Sacajawea's People: The Lemhi Shoshones and the Salmon River Country [Hardcover]

John W. W. Mann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2004

On October 20, 2001, a crowd gathered just east of Salmon, Idaho, to dedicate the site of the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural, and Education Center, in preparation for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. In a bitter instance of irony, the American Indian peoples conducting the ceremony dedicating the land to the tribe, the city of Salmon, and the nation—the Lemhi Shoshones, Sacajawea’s own people—had been removed from their homeland nearly a hundred years earlier and had yet to regain official federal recognition as a tribe. John W. W. Mann’s book at long last tells the remarkable and inspiring story of the Lemhi Shoshones, from their distant beginning to their present struggles.

Mann offers an absorbing and richly detailed look at the life of Sacajawea’s people before their first contact with non-Natives, their encounter with the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the early nineteenth century, and their subsequent confinement to a reservation in northern Idaho near the town of Salmon. He follows the Lemhis from the liquidation of their reservation in 1907 to their forced union with the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation to the south. He describes how for the past century, surrounded by more populous and powerful Native tribes, the Lemhis have fought to preserve their political, economic, and cultural integrity. His compelling and informative account should help to bring Sacajawea’s people out of the long shadow of history and restore them to their rightful place in the American story.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Mann's scholarly study of the Lemhi Shoshones' petition to gain tribal recognition from the federal government focuses on the tribe's unbroken ties to their homeland, the Salmon River country of northeastern Idaho. By the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805, when Sacajawea provided her legendary assistance, various groups had merged as a "single political entity" known as the Lemhi Shoshone. In 1880 the federal government began pressuring the tribe to give up its reservation land, finally culminating in the tribe's "removal" to Fort Hall in 1907. Despite the liquidation of their reservation, the Lemhis visited there regularly to fish, hunt, and tend ancestors' graves. The author recounts court cases throughout the twentieth century in which the Lemhis have been arbitrarily grouped with other Shoshone bands, and consequently not given control of their share of reparations for the seizure of their land. Now with the bicentennial of the Corps of Discovery, the federal government has an opportunity to restore official recognition to Sacajawea's people once and for all. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"[A] fascinating study. . . . The author''s thoroughly researched account is bolstered by the inclusion of American Indian perspectives, particularly contributions from Lemhi Shoshone activists."—Choice

(CHOICE )

“This remarkable book is, in effect, the biography of a people. . . . An amazing story about a group of people who managed to live in harmony with just about everything except human beings. . . . and especially Western governments.”—Statesman Journal

(Statesman Journal )

"A compelling account of the Lemhis'' struggle for autonomy. . . . This book may provide them with some important legal ammunition."—Mark van de Logt, Canadian Journal of History

(Mark van de Logt Canadian Journal of History )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803232411
• ISBN-13: 978-0803232419
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #473,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bicentennial bullseye on Western history, March 10, 2005

By 

M. C. Nelson (Twin Falls, ID USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacajawea's People: The Lemhi Shoshones and the Salmon River Country (Hardcover)

In `Sacajawea's People' Mann writes with the accuracy and flavor of Ambrose, and a touch of western narrative resembling Stegner. A must read for anybody remotely interested in the tale of the Corps of Discovery, and the fallout that ensued from that momentous journey. Perfectly timed with the bicentennial of the expedition.