Asian Americans in Idaho

It is generally held that Asian immigration into Idaho began with the Chinese, who followed the opening of the gold fields from California in the 1850s to Idaho in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1870, Idaho's population had the highest percentage of Chinese of all the western states. However, the record of immigration from the Pacific actually begins decades earlier when native Hawaiians came to Idaho as fur trappers, employees of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. Hawaiians were referred to, at that time, as Sandwich Islanders or Owyhees. In 1819, a small party of Hawaiian fur trappers left the main group of North West Company trappers to explore unknown lands south of the Snake River. They never returned, but their presence is recorded by the name -- Owyhee -- given to a river, mountain range, and county in southwestern Idaho. Asian immigration into Idaho continued from this initial foray in the 1810s, through the Chinese miners in the 1870s, and the first Japanese immigrants in the 1880s, to more recent immigration from the Phillipines, Korea, and Vietnam.

The buttons below will take you to further information and suggestions for projects on major Asian American groups in Idaho (these links are under construction).

Challenge Grant projects which deal with Idaho's Asian Americans may use the following outline to suggest possible topics or subtopics. We hope that Challenge Grant participants will expand upon this initial list.

I. Subsistence

• Traditional foods

II. Shelter/architecture

• Traditional designs or special-use buildings

III. Clothing

• Everyday clothing
• Special occasions

IV. Goods & Services

• Traditional occupations
• Current occupations

V. Ideology

• Celebrations
• Ceremonies
• Education
• Stories&Myths

VI. Language

VII. Arts & Music

• Traditional music
• Modern artists and musicians

VIII. Recreation

• Games from the Old World

IX. Social structure

• Family
• Community organizations

XI. Political structure

XII. History

• Immigration into Idaho
• Local history
  • Japanese Americans in southeast Idaho (ISU preliminary stack)
• Chinese mining communities
  • Chinese mining communities in Twin Falls area
  • Chinese mining communities in Salmon area (Leesburg, Salmon)
  • Chinese mining communities in McCall area (Warren)
  • Chinese mining communities in northern Idaho
• Japanese Americans and WWII
  • Hunt Internment Camp (ISU preliminary stack)
  • The effect of WWII on local Japanese Americans
• Important Individuals
  • Polly Bemis (project in progress by Cottonwood S.D.)

Resources:

  Idaho Ethnic Heritage Project. (1990) Idaho's Ethnic Heritage. L. Mercier and C. Simon-Smolinski, project co-directors. Funded by the Idaho Centennial Commission, Ethnic Heritage Committee. Boise, Idaho. This multi-volume report was published in limited quantities as part of Idaho's Centennial. Public and university libraries may have a copy. The volumes include unrefereed historical summaries of Idaho's different ethnic groups and a separate volume of "Resources." Among the many references are primary documents, such as newspaper articles, diaries, and letters; and secondary sources, only a few of which deal specifically with Idaho's Asian American community. Newspaper accounts dating as early as the 1860s are cited from the Idaho Territorial Statesman, Caldwell Times, Idaho World, North Idaho Radiator, Idaho Daily Statesman, and Boise City Republication. A selection of the published, secondary sources follows:

Chinese Americans:

Anonymous (1962). A folk history of Twin Falls County. Twin Falls: Standard Publishing Company. Includes an account of the Chinese community of Drytown on the Snake River.

Adams, Mildretta (1969). Historic Silver City. Self-published. According to the Ethnic Heritage Project bibliography, this work contains accounts of "Chinese, Cornish, Irish miners of Owyhee County, 19th century. Also describes Bill Hearst, black cowboy of Owyhee County."

Allen, Margaret. (1990). Lewiston country: An armchair history. Lewiston, ID: Nez Perce County Historical Socieity. See Chapter 14: The Chinese, 127-133.

Attebery, Louie W. (1988). "Rural legends from the Snake River Valley," "The Editor's Smokehouse," Northwest Folklore 6(2): 28-53.

Barrette, Keith. "The legends of Idaho's colorful Salmon River." Inland Empire Magazine, October 12, 1952.

Beal, Merrill D., and Merle W. Wells (1959). History of Idaho. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. Chapter 32: "The Chinese must go."

Bemis, Polly Nathoy. Reminiscences, records. 18 items. Includes reminiscences of George J. Bancroft regarding Bemis' history, certificates of residence and marriage for Bemis. MS #2/13. Idaho State Historical Society.

Bird, Annie Laurie. Boise, the peaceful valley. Caldwell: Caxton Printers.

Blanchard, Florence (n.d.). Hailey, Idaho, 1881-1981. Hailey: Parke Printing Co. Irish miners of Bullion and Dublin Gulch; black barbers of the 1880s and black miners of the 1940s; and Hailey's Chinatown and anti-Chinese League of 1886.

Blank, Robert H. (1989) Individualism in Idaho. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press.

Buell, Paul D., and Christopher Muench. (1983). "A Chinese apothecary in the frontier Idaho." Annals of the Chinese Historical Society of the Pacific Northwest, 1983. PP. 39-48. Describes the three-generational history of the Boise Ah Fong family drugstore and the forces that caused its decline beginning in the 1930s.

Castleford Community Men's Club. (1974). Early history of Castleford, Idaho. Brief information about a Chinese laundryman in Buhl and Joe Bengochea, Basque sheepman.

Clark, Lynda Campbell (1985). Nampa, Idaho, 18850-1985: A journal of discovery. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press Publishers.

Colin, Stuart. (1890). "Customs of the Chinese in America." Journal of American Folklore 3(10): 191-200.

Daniels, Roger (1988). Asian American: Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Day-Ames, Jacqueline (1979). "The Chinese in Idaho." Idaho Humanities Forum 2(1): 5a, 8a. Study of Chinese oral traditions based on information from oral history study conducted by author.

Derrig, Betty (1972). "Celestials in the diggings." Idaho Yesterdays 16(3): 2-23.

Derrig, Betty (1958-1959). "The Chinese of Silver City." Idaho Yesterdays 2(4): 2-5.

Donaldson, Thomas (1941). Idaho of Yesterday. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers.

Ehrnreich, Dixie L., Priscilla Wegars, Joanthan Horn, and Karen E. Smith (1984). "An annotated bibliography of overseas Chinese history and archaeology." Northwest Anthropological Research Notes 18(2): 125-211.

Elsensohn, Sister M. Alfreda. (1970). Idaho Chinese Lore. Cottonwood, ID: Idaho Corporation of Benedictine Sisters.

Elsensohn, Sister M. Alfreda. (1979). Idaho County's most romantic character: Polly Bemis. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers.

Elsensohn, Sister M. Alfreda (1947, 1951). Pioneer days in Idaho County, Volumes I and II. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers.

Erickson, Edith E. and Eddy Ng. (1989). From sojourner to citizen: Chinese of the Inland Empire. Self-published.

Idaho State Historical Society (1976). Idaho: An illustrated history. Boise: ISHS.

Idaho State Historical Society (1970). Chinese mining in Idaho. ISHS References Series, 364.

Jones, Timothy. (n.d.). Final report on the Boise Chinatown excavations. University of Idaho Anthropological Research Manuscript Series. Moscow: University of Idaho.

Jones, Timothy (1980). Archaeological test excavations in the Boise Redevelopment Project Area, Boise, Idaho. University of Idaho Anthropological Research Manuscript Series 59.

Kaplan, Edward H. (1986). The annals of the Chinese Historical Society of the Pacific Northwest. Bellingham, WA: Chinese Historical Society of the Pacific Northwest with the Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University.

Karau, Frederick J. (1983). "'Alle same a Melican man': The Chinese of Idaho City." Rednezvous 18(1-2): 47-60. Idaho State University Press.

(to be continued)

Museum Collections:

Chinese collection of the Idaho State Historical Museum. Books (over j200 including literature, religions, medicines, textbooks, how-to books), documents, financial records (over 100 records and documents of Chinese local organizations and their associations in US), letters, papers, and artifacts left by early Chinese immigrants in Boise. Includes rare Chinese apothecary colleciton. Catalogues in Chinese and English by Li-hua Yu. Idaho State Historical Society, Boise.