Fort Hall Indian Reservation Soil Survey Unearths New Soil Series and Partnership

The recent discovery of some one-of-a-kind soils, with unique links between soil and water, prompted the naming of six new soil series at the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. The reservation is located on the Snake River Plains, about 20 miles northwest of the city of Pocatello, Idaho.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall are composed of the Northern Shoshone and the Bannock, or Northern Paiute, bands. When the Northern Paiutes left Oregon, Nevada, and Utah for southern Idaho, they traveled with the Shoshones in pursuit of buffalo and became known as the Bannocks. 

Initially completed in 1977, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) soil survey of the reservation needed an update to improve the survey data required for conservation planning efforts on the reservation and to ensure equity in the delivery and implementation of all programs and services. The soil survey update began in 2020 and involved soil scientists digging soil pits around the reservation, taking samples, and analyzing them from areas needed for grazing, hay production, and a fishery used by the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. The new data was entered into the NRCS Web Soil Survey website, which the public can access.

The data for approximately 24,325 acres is updated to accurately reflect water tables, varying textures, the presence of organic soils, and saline-alkali properties. Forage production is also updated to help manage grazing lands. NRCS Soil and Plant Science Division scientists developed relationships with tribal members, creating future opportunities for technical soil services. They successfully

 worked with the Historical Preservation Committee, Cultural Resource Committee, and Language specialists for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to name six new soil series.

Tribes or individual tribal members own 98 percent of reservation lands. The individual tribal members and Tribal Enterprises have been farming and ranching the lands for over 100 years, growing alfalfa, incorporating organic farming, and farming hemp. Historically, tribal members used the land for grazing thousands of cattle, as well as managing the 400-strong bison herd started in the 1960s.

During the soil survey update, soil scientists identified unique soil features in six locations that would support the existence of six new soil series, due to the soils in those areas having certain similar properties. Knowing this soil property information is important for the Tribes as they manage their land for its potential or limitations.

“Currently there are over 20,000 soil series in the United States. However, at Fort Hall, the six soils had properties that didn’t exist in current soil series,” said Bryce Griffiths, soil scientist. “Although discovering a new soil series is not necessarily unique, it’s just something we do every day as we map soils, what is unique is working with the Tribes’ Language and Cultural Preservation Department to have the Tribes name the new series.”

“We wanted to help, and we wanted to use our language because that's our role,” said Nolan Brown, original territories and historical research manager for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. “We want to use our language as much as possible and teach, and make sure that it's growing and thriving. We worked with our language instructors in our language program, and we sat and discussed this over a period of a few months.”

The six new soil series names and their meanings

I Sandy: Named after Isaac Sandy, the grandfather of the Tribes’ Lead Language Instructor, Zelphia

 Towersap, who is in her nineties. Isaac Sandy was the grandson of Captain Jim, a prominent leader of the Boise Valley people who were all removed to Fort Hall in the 1800s.

Teppi Paasiwa Tiipe: The name in the Bannock language is “rocky sand soil.” In soil taxonomy, soils are classified into 12 major groups called orders. Each order is defined by a single dominant characteristic, such as the climate, the type of parent material, or the prevalent vegetation. This soil is classified as being within the Mollic order; however, not a lot of sandy soils are described in the Mollic order, which are deep dark colors on the surface with some organic matter.

“Even though we've got a lot of sand, we've got a lot of organic matter in these sands. It's kind of rare to see a sandy soil with that much organic matter in it. That's why we got limited on assigning it to an existing soil series pretty quick, and we created a new series,” said Griffiths.

“When I was out here looking at this soil, I keyed in on the gopher activity because it will sometimes tell you what's underneath the surface. They'll bring up a lot of the carbonates or rocks that you don't see on the surface. I knew I had something different here. It still had that sandy surface texture that we had from the first site, but some things had changed. So, after digging a couple of holes into this area, we found the water was missing, and we now had rocks. Basically, we'd just replaced the water with the rocks here, and we ended up with this rocky sand soil.”

Pasa Tiipe: Identified at the base of Ferry Butte, Pasa Tiipe in Bannock language means “dry soil.” With a whiter surface from the carbonates creating that calcite material, there was also a contrasting particle-size class, indicating a different texture on top than what's on the bottom. Two different events created this soil.

Tosa Neekenna: In Shoshone, it means “white cover.” The white cover is a noticeable calcium carbonite layer visible within the flat terrace across the valley bottom.

“Where that intersects is where this new soil occurs,” said Griffiths. “It’s moderately deep to bedrock just up off the terrace, and that's why we're getting these calcium carbonates that are forming just above the bedrock because they can't precipitate any further into the profile. The bedrock that is found underneath the soil gives it a unique feature, which is helping to create that white covering that the Tribe used to identify the soil.

No-Sun: It was named after Wallace No-Sun Kaka, who is Brown’s great grandfather. As an infant, No-Sun was released from a Bannock War prisoner of war camp with his three grandmothers who brought No-Sun with them to Fort Hall. 

“If you were a small child, you'd almost feel like you’re standing in a sandbox right now,” Griffiths describes. “It's so sandy right here. But you wouldn't think that it is wet because sandy soils are very well-drained soils. So, when we dug a profile here and we ended up with water in the profile, it got us thinking maybe something else is going on here, and if you look around your surroundings, you see a willow stand. Also, now that the sand has had some time to dry out, you see some iron concentrations coming in to represent itself, which is an indicator of a wet soil. This is a very unique soil because it’s very rare that we get wet sand, and that's what we have here.”

Patapaikea’aka: The name is Shoshone for “fills up with water” or “the soil holds water.” Ferry Butte is a prominent feature at the head of the Fort Hall Snake River bottoms, or Paankewegate, meaning literally “sitting next to the water.” The area has always been significant to the Tribes as a winter campground that used to go on for miles.

This soil is very important to the Tribes in the Bottoms and for the fisheries and the buffalo. Along the floodplains, the material is fine and silty, but there is some really deep organic material, which led to a new soil series.

“The field offices will now have this information available to them for helping the Tribe design programs that will assist or help with some of the farming and agricultural practices in partnership with the Tribe,” said Griffiths. “This was a great opportunity for us to get to know Nolan and his department and what they do.”

“A phrase that our elders and others in our tribal leadership have stated is: we are the land and the land is us. And going back into the research on treaty negotiations, it was Biting Bear, a leader of the Bruneau Shoshone, who described who our people are. He said, ‘the bones of my ancestors are buried in the cliffs and the crevices here, and this is our home. And I want to be buried here, too.’ And when you look back at a lot of native peoples, they say you're not really home until the soil is made up of the dust of your ancestors,” said Brown. “So, that's how important our land is to us. . .we've been here for so long that we feel that we are the land, we are part of it. So, this opportunity to name the soils in honor of our people and using our languages is significant.”

For more information about NRCS Soil Science, visit nrcs.usda.gov and search “soil science” or visit the Web Soil Survey.