Native Americans and Fort Bridger

4 Locations | Curated by Rachel Hendrickson, Brigham Young University

Explore the history of Fort Bridger, one of the main stops on the Overland Trail. Beginning as a trade post for the fur trade, and later an important stop for migrants heading west, Fort Bridger has played an important role in the American West. The political and social interactions between the Native tribes, primarily the Eastern Shoshone tribe, and white settlers became key issues during the later half of the 19th-century, resulting the signing of treaties and creation of the Wind River Indian Reservation.

“‘Fort Bridger’, as it is called, is a small trading-post, established and now occupied by Messrs. Bridger and Vasquez. The buildings are two or three miserable log-cabins, rudely constructed, and bearing but a faint resemblance to habitable houses.” – Edwin Bryant, American frontiersman and guide along the Overland trail
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“Friendly and amicable relations are hereby re-established between the bands of the Shoshone nation, parties hereto, and the United States; and it is declared that a firm and perpetual peace shall be henceforth maintained between the Shoshone nation and the United States.” -Article I, Treaty of Fort Bridger 1863
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Before the creation of official reservations for Native American tribes, the federal government organized Indian agencies across the nation to supervise tribal activities. The Fort Bridger Indian Agency was organized in 1861 to supervise the Shoshone and Bannock tribes.
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