The
Bannock or
Banate are a
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
people who traditionally lived in the northern
Great BasinThe Great Basin is a large, arid region of the western United States. Its boundaries vary depending on how it is defined, but it is most commonly defined as the contiguous endorheic basin roughly between the Wasatch Mountains and the Sierra Nevada mountains. Culturally, the Great Basin is home to...
in what is now southeastern
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
and Southern
IdahoIdaho is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans." Idaho was admitted to the Union on 3 July 1890 as the 43rd state....
. They speak the
Northern Paiute languageNorthern Paiute is a Western Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, which according to Marianne Mithun had around 500 fluent speakers in 1994, although Ethnologue puts the number of speakers in 1999 as 1,631. It is closely related to Mono.-Bibliography:*Mithun, Marianne . Languages of Native...
and are closely related to the Northern Paiute people. Some anthropologists consider the Bannock to be simply the northern-most bands of the Northern Paiute. The degree to which the Bannock considered themselves separate from the Northern Paiute at the time of contact is unclear. The Bannock developed a
horse cultureThe term "Horse culture" is used to define a tribal group or community whose day to day life revolves around the herding and breeding of horses. Notable examples are the Mongols of Mongolia, and the American Indians of the Great Plains, after horses were imported from Eurasia during the 16th...
and associated closely with the Northern
ShoshoneThe Shoshone are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern. The Shoshone were sometimes called the Snake by early White trappers, travelers, and settlers....
.
The Bannock are prominent in American History due to the
Bannock WarThe Bannock War was a series of conflicts in 1878 between the Bannock and Northern Shoshone tribes and the United States.- Background :The Bannock tribe was restricted to the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho by the Fort Bridger Treaty Council of 1868...
of 1878. After the war, the Bannock moved onto the
Fort Hall Indian ReservationThe Fort Hall Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Shoshone and Bannock people in the U.S. state of Idaho. It is located in southeastern Idaho on the Snake River Plain north of Pocatello, and comprises 2,110.514 km² of land area in four counties: Bingham, Power, Bannock, and Caribou...
with the Northern Shoshone and gradually their tribes merged. Today they are called the Shoshone-Bannock.
The Bannock live on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, 544,000 acres (2,201 km²) in Southeastern Idaho. Lemhi and Northern Shoshone live with the Bannock Indians.