Chief Arimo of the Shoshone Nation and his son

Chief Arimo, born 1806, was a leader of all the Northern Shoshone, called the Snake Indians by other tribes and clans because they primarily lived on the Snake River.  Before the Utah War, the Shoshone tribe had 28 clans averaging 600 people in each clan – 16,800 strong.  Illness and warfare quickly depleted their ranks.   

He befriended the Mormons when they first arrived.  He was baptized.  Later he helped them build a chapel in what eventually became Logan, Utah.  The Mormons in Cache Valley named a building after him in his honor.  

Arimo had seven sons and one daughter.  His name was later anglicized to “Edmo” by the Indian Agent on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation.  17 photographs of him and his children, taken by Miss Benedicte Wrenstead towards the end of his life, still exist.  He died in 1896.  The Town of Arimo, thirty miles southeast of his preferred winter camp near what became Pocatello, Idaho was named after him.  His ancestors still live in the Idaho-Wyoming area to this day.  

The story of Arimo’s son being saved by a Mormon farmer is true.  It happened to my maternal great grandfather shortly after he settled in Call’s Fort.  It is part of the author’s family history.  My great grandfather and Arimo remained friends until my ancestor died.  

Chief Arimo, photographed shortly before his death in 1896.  He was 45 years younger when he adopted Connal Lee in 1857.  

Jack Edmo photographed about 15 years after Connal Lee met him.  After the Indian Wars, he was not permitted to use his given name of Arimo by law.  The Superintendent of Indian Affairs changed the name Arimo to Edmo.