On 30 July 1863, at Box Elder, in Utah Territory, Brigadier-General P. Edward Connor and Commissioner James Duane Doty signed with the chiefs of the northwestern bands of the Shoshonee Nation the Articles of agreement.

For the Shoshone, Pokatello, Toomontso, Sanpitz, Tosowitz, Yahnoway, Weerahsoop, Pahragoosahd, Tahkwetoonah and Omashee, John Pokatello’s brother, each signed with his mark. Witnesses included Colonel Robert Pollock, Captain M. G. Lewis and Lieutenant S. E. Jocelyn of the 3rd Infantry, California Volunteers, together with the interpreters.

Article I re-establishes friendly relations and declares a firm and perpetual peace between the bands parties hereto and the United States.

Article II: the treaty concluded at Fort Bridger on 2 July 1863, being read, fully interpreted and explained to the chiefs, is adopted as a part of this agreement and binds the parties.

Article III: the United States agree to increase the annuity to the Shoshonee Nation by five thousand dollars, to be paid in the manner provided in the Fort Bridger treaty. The northwestern bands acknowledge receipt, at the signing, of provisions and goods to the amount of two thousand dollars, to relieve their immediate necessities, the bands having been reduced by the war to a state of utter destitution.

Article IV: the country claimed by Pokatello for himself and his people is bounded on the west by Raft River and on the east by the Porteneuf Mountains.

The Senate ratified on 7 March 1864, with an Article V: nothing herein shall be taken to admit any greater title to the lands embraced within the territories described than existed upon the acquisition of those territories from Mexico. Six of the nine original signers, including Pokatello, assented to the amendment at Box Elder on 18 November 1864. Lincoln proclaimed the treaty on 17 January 1865.

This is distinct from the Fort Bridger treaty of 2 July, from the Bear River massacre of 29 January 1863, which precedes this act, and from the Ruby Valley treaty of October with the Western Shoshone. It is not the Fort Hall reservation of 1868.

Image: signatures on the Box Elder Treaty, 30 July 1863; public domain, National Archives, via University of Utah / Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Box Elder Treaty. Treaty text: Treaty with the Northwestern Bands of Shoshonee Indians, Box Elder, 30 July 1863.