Lemhi Indians, Decade of Wandering, 1870-1880

File — Box: 40, Folder: 17-18

Identifier: VI

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Series: This section contains documents associated with The Lemhi and The Northern Shoshoni, published by Caxton Printers in 1979 and 1980, respectively. Madsen had been approached by the law firm of Wilkinson, Cragun and Barker who were representing the Shoshone-Bannock Indians of Fort Hall, Idaho, in a suit against the United States government. The firm needed an expert witness to provide historical background on the complicated relations between the diverse Shoshoni bands and the encroaching white settlers, whose interests were variously represented by the federal government, territorial governments, military governments, and the powerful quasi-government of the Mormon Church. Madsen's main interest in the project was writing a more comprehensive study of the Shoshone than had been possible within the limitations of his graduate work. It was necessary to follow one format for the history used by the Sho-Ban legal team and another for his proposed academic history of the Northern Shoshone. In addition, the publishers felt that the material on the Lemhi warranted preparation of a separate monograph, which was to be extracted from the larger history and published first. This editorial decision is documented in the correspondence found in box 31. Reviews for both books follow the correspondence.

Source documents associated with rewriting of the history of the Lemhi band are located in box 32, followed by manuscript drafts and publication material. The remainder of this section contains Madsen's files on the Northern Shoshone, which have been left in his original order. These files are arranged both topically and according to record series. Documents that originated in the Department of the Interior are in box 33. Box 34 contains documents relating to the management of various Indian reservations in the intermountain west in the nineteenth century. Documents related to twentieth-century reservation management and Indian self-government are located in box 35. Of special interest is box 38, which contains an exhaustive chronology on the Indian agents. Documents produced by the Sho-Ban legal team listing possible claims are found in box 39, folder 1.

This manuscript went through several revisions before publication. The editorial decision to produce two books is documented in box 31, folders 1-9, which contains correspondence relating to the research and publication of both books followed by post-publication reviews. Madsen's first draft, handwritten on yellow legal pads, can be found in box 39, followed by the first typescript in box 40. Box 41 contains a complete revision. The Lemhi material has been removed and an introduction by Merle Wells added. Boxes 42 and 43 contain revised manuscripts produced between 1975 and 1979. Revisions here are generally an attempt to cut the size of the manuscript by removing extraneous detail and repetitive phrases

Dates

1870-1880

Language of Materials

From the Collection: Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.