Me neuk 'Alice' Short

Alice was a Bannock woman

The Bannock tribe were originally Northern Paiute

Source: Bannock Indians, wood engraving after a photograph by William Henry Jackson, in Harper's Weekly, July 1878.
Library of Congress, Washington D.C. (Digital File Number: cph 3c06050)

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall are comprised of the eastern and western bands of the Northern Shoshone and the Bannock, or Northern Paiute, bands. Ancestral lands of both tribes occupied vast regions of land encompassing present-day Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and into Canada. The tribes are culturally related, and though both descend from the Numic family of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic phylum, their languages are dialectically separate. When the Northern Paiutes left the Nevada and Utah regions for southern Idaho in the 1600s, they began to travel with the Shoshones in pursuit of buffalo. They became known as the Bannocks.
Source: “About | Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.” Www.sbtribes.com, www.sbtribes.com/about/.

The northern division of the Bannock tribe was encountered by Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens in 1853, who found them living on the Salmon River in east Idaho. In all probability, these Salmon River Bannock had recently crossed the mountains from the east, escaping pressure from the Siksika Indians, since they claimed as their territory, southwest Montana, including the rich areas where Virginia City, Bozeman, and other towns would later be established. Stevens stated that they had been more than decimated by the ravages of smallpox and battles with the Siksika.

The Fort Hall Reservation was set apart for them in 1869 and 600 Bannock, in addition to a large number of Shoshone, consented to remain on it. However, most of them soon wandered away. By 1878, with the loss of their traditional hunting lands, the dramatic reduction in the number of buffalo, and the failure of the government to provide assistance, the Bannock, led by Chief Buffalo Horn and joined by the Northern Paiute Indians, began to raid white settlements in search of food. This soon led to what is known as the Bannock War when the U.S. Cavalry, under General Oliver Otis Howard, was sent in to crush the Bannock. The cavalry won two battles against the Indians in southern Idaho before killing some 140 Bannock men, women and children at Charles’ Ford, Wyoming. Afterward, the remaining Indians gave up and returned to the reservation.
Source: Weiser, Kathy. “The Bannock Tribe – Roaming the Great Basin – Legends of America.” Www.legendsofamerica.com, Feb. 2020, www.legendsofamerica.com/na-bannock/.

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.

Source: Just, Rick. “The Other Fort Hall.” Rick Just, 27 Dec. 2019, www.rickjust.com/blog/the-other-fort-hall.

Source: "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.

"Further Reading"
1. Smith, Justin. “Clearing up Confusion about Fort Hall History.” Idaho State Journal, 14 May 2021, www.idahostatejournal.com/freeaccess/clearing-up-confusion-about-fort-hall-history/article_7f0f387b-5187-56f7-8b64-6190e90bd3a2.html. Accessed 6 Apr. 2024.
2. Alexander, Kathy. “Fort Hall, Idaho – Trading on the Snake River – Legends of America.” Www.legendsofamerica.com, Feb. 2022, www.legendsofamerica.com/id-forthall/.

Biography:
Alice Short(e), a full-blood Bannck Indian, was born c. 1872-1875 probably on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, Idaho, to parents John and Susie Short, both Bannock Indians. She had five younger siblings; Grace, Julia, Jeff, Tommy, and an unnamed baby brother.

In 1897, a Shoshoni man named Pon-gap was living on the Fort Hall Reservation, with a Shoshoni woman named Peah wi pah. By 1901, Pon-gap had a relationship with Alice, the two were living together on the Fort Hall Reservation., and the two had a male child named Eugene Short. I find no indication of a formal marriage. In 1905, the year Alice was committed to the Canton Asylum 30 days before the annual June census, neither appeared in the Bannock section of the Fort Hall Indian census. In 1905 the Canton Asylum did not maintain a census, so Alice appears nowhere.

According to Carla Joinson in her book Vanished in Hiawatha, Alice was admitted to the Canton Asylum on June 1, 1905, and diagnosed with Dementia, syphilitic, later revised to general paralysis of the insane (Dementia caused by neurosyphilis is a manifestation of late syphilis that is characterized by behavioral disturbances and cognitive deterioration. It is also known as general paresis, paretic neurosyphilis, or dementia paralytica. Early symptoms of neurosyphilis include Ocular syphilis, Otosyphilis, and Symptomatic meningitis. Late symptoms of neurosyphilis include confusion, delusions, memory and judgment impairment, labile mood, and seizures.)

Reports from Canton and its superintendent Oscar Gifford, who was NOT a doctor, suggest that Alice "died of exhaustion from general paresis of the insane, however, she had arrived raving uncontrollably and stinking from unheralded ulcers, that within a year had healed, that she had gained 19 pounds and had become rational enough to work in the ward... Many of his patients, suffering epileptic seizures were helped by the bromides he administered, and those suffering from poor diets were given more nutritious food than they had received on the reservation. Some patients undoubtedly had been neglected, shunned, or abused by family and found a safe haven at Canton Asylum."

According to the letter dated February 17, 1934, from Dr. L.L. Cupl to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Alice died at the Canton Asylum on April 7, 1909 (State of South Dakota death records indicated April 17, 1909), and was buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery tier 5 plot 11.

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

Research Notes:
-Alice first shown in the Indian census at Fort Hall in 1898
-Alice and Pongap appeared in 1901, and have disappeared from the 1905 Indian census
__________
Sources:

1898 Aug 25 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll138unit/page/n619/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg, 620/816, line 1173, census of the Bannock and Shoshone Indians, Fort Hall Agency, Idaho

1899 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll138unit/page/n672/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg, 673/816, line 1097 (age 26), census of the Bannock and Shoshone Indians, Fort Hall Agency, Idaho

1900 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll138unit/page/n715/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 716/816, line xx (age 27), census of the Bannock and Shoshoni, fort Hall Agency, Idaho

1900 - "United States Census, 1900", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSR6-SKW : Tue Mar 05 22:01:40 UTC 2024), Entry for John Shorte and Sunie Shorte, 1900, pg. 46/57, line 17, census of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, Bingham, Bannock County, Idaho

1901 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll138unit/page/n778/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 779/816, line 641 (age 28), census of the Shoshoni and Bannock Indians, Fort Hall Agency, Idaho

1903 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll139unit/page/n89/mode/1.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 90/589, line 608 (age 30), census of the Bannock and Shoshone Indians, Fort Hall Agency, Idaho

1904 Jun 30 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll139unit/page/n150/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 151/589, line 628 (age 31), census of the Bannock and Shoshone Indians, Fort Hall Indian Agency, Idaho

1909 Apr 17 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14491676/alice-short: accessed April 6, 2024), memorial page for Alice Short (unknown–17 Apr 1909), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14491676, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400).

1909 Apr 17 - 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

Asal-Tchee 2-11-09 · Alice Short 4-17-09 · Enas-Pah 9-30-09

1909 Apr 17 - "South Dakota, Grave Registration Records, 1940-1941", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CY84-N8MM : Sat Mar 09 13:53:01 UTC 2024), Entry for Alice Short, no image

1910 Oct 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 48, Table 7 Form of mental disease of those admitted since opening of Asylum