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The seminomadic Bannock Indians occupied territory that is now in western Wyoming and southeastern Idaho, though they ranged over a wider area in pursuit of buffalo.
News of the Bannock reached Lewis and Clark during their conversations with the Lemhi Shoshone about the best way to cross the Continental Divide. The Shoshone told the Americans that the Bannock were hostile, so the Corps decided to avoid them and follow the northern path through the Lemhi pass.
In 1869 the Bannock were on a reservation at Fort Hall, Idaho. Starving and with no access to their hunting lands, the Bannock began leaving the reserve in the spring of 1878. By June they had joined with the Northern Shoshone to revolt against their conditions. Suppressed, the tribes were returned to the reservation soon thereafter.
Today the Bannock share the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho with the Shoshone—about 3,500 Bannocks were recorded in the 1990 census.
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