Editing Boise, Idaho (section)

===Tribes and First Contact===
The area of Boise valley was inhabited by Boise Valley [[Northern Shoshone|Shoshone]] and [[Bannock people|Bannock]] tribes, a part of the "[[Snake Indians|Snake Country]]". According to the City of Boise's "History of Boise" report, "they gathered annually in the valley to participate in trading rendezvous with other tribes and catch salmon in the Boise River runs to help sustain them year-round. They spent winters in the valley where the climate was milder and visited the hot springs for bathing and healing. Castle Rock, called Eagle Rock by the tribes, was and remains a sacred site."<ref>{{cite web |last=Boise |first=City of |url=http://www.boiseuu.org/msearch/brochures/HistoryOfBoise.pdf |title=History of Boise; City of Boise, Boise Department of Arts & History, Idaho Statesman |publisher=City of Boise |date=2013 |access-date=February 6, 2021 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207031522/http://www.boiseuu.org/msearch/brochures/HistoryOfBoise.pdf |archive-date=February 7, 2021}}</ref>

Boise Valley [[Bannock people|Bannock]] tribes belonged to the "tuuˀagaidɨkaˀa" (black trout eaters).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=tuuˀagaidɨkaˀa|encyclopedia=Northern Paiute–Bannock Dictionary |date=2012 |last1=Liljeblad |first1=Sven |last2=Fowler |first2=Catherine S. |last3= Powell| first3= Glenda |publisher=University of Utah Press |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |isbn=9781607819684 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7Nfd8J7FmwC|page=596}}</ref> Boise Valley [[Northern Shoshone|Shoshone]] belonged to the "Yahandeka" (groundhog eaters) grouping. They were among the early mounted Shoshone bands. They traveled over a considerable range by the beginning of the nineteenth century, with their main hunting lands along the lower [[Boise River]] and [[Payette River]]. When Donald MacKenzie developed the Snake country fur trade after 1818, the most prominent of the Boise Shoshone, Peiem (a Shoshoni rendition of "Big Jim", their leader's English name), became the most influential leader of the large composite Shoshoni band that white trappers regularly encountered in the [[Snake Indians|Snake Country]].

In 1811, [[Wilson Price Hunt|Wilson Hunt]], employed as an agent in the fur trade under [[John Jacob Astor]], organized and led the greater part of a group of about 60 men<ref name="bancroft">{{cite book |last1=Bancroft |first1=Hubert Howe |title=History of the Northwest Coast, vol. 2. In Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. XXVIII |date=1884 |publisher=A.L. Bancroft and Company |location=San Francisco |pages=178–235}}</ref> on an overland expedition to establish a fur trading outpost at the mouth of the [[Columbia River]].<ref name=bancroft/><ref name=virginia>{{Cite web |url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Mtmen/explore.html |title=Mountain Men: Explorers and Guides |access-date=May 9, 2022 |archive-date=July 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720141022/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/mtmen/explore.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> This expedition passed through the Boise valley, and was the first ever time a white American has entered the region.<ref>“Wilson Price Hunt.” American Western Expansion. Accessed May 6, 2022. [http://thefurtrapper.com/home/wilson-hunt/ Link].</ref><ref>“Wilson Price Hunt Expedition Historical Marker.” Historical Marker, October 18, 2020. [https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=119203 Link].</ref> Because of the [[War of 1812]] and the lack of U.S. fur trading posts in the Pacific Northwest, most of the route was not used in the following two decades, and thus Snake Country remained free of settler incursions.

After the conclusion of the war of 1812, until the 1840s, [[Oregon Country|Oregon]], while officially "jointly administered", was solely dominated by the British [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC), which had a land connection to the inland of the Canadian Prairies via [[York Factory Express]]. Snake Country, including Boise Valley remained independent and relatively free of settler passage and incursion. There were two main reasons for this. Firstly, the general region east of the Cascades and west of the Rockies was described at the time in the media and literature of the eastern US as the "[[Great American Desert]]", an arid unproductive region, unsuitable for habitation.<ref name=Meinig>[[D.W. Meinig|Meinig, D.W.]] (1993). ''The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 2: Continental America, 1800-1867.'' New Haven: Yale University Press. p.76<. {{ISBN|0-300-05658-3}}</ref><ref>Staff (2011) [https://www.kshs.org/teachers/read_kansas/pdfs/m41card01.pdf "Major Long and the 'Great American Desert'"], Kansas Historical Society</ref> This discouraged settlers from traveling to the region of Boise; however, [[Oregon Country]], on the other side of the Cascades, was a desirable destination for them. Nevertheless, the British had an official policy of discouraging American settlers, and settler incursions into Boise Valley along the Oregon Trail remained low until the early 1840s.

The [[Hudson's Bay Company|HBC]] established a fort in the region, the [[Fort Boise#Old Fort Boise (1834-54)|Old Fort Boise]], {{convert|40|mi|0}} west, near [[Parma, Idaho|Parma]], down the [[Boise River]] near its [[confluence]] with the [[Snake River]] at the [[Oregon]] border. The HBC was present at the fort until 1844, and afterward handed it over to the [[United States Army]].