Shoshone Chief Tendoy was born about 1834 in the Boise River area of what is now Idaho. His parents were of Bannock and Tukudeka origin. In 1863, Tendoy became chief of the Lemhi Shoshone. He assumed the leadership role after his uncle was murdered by a white man near the newly formed mining settlement of Bannack.
Tensions between the Indians and miners were high. Tendoy discouraged his tribe members from exacting revenge. In fact, Tendoy is remembered today for maintaining good relationships with white settlers in the Lemhi Valley.
His tribe provided protection for the settlers during the Idaho Indian Wars which began in 1877. Tendoy traveled to Washington D.C. in 1880 where he was prevailed upon to sign a treaty agreeing to move his tribe from Lemhi to the Fort Hall reservation. Tendoy’s name lives on in an elementary school in Pocatello, Idaho and a range of mountains in the Beaverhead country of Montana.
Learn more about Chief Tendoy in the Blanche Schroer papers at UW’s American Heritage Center site.