookins Honena addressed their feelings about how disheartening it was to see historical markers (<--) giving territorial claim to a different tribe. “We got to respect our territory, even with somebody else. We care about us and the animals,” said Tyler at the cemetery site. He talked about how the people learn from the beaver, ants, everything, the butterfly. And right now tribes are fighting over water.
“We’re fortunate we still have the language, the culture. Many people are new age around here. They want our medicine way. They want our eagle feathers. That’s where we could only show so much because it will get in the wrong hands,” continued Tyler. Honena said the area is sacred, that a lot of things happened here, a lot of people destroyed the signs in the area. The plaque dedicated in 1990 to the existing monument was not there. He explained the smudging is to have the bad thoughts and feelings about certain people and the area to clear your mind.
“Don’t do things. This area is sacred to the people, for you non-Indian is to understand the purpose of this monument, my great grandfather is buried here, Chief Tendoy,” said Honena, “All this area this way — all the way to Dillon, where people used to go hunting shopping, used this trail in the past.”
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Cultural Resource committee member Claudeo Broncho and Tribal Land Use Commissioner Tony Shay were also present. They sang prayer songs with Tyler and Honena. All four are descendents of Lemhi Valley residents who were removed from the area to Fort Hall. Also in attendance were Bureau of Land Management employees Steve Wright and Scott Feldhausen, along with tribal elder Lucy Diaz, her husband Joe and their daughter Barbara Edmo.
 Honena explained that a lot of history is behind the location at Tendoy and his great grandfather Chief Tendoy didn’t want to go to Fort Hall. He resisted in his heart because he wanted to live in his homeland. After Chief Tendoy passed away and the Shoshones were moved to Fort Hall, Honena’s grandfather Topompey was made the leader. The white people gave him the name John Tendoy. Honena’s sister Lucy knew John as the Chief in Fort Hall from 1907-1929 when he passed away.
“I’m kind of surprised to be looking at this Nez Perce trail coming down the road. Just because the Nez Perce was on the run through here,” said Honena, “the Fort Hall Council didn’t want them tied in at one time but the state of Idaho says that’s it. What can you say, the government you know. We’re still resisting a lot of things that’s happened here.” He said here’s where we want our prayers for good thoughts and everything to be all right.
“Seems like just a memory now,” said Honena, “What I’m saying is the prayer is felt, you may not see or hear it, but it’s all around here, still they can see us. When I come here in my way when you go into different country you always give offerings, like cedar or something, give and pray, I do that when I come here in the mountains, I give offerings and pray. Here to the people, the Agai Dika.” Honena wants the residents of the Tendoy and Lemhi Valley area to understand this is ancestral country and the Guards of the Rockies lived here. In history, it has been changed, as Honena explained the Natives live under the government now but deep in the heart “were still here and in prayers.” And with those words went into prayer.
In 1914 a letter was delivered to the Citizens National Bank of Salmon requesting a monument be put in place for Chief Tendoy, at the head of his grave to mark his resting place.
The marker was a tribute to the Chief who was held in high regard by his fellow band members and from his white friends. The Lemhi Valley Indian Reservation came into existence by an executive order for a mixture of Shoshone, Bannocks, and Sheepeater Indians, which was rescinded in 1905 and in 1907.
“Lemhi Trail of Tears” was referred to by those who were forced away from their ancestral homeland to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. “We had an agreement, Nena Tendoy Tissidimit she said at one time. The Chinese people lived here. The white people didn’t like them digging for gold so I guess they wanted to get rid of them. So later on they wanted to get rid of the Native people too,” said Lucy Diaz, Honena’s sister and Chief Tendoy descendent.
Since the band was removed from the Lemhi Reservation in 1907 members return “annually to visit the area and Topompey visited his father’s grave, whose friendship for the whites during the settlement of the Lemhi Country saved them from serious trouble with other warring tribes, and as evidence of the high regard which he was held, his white friends subscribed a fund ($100,000) and placed a monument at the head of his grave to mark his last resting place,” the letter read and was signed by M.M. McPherson. The letter was officially stamped by “Headquarters Official Copy Fort Douglas, Utah.” A wooden memorial designed by BLM painted with the dates of 1905-1907 is at the entrance of the cemetery and reads: Dedicated to the Lemhi Indians who were forced to move from their homeland in the Lemhi Valley to the Fort Hall Reservation.
Below that wording is a list of the people who forcibly walked the trail to Fort Hall.
As Diaz viewed the names she talked of the people and the last names that she knew.
Diaz said the name Woodayogo, Roger is her great granddad, Elmira Beaversack is also one of their aunts.
The Woodayogo name was changed three times, Leland changed his to Bear. And Robert changed his to Wooda.
“A lot of people think we’re related to Bear’s but we’re not,” said Diaz, “A lot of people are gone. Majorie Yellowstone, I’m related to the Yellowstone too.”
Lucy and Joe have been married for 62 years and Joe says he heard Lucy’s grandmother Nena talk about a lot of the oral history.
“We heard it from Cora George and Fannie Silver,” said Lucy, “My grandmother was young when she married Topompey (John Tendoy).”
There are many names on the wooden memorial at the cemetery entrance. The Sho-Ban News will publish the names in the near future, also with more information regarding this visit and the meeting with BLM officials and the City of Salmon.
Clarifications:
The feature story “A prayer for Agai Dika ancestors” information regarding Lucy Diaz was inaccurately reported in the Sho-Ban News May 5 edition.
•Honena’s sister Lucy knew John as the Chief in Fort Hall from 1907-1927 when he passed away. The right date should of read 1907-1929.
•”We had an agreement, Nina Tendoy Tissidimit she said at one time, the Chinese” Nina’s name should of read Nena. Nena is Lucy’s grandmother.
•Lucy and Joe have been married for 62 years and Joes says he heard Lucy’s mother talk a lot about the oral history. It was not Lucy’s mother but was her grandmother, Nena.
•”We heard it from Cora George and Fannie Baker,” said Lucy, “My grandmother was young” It was not Fannie Baker but Fannie Silver who related oral information to Lucy.
Pohipes are of Shoshone descent and not Bannock as stated in the article.
October 26, 1999
Sacajawea's people seek a homecoming
By Timothy Egan - The New York Times
 SALMON, Idaho - Here in the valley where the Shoshone teen-ager Sacajawea led Lewis and Clark to one of the most serendipitous encounters in the annals of discovery, the stores are full of Indian art, the pastures are grazed by Indian-bred horses, and the land itself is imprinted with Indian names. But there are no American Indians here.
The Lemhi Shoshone, living links to the teen-age girl who was instrumental in leading the Corps of Discovery over the Continental Divide in 1805, have been all but erased from this place they have called home for hundreds of years. The 400 or so Lemhi live on a reservation 200 miles south of here, on desert land set aside for two much bigger tribes.
Orphans in an arid land, the Lemhi say they have been down so long that they use an ironic phrase to describe their current status. "Basically, we are the Indians to the other Indians," said Rod Ariwite, a leader of the Lemhi Shoshone. But the tribe's luck may be about to change.
Spurred on by an extraordinary surge of interest in the journey of Lewis and Clark, hoopla over a new dollar coin honoring Sacajawea and recent scholarly finds that bolster Lemhi legal claims, the Indians from the west side of the Continental Divide are stirred by their last best hope for a homeland.
The Lemhi have asked President Clinton to carve out a small piece of federal land in the Salmon River country on the Idaho-Montana border as a place where the tribe can tell its story to the hordes of Lewis and Clark history buffs, honor their dead and try to stitch some of the past to the present. As it is, the only visible Indian in this valley is the Salmon High School mascot, a chieftain who represents "the Home of the Savages," as the school sign says.
"They have Sacajawea heritage days, they have Sacajawea arts and crafts, they have everything but the real Indians who are Sacajawea's people in the valley," said Ariwite, an Air Force veteran and high school principal who grew up in Salmon but now lives in New Mexico and in Fort Hall, Idaho. "The feeling we get is, "We don't want you here, but we want your Sacajawea heritage."
Foe example: (salmonbyway.com - salmonidaho.com - cityofsalmon.com)
 
The white leaders of this community say they revere the most famous native of the valley but are ambiguous about any land being set aside for the Indians.
"We all believe Sacajawea is not only the most famous Indian, but the most famous woman in America," said Stan Davis, mayor of this town of 3,000, set in an isolated Rocky Mountain valley of heart-stopping beauty. "And the way things are going now, with our timber, mining and fishing in trouble, it's almost like we've come full circle. We know what the Indians went through."
Even late in this century, a small group of Lemhi, Ariwite among them, continued to live in shacks by the river at the edge of town here. But that tumbledown village was destroyed (below) by the local authorities more than 20 years ago. *It is now a small fishing pond for kids.
"It was our home," Ariwite said. "But I guess everyone else thought it was an eyesore." For a man who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the many slights dealt the Lemhi, Ariwite betrays only a trace of bitterness.
My kids come up here with me to fish and camp in the summer, and they say, "Dad, how could you ever give this land up?" he said. "But we haven't given up. The Lewis and Clark bicentennial is going to be our last fight."
"In 1805, the Americans asked for our help. Now we're asking for theirs."
Photo on right - Destruction of the Last Lemhi Camp - 1970's.
*Updated
May 1, 2004
 Sacajawea Center Opens for Summer
KIFI - Local News 8
It's a long name with a simple purpose. The Sacagawea Interpretive Cultural and Educational Center in Salmon opened on Saturday for its first full summer.
They're paying special tribute to the woman who played an important roll in the journey of Lewis and Clark.
"She was a really brave woman," says Maria Leigh Bigley.
Sixteen-year-old Maria Leigh Bigley played Sacagawea in Saturday's production, re-enacting events that happened in this valley 200 years ago.
Maria says the experience has taught her a lot about this extraordinary woman's life.
"She didn't have nobody to talk to, really that she didn't have another woman to talk to when she was having her baby, I didn't know she was taken at such a young age," says Bigley.
Sacagawea was born here in Lemhi County and it was here she helped Lewis and Clark during a critical part of their journey.
"They'd already heard from other tribes that they might not be able to navigate to the Pacific Ocean by boat and that they might need horses," says Community Development Director Gary Van Huffel.
Because Sacagawea spoke Shoshone she was able to get horses and other supplies for Lewis and Clark.
This is just one of the historical events visitors will learn about at the new center. As this is mostly an outdoor experience with hiking trails and outdoor exhibits, the center's director says it's truly unique.
"With the teepee village and the brush lodge encampment it's about as close as you can imagine to what it might have felt like 200 years ago," says Van Huffel; when a young Lemhi-Shoshone woman may have seen her homeland for the last time.
"This is a place where you can go to learn more about this woman that did all this really cool stuff instead of doing it at school," says Bigley.
The Sacagawea Center is really a big deal for the Salmon Community with the bicentennial anniversary of the journey of Lewis and Clark coming next year. It's expected to bring in 40,000 visitors and $45 million tourism dollars in the next few years.
November 2003
 Myths about Sacajawea troubling reality for tribe - Lemhi-Shoshone feel left out of Lewis and Clark bicentennial
Hannelore Sudermann Staff writer
Two centuries ago, Sacajawea was stolen from her tribe as a child. Today, as one of the most prominent women in American history, she has been stolen again.
So say members of the Lemhi-Shoshone, a small tribe from the area of Salmon, Idaho, where historians believe Sacajawea was born.
"It's a case of cultural identity theft," said Orlan Svingen, a history professor at Washington State University. Other tribes are laying claim to her and scholars are focusing on the legend rather than on the facts, he said.
"As the nation moves further into the bicentennial (of the Lewis and Clark expedition), it has become apparent that the Lemhi-Shoshone have been overlooked," said Svingen.
Bicentennial officials say that different perspectives on Sacajawea must be accepted, particularly because her story is part of several tribes' oral histories.
The Lemhi-Shoshone, or Agaidika (salmon eaters), lived in the Lemhi Valley at the eastern edge of Idaho. According to the tribe's oral history and the journals of members of the Corps of Discovery, Sacajawea was born among the Lemhi-Shoshone and captured at the age of 11 or 12 by the Hidatsa tribe. Her captors took her hundreds of miles east to a Hidatsa village in North Dakota.
Four years later, as a new mother and wife of a Canadian trapper, she joined the Corps of Discovery as a guide and translator on the trek to the Pacific Ocean.
The journals say that on the trip, she encountered her brother among the Shoshone and through him helped the explorers get horses from the tribe to cross the Continental Divide.
A century later, the Lemhi-Shoshone were forced to move 200 miles south of the Lemhi Valley to the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation at Fort Hall near Pocatello, Idaho. Today, they are struggling to gain federal recognition and to obtain a small piece of federal land and reclaim their ancestral home.
Many of them are baffled by bicentennial events that seem to leave them out of the history of Sacajawea.
A ceremony in Washington, D.C., last month cemented these inaccuracies, according to Lemhi tribe members. On Oct. 16, North Dakota leaders hosted a dedication of a "Sakakawea" statue in the Capitol's Statuary Hall. Several speakers, including Tex Hall, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nations, described Sacajawea as a Hidatsa Indian.
Hall's comments supported a 2001 proclamation signed by him and six other leaders of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes claiming that Sacajawea (which they spell Sakakawea) had a Hidatsa father and brother. Several news reports on the statue identified Sacajawea as Hidatsa and failed to mention the Shoshone.
This was shocking, said Rod Ariwite, a Lemhi-Shoshone leader. The Lemhi are the only American Indians who can claim blood ties to her, he said. Anyone who says she was a member of any other tribe is "stealing our heritage from us, our culture," he said.
His view is shared by many other Lemhi-Shoshone members, but they lack the numbers, the political power and the money to make their voices heard, say local scholars.
They lack federal recognition as a distinct tribe and many would prefer not to take part in the bicentennial activities. Also, they are refugees on the Fort Hall Reservation, said Svingen.
"They are a minority of 500 folks on a reservation of 3,500," he said. "Their political voice is always outnumbered."
But some are speaking up. "What concerns me is the false information that was perpetuated there," said
Rozina George, a Lemhi-Shoshone. "They're distorting history. They're convincing all these important people in Washington, D.C., to come and be part of an unveiling ceremony and they've literally changed Sacajawea's identity."
George, who claims to be descended from Sacajawea's family, uses her tribe's own oral history as well as the journals from the Corps of Discovery as her sources. She wrote to the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, asking its members to correct and prevent inaccuracies about the Shoshone guide.
Policing for accuracy is not the role of the council, said historian Robert Archibald, president of the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.
"We understand clearly the Shoshone origins of Sacajawea," he said, adding that the bicentennial council had no part in the Washington, D.C., statue dedication. "It was entirely a North Dakota undertaking."
The council's role isn't to judge; it's to support groups wanting to participate in the bicentennial, to ensure meaningful participation by Native American groups and to give people an opportunity to tell their stories about Lewis and Clark.
"There are all kinds of viewpoints and conflicting stories that have to do with Lewis and Clark," said Archibald. "We have tried very hard to stay out of those disagreements between tribes and/or scholars."
But scholars and others need to speak out for the sake of the Lemhi and for the sake of historical accuracy, said Svingen. Unfortunately, it's something "a polite or timid American public is afraid to address," he said.
Amy Mossett, a Mandan-Hidatsa Indian from North Dakota and tribal involvement coordinator for the National Council on the Bicentennial, said, "There is no single Hidatsa perspective on Sacajawea."
She disagrees with her tribal leaders' proclamation, noting that it was written by "seven men, none of whom are historians." She believes Sacajawea was born to the Shoshone.
Mossett was at the Washington, D.C., dedication and heard a number of speakers talk of Sacajawea's Shoshone heritage as well as other versions. "When it comes to oral tradition, whoever's at the podium gets to have their story heard," she said.
The Lemhi-Shoshone's viewpoint would be better heard if they chose a representative to join the Circle of Tribal Advisors for the National Council for the bicentennial, she said.
There are a number of tribes that have been reluctant to participate, but more are coming forward now that they realize this is an opportunity to tell the American Indians' side of the story, said Mossett.
"We have a global audience who is ready to hear a new perspective on Lewis and Clark," she said. This is a chance to show the world "we are not all the same. We are not all about the casinos and powwows."
•Hannelore Sudermann can be reached toll-free at (866) 332-3674
WSU Events Observe Lewis and Clark Expedition
PULLMAN, Wash. -- The history department at Washington State University has announced a four-year, statewide program in observance of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. Presentations will include a variety of formats from performances to discussions.
 “Each presentation has a common theme,” said Roger Schlesinger, chair of the WSU history department. “All of the events will share the objective of introducing tribal perspectives.”
The Lewis and Clark event, "Sacagawea/Sacajawea and the Lewis & Clark Expedition: American Indian Perspectives," will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Samuel H. Smith Center for Undergraduate Education, Room 203.
“All of the participants in the series are recognized authorities on various aspects of the Lewis and Clark expedition,” Schlesinger said. They include Sally McBeth, professor, University of Northern Colorado; Amy Mossett, Mandan/Hidatsa, the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota and tribal liaison for the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial; Reba Teran, cultural director for the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, Wind River Reservation, Wyo.; and Rod Ariwite, Lemhi Shoshone, Idaho.
“People attending these presentations are likely to learn about the conflicting tribal accounts surrounding the identity of Sacagawea/Sacajawea,” said WSU history professor Orlan Svingen. “Was she Lemhi Shoshone or was she Hidatsa? There are also disagreements about her name and how long she lived. Did she die at the age of 24 in present-day South Dakota, or did she live into her 90s at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming?” Svingen asked. “Tribal perspectives, including tribal oral histories, are vital to our understanding of the expedition.”
During November of both 2004 and 2005, the WSU history department series will go on the road to cities across the Northwest with historian, performer and professor Jeanne Eder, Dakota Sioux, presenting her portrayal of Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition. Performances will be held in the Vancouver-Portland(Ore.) area and the Tri-Cities, Lewiston (Idaho) and Spokane.
Eder’s performance examines the myths about Sacagawea's life and presents an often-overlooked historical perspective of Native American women. Again, historians and local tribal representatives will provide additional historical and cultural context.
The final event will be held in March 2006 and will focus on “Reflections on the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.” Details of the event are pending.
For more information on the event, visit http://libarts.wsu.edu/lewisandclark
Sacajawea's Tribe Seeks Recognition
 PULLMAN, Wash. - A Washington State University professor is helping a Native American tribe establish an official identity. Almost two hundred years have passed since Sacajawea first joined Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery, and yet the Lemhi, who are also known as Sacajawea's people, still seek to restore federal recognition as a distinct tribe.
In 1995, under the auspices of the Idaho Legal Aid Services, the Lemhi people formed the Fort Lemhi Indian Community, Inc., and obtained a $65,000 grant from the Administration of Native Americans to put together a petition to restore federal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under this grant, WSU History Professor Orlan Svingen was retained to construct the history of the Lemhi people, a project that has been the focus of his graduate seminar in public history.
On May 4, 1999, the Lemhi will send Rod Ariwite, head of the Lemhi community, to the White House Sacajawea coin reception ceremony, where he will be welcomed along with other federally recognized tribes by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Ariwite will hand carry a letter to the First Lady requesting that the Lemhi receive federal recognition and return to their ancestral homelands. For more information, contact Rod Ariwite,
208/785-5870 or Orlan Svingen, 509/335-5205
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