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OCR Page 1 of 22FORT LEMHI INDIAN COMMUNITY
P.O. Box 642
Fort Hall, Idaho 83203
Telephone/Fax 208-238-7155
December 12, 2000
The White House
Attention: Lynn Cutler, Deputy Assistant to the President
Intergovernmental Affairs
106 Old Executive Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20500
RE: Lemhi Tribal Restoration
Dear President William Jefferson Clinton:
As the term of your presidency is now in its final days, as a Native son of this country I look at
the legacy of the Clinton administration will leave behind. I recall the Historic Meeting that you
held with the American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal leaders on April 29, 1994. Those words
you spoke of re-establishing a sense of community, a sense of oneness, a sense of cooperation, of
shared values and spirit touched the very heart of the Lemhi Shoshoni efforts. As you addressed
the many tribal leaders on the South Lawn of the White House, you welcomed the American
Indian and Alaska Native Tribal leaders home.
We, the Lemhi Shoshoni people are the living links to the American Indian heroine Sacajawea of
the Lewis and Clark expedition. As you so eloquently stated, we have under the most
immeasurable conditions retained our identity, dignity, and our faith in this country. As the
President of this country you pledged on this historic day, to reaffirm your commitment to self-
determination for tribal governments and fulfill the trust obligations of the federal government.
As America now prepares for the upcoming Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, we, the Lemhi
Shoshoni are still exiled from our ancestral homelands. As you have mentioned, this is our
common heritage. In 1875, President Ulysses Grant by Executive Order established a homeland
for the Lemhi Shoshoni people. Then shortly in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt stripped the
Lemhi Shoshoni of homelands and removed our people to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. It
will be 100 years since our forced removal by the United States government in the year of 2005.
We, the Lemhi Shoshoni have watched the continued exploitation of our ancestral homelands and
heritage helplessly. Each year, as I see my elders pass to the other side, always dreaming but
never witnessing the pleasure of returning home to re-establish our community. As I see many of
our children having children of their own, I wonder if they will ever return to live in the
homelands of their forefathers, to play in their grandmother's (Sacajawea) childhood homelands.
I ask humbly of you today, on behalf of my people, the Lemhi Shoshoni, to open your heart and
re-acknowledge the Lemhi Shoshoni as a federally recognized tribe by a Presidential Executive
Order. This without question would be the greatest gesture on behalf any President for this
country during this special time of year. Your friends the people of Sacajawea.
Roderick Ariwite
Lemhi Shoshoni Chairman (208) 785-5870
cc:
Indian Select Committee
Gover
NCAI
ATNI
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