Bannock [key], Native North Americans who formerly ranged over wide territory of the N Great Plains and into the foothills of the Rocky Mts. They were concentrated in S Idaho. Their language belonged to the Uto-Aztecan branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). Their culture was typical of the Plains tribes (see under Natives, North American). In 1869, Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho was established for them and for the Northern Shoshone, with whom the Bannock were closely associated. Loss of hunting lands, disappearance of the buffalo, and lack of assistance from the U.S. government led to a Bannock uprising in 1878, which was suppressed. Most Bannock and the Northern Shoshone live at the Fort Hall Reservation. In 1990 there were about 3,500 Shoshone-Bannock in the United States.
See B. D. Madsen, The Bannock of Idaho (1958); R. F. Murphy, Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society (1960).
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