Meriwether Lewis and three men of the "Voyage of Discovery" expedition parted ways with Captain Clark and others in the Beaverhead Country of Montana. They journeyed west following an old Indian Trail, crossed over the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass and into the now State of Idaho. The trail led down a clear, cold creek which flowed west (Agency Creek) into the Lemhi River. It was at the mouth they encountered a few Shoshoni Indians. They are Chief was Cameahwait. It was evident his people were starving. Lewis and his companions shot a few game animals for food as the Indians had no guns. The Chief agreed to return with Lewis to the rest of the expedition in Montana.
Finally the entire group of explorers were reunited. They held a pow-wow with the Indians. Sacajawea was the interpreter. She discovered that the Chief was her brother. The "Voyage of Discovery," with their Indian friends went back over the pass to the Lemhi River Valley. Sacajawea recognized this as her homeland before being kidnapped and sold to eastern tribes and finally Charbonneau. She talked her brother, the Chief, into selling 29 horses to the expedition. He gave her a horse of her own. This purchase made it possible for the "Voyage of Discovery" to continue on their westward trek over the mountains and down the Lolo Trail to a Nez Perce village on the Clearwater River.
The Lemhi River Valley was the site of the Fort Lemhi Mission established by Mormon missionaries in 1855. They taught the Indians how to plant hay and grain and instigated an irrigation system to water the crops. It was abandoned in 1858 when trouble interrupted between various tribes with the white man in the middle. The troublemakers left with the tribe’s cattle and horses.
Chief Tendoy united his small band of Shoshoni, Sheepeaters, and some Bannocks. He'd been their Chief since a young man in 1862 and kept his tribe from going to war with the whites. He prevented them from pillaging and trespassing on others’ property. In 1859, C. H. Miller, from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, presented him with a fine rifle as a token of "Government appreciation for his service and friendship to the Americans."
At Wood River, a renegade band of Bannocks, under Pagwhite, attacked three white men, killing one and wounding another. Their seven horses were stolen. Two days later the same band captured a mule train of 47 animals. Chief Tendoy and his band of Lemhi Indians were camped seven miles away trading with the Nez Perce when they heard of the attacks. Tendoy went in search of the wounded white man and his companion. Finding and caring for them the Lemhi Indians rode to the Bannock camp and demanded the return of the stolen animals. This caused an uproar but Chief Tendoy's Lemhis took the animals that had been stolen and returned them to their owners. The Chief was invited to Boise where the Governor of Idaho Territory presented him with a flag and some supplies "for his faithfulness to the cause of peace." The guilty Indians were brought to justice and jailed.
Indian Agent A. J. Simmons proposed that a reservation be established for the Lemhi Indians in their valley. It would be only one hundred square miles in size on the Lemhi River. The Indians expressed a desire to farm, so an appropriation of $5,000 was given to them for seeds and machinery. The tract of land was assigned to the Tendoy Indians by the Treaty of 1868 but was never ratified.
In 1872 an additional $25,000 gift was given to the Indians with a recommendation that they all move to Fort Hall. Chief Tendoy would be made Chief of all the Bannocks and Shoshoni in Eastern Idaho Territory.
A Presidential Order of February 12, 1875 finally established the Lemhi Valley Indian Reservation. It soon became a crossroads for the Nez Perce, Flathead, Shoshoni and Bannocks on their annual trek to the buffalo country. This drained a supplies of this small reservation and many Lemhi were going hungry. Because of the scarcity of rations, some Bannocks moved to Fort Hall. Food rations were scarce there as the agent had cut them in half. By April 20, 1876 all supplies had been exhausted. The tribes were hungry and were forced off the reservation to continue their nomadic wanderings in search of food. The government seemed indifferent to their need to survive. This led to the start of the so-called Bannock War of 1878.
Throughout the conflicts the Lemhi Indians remained peaceful and friendly to the whites. Chief Tendoy prevented tribal members from joining in on the warring expeditions of the Bannocks. Indian agents still did not provide enough provisions to support Tendoy's band of six or seven hundred so they moved to the Yellowstone region in search of food.
The U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs called the four Indian leaders in the southern Idaho area to a conference in Washington. Finally, all the chiefs agreed, in 1880, to move their tribes to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. The agreement stated that the Lemhi’s would receive $4,000 a year for 20 years in compensation for their loss. The Bannocks and Shoshonis would receive $6,000 a year for 20 years. Reservation land was allotted out - 160 acres of farming and 160 acres of grazing land to each person over 18. Children were allotted half of that.
White settlers had taken possession of reservation land south of the Portneuf River, and they wanted titles to their land. It was decided to sell off the southern end which reduced the reservation size by 450,000 acres.
Chief Tendoy, along with tribal members, visited Fort Hall in 1888 and agreed to move, providing Congress ratified the Treaty of 1888. Congress finally ratified this agreement in 1889. The Lemhi’s were still reluctant to move. In 1906, 468 members of the Lemhi Indians left their homes on the Lemhi and moved to Fort Hall. Their land allotment was 80 acres of farming land and 80 acres of grazing land.
The U.S. government granted Chief Tendoy a pension of $15 a month for the remaining 15 years of his life. He stayed behind in his house on the Lemhi River where he died on May 9, 1907.
A large monument marks his grave in the Lemhi River Valley.