E-we-gar

E-We-gar was a Bannock Indian woman from the Fort Hall Reservation in Southeastern Idaho
(Curator Note: She is identified as E-we-jar or E-we-gar in Joinson, but the first Indian census that refers to her identifies her as We-gar)

The Bannock tribe were originally Northern Paiute but are more culturally affiliated with the Northern Shoshone. They were hunters and gathers who moved with the seasons to gather various foods and resources, “de-de-vee-wah” (travelers). Because of the importance of the abundant natural resources needed for hunting, fishing, and gathering, they called themselves by the names of the foods they ate: Agai-deka (salmon eaters), Tuku-deka (sheep eaters), Kuchun-deka (buffalo eaters), Kamu-deka (rabbit eaters), Hukan-deka (seed eaters), Deheya’a-deka (deer eaters), Yamba-deka (root eaters), just to name a few. Each band has similar lifestyles but has some distinct differences in language dialects, traditions, and beliefs.

The Bannock traveled much of Oregon and spread over Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming. The bands also made regular expeditions to buffalo country, often following the proverbial Bannock Trail through Yellowstone Park into Canada. Southeastern Idaho was a favorite wintering area for both bands.

Fort Hall
In 1832, Nathaniel Wyeth organized an expedition from Boston to Oregon in prospects of setting up a trading post, which was later established in Fort Hall in 1834. It was said that while Wyeth was traveling, he had shot a buffalo and where it fell marked the spot for Fort Hall, which was named after Henry Hall, one of the financial backers of the expedition (ISJ, Idaho’s First 100’s Years). The Fort became a key stop for fur trappers and travelers going westbound on the Oregon and California Trails. The Fort eventually closed in 1856.

"Outer View of Fort Hall" and "Inner View of Fort Hall", drawn by Major Osborne Cross. In W. J. Ghent, The Road to Oregon, A Chronicle of the Great Emigrant Trail. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929.

Despite the Fort’s closure, the trail continued to be heavily used by travelers and their livestock. This heavy traffic through southeastern Idaho decimated wild game populations and vegetation that contributed to skirmishes between local Indians and settlers. The conflicts culminated in the Bear River Massacre, in which the United States Army, under Colonel Patrick Edward Conner, brutally murdered more than 400 Northwestern Band of Shoshones under Chief Bear Hunter near present-day Preston, Idaho, in the winter of 1863.

The Other Fort Hall
Fort Hall began as a fur trading post in 1834. It was located on the Snake River in what is now Bannock County, about 11 miles west of the town of Fort Hall. It served trappers, then Oregon Trail emigrants, and finally stagecoaches and freighters until it was largely destroyed by a flood in 1863, the year Idaho became a territory.

In May 1870, the US began to build a military fort not far from Blackfoot where Lincoln Creek—a warm water stream—flows into the Blackfoot River, some 40 miles east of the original fur trading site. Its purpose was to “maintain proper control” of some 1200 Indians who then resided on the reservation.

If you picture a fort as, well, fortified, you don’t have Fort Hall in mind. Without walls, perimeter wooden buildings arranged around a parade ground defined the installation. Most of the major buildings were put up in 1871.

The fort included a hospital, a commissary building, officer’s quarters, a company barrack, married soldier’s quarters, a guard house, a kitchen, and a mess hall. Ancillary buildings included a blacksmith shop, a carpenter shop, two stables, two granaries, a wagon shed, a harness shop, a saddler’s shop, an icehouse, and a barber shop. Of particular interest to my family was the post bakery, where Emma Bennett (soon to be Emma Just) baked bread for the soldiers.

The military Fort Hall lasted until 1883 when the army abandoned it. The federal government transferred the land to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for use as a residential Indian school. Such schools, which attempted to immerse the indigenous children in white culture, were notoriously brutal. The school on the grounds of the old military fort was as bad as any. Students were torn from their families and forced to attend. Funding was low, so little actual teaching took place. Packed together in unsafe and unsanitary conditions the students were prone to disease. A scarlet fever epidemic in 1891 killed ten of them. There were at least two suicides at the school.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 brought an end to the boarding schools and their policies of forced assimilation. As a result of that act the Lincoln Creek Day School, just a couple of miles from the Fort Hall site, was opened in 1937. It and a couple of other day schools on the reservation were a huge improvement over the boarding school. Kids returned to their families every afternoon. The day school operated only until 1944 when reservation students began attending local public schools.

Both the military Fort Hall site and the Lincoln Creek Day School are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. No buildings from the fort remain on the site. In recent years much work has been done on the nearby school to turn it into a community center for that part of the reservation.

​Fort Hall began as a fur trading post in 1834. It was located on the Snake River in what is now Bannock County, about 11 miles west of the town of Fort Hall. It served trappers, then Oregon Trail emigrants, and finally stagecoaches and freighters until it was largely destroyed by a flood in 1863, the year Idaho became a territory.

In May 1870, the US began to build a military fort not far from Blackfoot where Lincoln Creek—a warm water stream—flows into the Blackfoot River, some 40 miles east of the original fur trading site. Its purpose was to “maintain proper control” of some 1200 Indians who then resided on the reservation.

The post, situated on 640 acres, was surrounded by grassy fields, providing ample grazing. There were few trees in the area and none really suited for construction, so the bulk of the timber was shipped in from Truckee River, California, with the remainder of the sawed lumber coming from Corrine, Utah.

The fort included a hospital, a commissary building, officer’s quarters, a company barrack, married soldier’s quarters, a guard house, a kitchen, and a mess hall. Ancillary buildings included a blacksmith shop, a carpenter shop, two stables, two granaries, a wagon shed, a harness shop, a saddler’s shop, an icehouse, and a barbershop. Of particular interest to my family was the post bakery, where Emma Bennett (soon to be Emma Just) baked bread for the soldiers.

The military Fort Hall lasted until 1883 when the army abandoned it. The federal government transferred the land to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for use as a residential Indian school. Such schools, which attempted to immerse the indigenous children in white culture, were notoriously brutal. The school on the grounds of the old military fort was as bad as any. Students were torn from their families and forced to attend. Funding was low, so little actual teaching took place. Packed together in unsafe and unsanitary conditions the students were prone to disease. A scarlet fever epidemic in 1891 killed ten of them. There were at least two suicides at the school.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 brought an end to the boarding schools and their policies of forced assimilation. As a result of that act the Lincoln Creek Day School, just a couple of miles from the Fort Hall site, was opened in 1937. It and a couple of other day schools on the reservation were a huge improvement over the boarding school. Kids returned to their families every afternoon. The day school operated only until 1944 when reservation students began attending local public schools.

Both the military Fort Hall site and the Lincoln Creek Day School are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. No buildings from the fort remain on the site. In recent years much work has been done on the nearby school to turn it into a community center for that part of the reservation.
Picture
Fort Hall on Lincoln Creek in 1896. By this time the military had left. It had become a boarding school for Native American children. Photo courtesy of the Bannock County Museum and the Idaho State Historical Society.
Source: Just, Rick. “The Other Fort Hall.” Rick Just, 27 Dec. 2019, www.rickjust.com/blog/the-other-fort-hall. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024.

Illustration by Frederic Remington of a Bannock hunting party fording the Snake River during the Bannock War of 1895

Biography:
Born c. 1865 to…

According to Carla Johnson in her book Vanished in Hiawatha, E-we-gar was admitted to the Canton Asylum on June 30, 1905, and diagnosed with kleptomania, revised in 1910 to arterior-sclerotic dementia. (Kleptomania is a mental health disorder that involves repeatedly being unable to resist urges to steal items that you generally don't really need. Often the items stolen have little value and you could afford to buy them. Kleptomania is rare but can be a serious condition. Arteriosclerotic dementia (also called vascular dementia) is when damaged blood vessels reduce the blood supply to the brain, limiting the amount of oxygen and nutrients needed for the brain to function properly. This destroys brain tissue and results in a loss of mental function.).

In a letter dated February 27, 1934, Dr. L.L. Culp to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, E-we-gar died in the Canton Asylum on October 4, 1910 and was buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery in tier 5 plot 14.

Her profile is part of the The Canton Asylum One Place Study.

Research Notes:
-So why the revision in diagnosis to what seems to be an unrelated mental disease?
-in the 1895 Indian census Frank is shown living with his oldest daughter, We-gar and the youngest daughter do not seem to be in the 1995 census.
-In the 1897 Jun 30 Indian census Frank is shown as age 28 and single
-In the 1898 census Frank is shown living with his sister Delia, see
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPRX-MZ6S
Where The Record Is Found (Citation)
"United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPRX-MZ6S : Thu Oct 05 16:52:36 UTC 2023), Entry for Frank Randell.
United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940 - Census 1898 Frank Randall
Film #007117588 Microcopy 595 Roll 138 Image 598 of 819
Johnny husb. 46, Mareet wife 50, Frank brother 28, Delia sister 22
-Cantom Asylum census records did not exist before 1910. The 1910 female census has been disfigured, but E-we-gar was an inmate and is probably line 38, age 44. She does show up in the August reissue of Mental Diseases. She is NOT in the 1911 census confirming her death after June 30, 1910, but before June 30, 1911.
__________
Sources:

1890 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPR6-NFDX : Fri Oct 06 23:06:45 UTC 2023), Entry for We Gar Rundell, 1890, pg. 233/819, line 127, census of the Bannock Indians, Fort Hall Indian Agency, Ross Fork, Idaho

see also
1890 Jun 30 . “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll138unit/page/n230/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024.

1894 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPRD-BYNQ : Tue Oct 03 22:04:06 UTC 2023), Entry for Wegan Randell, pg. 354/819, line 2, census of the Bannock Indians, Fort Hall Indian Agency, Ross Fork, Idaho

1910 Aug 12 - Camp Verde School: 1910-27; Canton Insane Asylum: 1910-22, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155854182?objectPage=674, line 39, Table 7 form of mental disease of those admitted since opening of Asylum

1910 Aug 12 - Camp Verde School: 1910-27; Canton Insane Asylum: 1910-22, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155854182?objectPage=679, line 14, Table 8 Form of mental disease of those in Asylum June 30, 1910, revised

1910 Oct 4 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14491692/e_we-jar: accessed February 29, 2024), memorial page for E We Jar (unknown–4 Oct 1910), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14491692, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400).

1910 Oct 4 - Hilton, M. (Ed.). (2023, July 10). Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians Historical Marker. Historical Marker. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=183486 Photo by Ruth VanSteenwyk, July 10, 2023, courtesy of HMdb.org

Agnes Sloan 2-14-10 · E-We-Jar 10-4-10 · Kaygwaydahsegaik 10-14-10