Lemhi Reservation

As it prepares to commemorate the Bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery, the United States needs to reassess its commitment to the Lemhi-Shoshone, to Sacagawea / Sacajawea's people.

The obligation the nation acknowledges toward wolf and salmon recovery efforts is dwarfed by the responsibility it faces in treating fairly the people who played such a crucial role in advancing the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

At Fort Mandan in October 1804, they had acquired the services of Toussaint Charbonneau and one of his wives, Sacajawea, a fifteen-year-old "Shoshone" woman who was six months pregnant.

Lewis and Clark recognized the importance of being accompanied by someone who spoke the language of one of the tribes living in the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Three Forks.

Shortly thereafter, Lewis and Clark assessed the Salmon River as too wild to carry them to the Columbia so they discussed with Cameahweit how best to cross the mountains to the land of the Nez Perce.

These people subsisted by digging camas, fishing for salmon, and hunting mountain sheep, deer, antelope, and buffalo.

The mission, named Fort Lemhi, was located approximately two miles north of present-day Tendoy, Idaho.

In February 1858, two hundred Shoshone and Bannock warriors attacked the mission, killing two missionaries and making off with stolen cattle and horses.