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Prior to the arrival of European and Mexican explorers,
roughly 8,000 Native Americans representing two distinct
groups inhabited Idaho: the Great Basin Shoshone and Bannock
tribes of the Shoshone-Bannock and the Shoshone. Paiute and
the Plateau tribes of the Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perce and
Kootenai. Today, Idaho's Native American heritage, their
tribes and their chiefs are reflected in county names like Nez
Perce, Benewah Shoshone, Bannock and Kootenai counties and the
communities of Shoshone, Pocatello, Blackfoot, Nezperce, White
Bird, Kamiah, Lapwai, Weippe, Kooskia, Picabo and Tendoy.
Spanish explorers made trips to the Northwest beginning in
1592. Spaniards introduced pigs, horses, domestic fowl,
tomatoes, beans, corn and garlic to the Native Americans of
the Northwest. Lewis and Clark were the first Euro-Americans
to set foot on what is now known as Idaho. They encountered
Spanish-speaking Native Americans as well as those who spoke
their tribal language. They were followed by French-Canadian
fur trappers; resulting in names of communities like Coeur
d'Alene (French for "heart of an awl") and Boise (Le
Bois-French for "the trees").
Even the impact of Hawaiian Islanders employed as laborers in
the Northwest fur trade received recognition through the
naming of Owyhee County. Almost the entire staff of Fort Boise
from 1834-1844 were from the Hawaiian Islands.
Mountain men, including some Spaniards and Mexicans, lived off
the land as trappers and hunters. In the 1860's, there were a
number of Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) living in the Treasure
Valley. By 1863, Mexicans were mining at Spanishtown, a camp
near Rocky Bar. Jesus Urquirdes, one of several successful
Mexican business people, came to Boise in 1863, became a
prominent Pacific Northwest packer and built the Spanish
Village in 1870s to house his Mexican packers. The 1870 census
included 60 Mexican-born individuals.
York, William Clark's African-American servant, traveled
though what is now Idaho in 1805 with the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. Respected by the Indians, York today is credited
as being of great value to the success of the trip. Some of
the fur trappers, traders and miners who followed were
African-American, including one who helped build the first
mission in the Northwest. Until after the Civil War, only free
Black or escaped slaves came West unless brought by their
owners. The entry of the railroad though southern Idaho
starting in the 1880s resulted in a number of
African-Americans settling in Pocatello. Four companies of
troops from the 24th Regiment (an African American unit) were
sent to Idaho in 1899 to maintain order during the Coeur
d'Alene mining strikes. The 1900 Idaho census listed 940
African Americans.
At one time, during the Gold Rush of the early 1800s, Idaho's
population was one-quarter Chinese. By 1870, a majority of all
Idaho miners were Chinese.
In the mid-1800s, as with other western states, most early
Idaho settlers fled the East to escape what they saw as
officially sanctioned harassment of individuals for their
beliefs. This was true of the Mormons fleeing persecution and
Union and Rebel supporters desperately seeking to flee the
Civil War. During the 1890s, there were several thousand
Japanese laborers constructing the railroad through Idaho. In
1896, Idaho became the fourth state in the nation to give
women the right to vote. The territorial legislature had come
close to giving women the right to vote as early as 1869. The
territorial legislature in 1867 passed a statute making Idaho
a community property state. It was not until the turn of the
century that women in more than a handful of states had equal
right to the family assets. In 1972, Idaho became the first
state in the Nation to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
Between 1900 and 1920, a large number of Basque immigrants
came to Idaho from the Pyrenees to work as sheepherders.
Today, Boise, Idaho's capital, has the largest Basque
community in the United States. Idaho was the first state in
the nation to elect a Jewish governor. Moses Alexander was
elected in 1914 and re-elected in 1916.
In 1990, Larry Echohawk was the first Native American to be
elected attorney general.
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