On this episode from the Voices of the Wild Earth series, the Idaho Mythweaver revisits archival audio footage that deals with the history and stories of the Shoshone-Bannock, who now live on the Fort Hall Reservation outside of Pocatello, Idaho. They were once nomadic peoples who lived in a territory that originally encompassed portions of six states.
First produced in 1991, this episode tells of how a young woman of the Lemhi Shoshone mountain tribe, Sacajawea, safely led two explorers named Lewis and Clark through her native land. It also recounts how the tribe was stripped of their homeland and removed to the Fort Hall Reservation to learn farming and ranching in the desert. There, the people joined related bands of Shoshone and Bannock.
Among other stories, Bannock storyteller Ramona Walema shares the myth of Chipmunk and Mouse, and how persuading Chipmunk to dance led to the proliferation of a key foodstuff in their culture, the mustard seed.