Bannock War
The Bannock War, which took place in 1878, was a conflict involving the Bannock people, a northern mountain branch of the Paiute language group, primarily located in southern Idaho. The war was triggered by tensions surrounding the digging of camas roots on Camas Prairie, where white settlers' hogs were destroying the plants, despite prior treaty guarantees of access for the Bannock. After a violent incident involving the wounding of two white settlers, a Bannock war party led by Buffalo Horn was formed. The conflict escalated as the Bannock allied with the Paiute and engaged in a series of confrontations against U.S. military forces. The war culminated in their defeat at Birch Creek, Oregon, in July 1878, leading to the capture and imprisonment of many Bannock warriors. As a result, the Bannock were eventually returned to their reservation in southern Idaho, marking the end of significant hostilities in the northern mountain Indian wars. The war reflects the broader struggles of Indigenous peoples against encroachment and the violation of treaty rights during this turbulent period in American history.
Bannock War
Date: 1878
Place: Idaho, Oregon
Tribes affected: Bannock, Paiute, Sheepeater, Umatilla
Significance: The Bannock War ended a series of resistance efforts by the northern mountain tribes of the Idaho/Oregon/Wyoming area and resulted in permanent relocation to reservations
The Bannocks, a northern mountain branch of the Paiute language group, originally occupied the mountain areas of southern Idaho and northwestern Wyoming. In the 1850’s they had accepted treaties that limited their area to southern Idaho. During the 1850’s, raids by Bannock, Shoshone, Paiute, and others occurred often along the trails to Oregon and California. By the 1860 Pyramid Lake and 1863 Bear Paw campaigns and the victories of George Crook in the Snake War of 1866-1868, European Americans were in control of the area and the Bannock had peacefully begun drawing meager rations that amounted to two and a half cents per person per day. They supplemented this with their traditional hunting and gathering.
The 1877 escape attempt by their northern neighbors, the Nez Perce, caused considerable upset among the Bannock, but they did not join the resistance that year. The immediate cause of the Bannock War of 1878 was the issue of digging camas roots on the Camas Prairie, located about 90 miles southeast of Fort Boise. The right to dig camas roots had been guaranteed by earlier treaties, but hogs owned by white settlers were now eating many of the roots. In May, a Bannock wounded two whites, an event that led to the creation of a two-hundred-man war party under Buffalo Horn. This unit was defeated by Idaho volunteers, and Buffalo Horn was killed in June. The warriors moved to southeastern Oregon and joined Paiute from the Malheur Agency under the leadership of Chief Egan and medicine man Oyte. The regular army units from Fort Boise were mobilized under General Oliver O. Howard. A chase through southern Idaho and eastern Oregon ended with the defeat of the Indians at Birch Creek, Oregon, on July 8, 1878. Some of the Indians escaped to the Umatilla Agency near Pendleton, Oregon, where Chief Egan was killed by the Umatillas, and the rebels were betrayed and captured. Another smaller group of Bannock had escaped and were captured east of Yellowstone Park in September, 1878.
A subsidiary war developed with the smaller Sheepeater group in the extremely rugged Salmon River Mountains of central Idaho. The fifty warriors eluded the cavalry under Captain Reuben Bernard and defeated another unit under Lieutenant Henry Catley, but persistent tracking forced their surrender in October of 1878.
The Paiute reservation at Malheur in southeastern Oregon was terminated and the Paiute prisoners were placed on the Yakima reservation in central Washington. The Bannock were held at various military posts for a time and then returned to their reservation on the Snake River in southern Idaho, where the Sheepeaters soon joined them. Except for some outbreaks by the Ute to the south, this ended the northern mountain Indian wars.