Bannock War - Background

Background

Camas (Camassia quamash) is a plant with a blue or purple flower which has a nutritious bulb about the size and shape of a tulip bulb. For many of the tribes in Idaho, Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon, and Western Montana, camas was a major source of food. It was gathered in late spring or early fall. It was either eaten raw or steamed in a pit for immediate consumption. To preserve the camas, the bulbs were pounded in a mortar to make a kind of dough which was then shaped into loaves, wrapped in grass, and steamed again. After cooking it for a second time, the loaves were made into smaller cakes and dried in the sun. Without adequate stock of camas, people would be ill prepared for the cold winter months. In Idaho, one of the most important camas areas was known as Great Camas Prairie.

The Bannock tribe was restricted to the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho by the Fort Bridger Treaty Council of 1868. The tribe was experiencing a famine as they competed with local settlers for game, and the rations provided by the U.S government were too few to support the people on the reservation. In the spring of 1871, the Bannocks and Shoshone traveled to nearby Great Camas Prairie to harvest camas roots. They discovered that settlers had grazed their hogs and livestock on the land, and many of the camas tubers had been eaten. This increased the starvation pressure on the tribes and lead to increased hostility.

General George Crook, a contemporary United States military officer, commented that:

"...it was no surprise...that some of the Indian soon afterward broke out into hostilities, and the great wonder is that so many remained on the reservation. With the Bannocks and Shoshone, our Indian policy has resolved itself into a question of war path or starvation, and being merely human, many of them will always choose the former alternative when death shall at least be glorious."