The name “Fort Hall” has experienced numerous vicissitudes, since it was first coined eighty years ago. The Hudson Bay company received it from Captain Wyeth. When the Hudson Bay company sold its American rights to the United States government in 1863, the latter used the name to designate the military post which stood about sixteen miles northeast of the present agency. Here the government maintained a garrison of three companies of soldiers until about 1884, when the troops were withdrawn and the fort buildings used for Indian school purposes. When the school was moved to its present quarters, which were first occupied in 1904, the name went with it. Some of the old fort buildings were moved to the new site, and the remainder given to the Indians. Traces of the fort may still be seen. The Oregon Short Line station at the reservation, originally called Ross Fork, has recently been changed to Fort Hall and the name is also used to designate the whole reservation. The name Ross Fork, according to Interpreter Joe Rainey, was derived from an old man named Ross, who operated a ferry across the Snake river forty years ago. One or two old posts still mark the ferry site. The Fort Hall Indian reservation for the Bannock Indians was established in July, 1868. In July of the previous year the government appointed a commission consisting of N. G. Taylor, Lieutenant General Sherman, U. S. A., William S. Harney, John B. Sanborn, S. F. Tappen, A. H. Terry, and Brevet Major General C. C. Augur, U. S. A., to negotiate treaties with all hostile and non-treaty Indians, and if possible to settle them on reservations. The treaty made with the Bannock Indians states that they were to have “reasonable portions of the Portneuf and Kansas prairies.” There is no doubt that not “Kansas” but “Camas” was meant, the latter being a favorite resort of the Indians, where they gathered the tuberous Camas root, which they prized highly as a food. The mistake in the name must have been made by an interpreter, clerk or typesetter, and Mr. John Hailey says that the government officials understood the mistake, but threw open the Camas prairie for settlement by the whites. The Indians who signed this treaty on behalf of the Bannocks were Taggee, Tay-Toba, We-Rat-Ze-Won-A-Gen, Coo-Sha-Gan, Pan-Sook-A-Motse, and A-Mite-Etse. To them, no doubt, “Kansas” and “Camas” meant the same, but the mistake caused much trouble in later years. The treaty was made July 3, 1868, ratified by the United States senate, February 16, 1869, and proclaimed by President Andrew Johnson, February 24, 1869.