This 57-minute documentary focuses on the Virginia City Treaty of 1868. Signed by Chief Tendoy, the
leader of the Mixed-Band of Shoshone, Bannock, and Sheep Eater people in southwestern Montana Territory, the treaty was negotiated in “good faith.” Tendoy then ceded 32,000 square miles of aboriginal territory in 1870 for a permanent treaty reservation in central Idaho. The treaty, however, was never ratified. In 1875, the United States accepted that 32,000 square mile treaty reservation cession in exchange for a temporary reservation in the Salmon River country of Idaho. In 1905, the U.S. rescinded that reservation, prompting the Mixed-Band’s 200-mile removal south to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. The discovery of a National Archives document, highlighted in this film, reveals what many regard as a violation of the Takings
Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The Mixed-Band people are also known as “Sacajawea’s people.”
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