Shoshone people

"Shoshone" redirects here. For other uses, see Shoshone (disambiguation).

Shoshone

Shoshone beaded moccasins, Wyoming, ca. 1900
Total population
12,300 (2000)
Regions with significant populations
United States ( Idaho, California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming)
Languages
Shoshone, English
Religion
Native American Church, Sun Dance, traditional tribal religion, Christianity, Ghost Dance
Related ethnic groups
Bannock, Goshute, Northern Paiute, Comanche

The Shoshone or Shoshoni (/ʃoʊˈʃoʊniː/ ( listen) or /ʃəˈʃoʊniː/ ( listen)) are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern.

They traditionally spoke the Shoshoni language, a part of the Numic languages branch of the large Uto-Aztecan language family. The Shoshone were sometimes called the Snake Indians by early ethnic European trappers, travelers, and settlers.^[1]

The Northern Shoshone are concentrated in eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and northeastern Utah.

The Eastern Shoshone tribes lived in Wyoming, northern Colorado and Montana. After 1750, warfare and pressure from the Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho pushed them south and westward. Some of them moved as far south as Texas, to become the Comanche.

The Western Shoshone tribes lived in Oregon and western Idaho, and ranged from central Idaho, northwestern Utah, central Nevada. Some are also located in California. The Idaho groups of Western Shoshone were called Tukuaduka (sheep eaters), while the Nevada/Utah bands were called the Gosiute or Toi Ticutta (cattail eaters). In California the Timbisha Shoshone (also known as the Death Valley or Panamint Shoshone) have lived for centuries in the Death Valley, Saline Valley, Panamint Valley and surrounding mountains. They have a federally recognized tribal reservation and government at Furnace Creek, California. Shoshone-Paiute have continued to live in the Owens Valley.

The most historically well-known member of the Shoshone tribe may be Sacagawea, of the Lemhi Shoshone band of Northern Shoshone. She accompanied the Corps of Discovery (Lewis and Clark Expedition) with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in their exploration of the Western United States.

History

"Shoshone Indians at Ft. Washakie, Wyoming Indian reservation. Chief Washakie (at left) extends his right arm." Some of the Shoshones are dancing as the soldiers look on, 1892.

The Shoshone arose out of various cultures of indigenous peoples who had been in the territory for thousands of years. The Shoshone language is one of the Uto-Aztecan languages spoken by numerous peoples ranging from the Great Basin to coastal Southern California in present-day United States, and down through central, western and southern Mexico; into Central America and South America.

As more European-American settlers migrated west, tensions rose with the indigenous people. There were wars throughout the second half of the 19th century. The Northern Shoshone, led by Chief Pocatello, fought during the 1860s with settlers in Idaho (where a city was named for him). As more settlers encroached on Shoshone hunting territory, the natives raided farms and ranches for food, and attacked migrants. The warfare resulted in the Bear River Massacre (1863), when US forces trapped and murdered an estimated 350–500 Northwestern Shoshone, including women and children, who were at their winter encampment. This was the highest number of deaths which the Shoshone suffered by the forces of the United States.

Allied with the Bannock, to whom they were related, the Shoshone fought against the United States in the Snake War from 1864–1868. They fought US forces together in 1878 in the Bannock War. In 1876, by contrast, the Shoshone fought alongside the U.S. Army in the Battle of the Rosebud, as it was against their traditional enemies, the Lakota and Cheyenne.

Rabbit-Tail

In 1879 a band of approximately 300 Western Shoshones (known as "Sheepeaters") was involved in the Sheepeater Indian War. It was the last Indian war fought in the Pacific Northwest region of the present-day United States.

In 1911 a small group of Bannock under a leader named "Shoshone Mike" killed four ranchers in Washoe County, Nevada.^[2] The settlers formed a posse and went out after the Indians. They caught up with the band on February 26, 1911 and killed eight. They lost one man of the posse, Ed Hogle.^[3] The posse captured three children and a woman. The partial remains of three adult males, two adult females, two adolescent males, and three children, believed to be Shoshone Mike and his family, according to contemporary accounts, were donated by a rancher to the Smithsonian Institution for study. In 1994, the institution repatriated the remains to the Fort Hall Idaho Shoshone-Bannock Tribe.^[4]

In 2008, the Northwestern Shoshone acquired the site of the Bear River Massacre and some surrounding land. They wanted to protect the holy land and build a memorial to the massacre, the largest their nation had suffered. "In partnership with the American West Heritage Center and state leaders in Idaho and Utah, the tribe has developed public/private partnerships to advance tribal cultural preservation and economic development goals." They have become a leader in developing tribal renewable energy.^[5]

Historic population

In 1845 the estimated population of Northern and Western Shoshone was 4,500, much reduced after they had suffered infectious disease epidemics and warfare. The completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 was followed by Euro-American immigrants arriving in unprecedented numbers in the territory.

In 1937 the Bureau of Indian Affairs counted 3,650 Northern Shoshone and 1,201 Western Shoshone. As of the 2000 census, there are 12,000 Shoshone.

Reservations and Indian colonies

Bishop Paiute-Shoshone

Shoshoni tipi, probably taken around 1890

• Battle Mountain Reservation, Lander County, Nevada
• Big Pine Reservation, central Owens Valley, Inyo County, California; Owens Valley Paiute Shoshone
• Bishop Community of the Bishop Colony, northern Owens Valley, Inyo County, California; *Death Valley Indian Community, Furnace Creek, Death Valley National Park, California; Timbisha Shoshone
• Duck Valley Indian Reservation, southern Idaho/northern Nevada, (Western) Shoshone-Paiute Tribes
• Duckwater Indian Reservation, located in Duckwater, Nevada, approximately 75 miles (121 km) from Ely.
• Elko Indian Colony, Elko County, Nevada
• Ely Shoshone Indian Reservation in Ely, Nevada, 111 acres (0.45 km²), 500 members
• Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Reservation near Fallon, Nevada, 8,200 acres (33 km²), 991 members, Western Shoshone and Paiute
• Fort Hall Indian Reservation, 544,000 acres (2,201 km²) in Idaho, Lemhi Shoshone with the Bannock Indians, a Paiute band with which they have merged
• Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, Nevada and Oregon, Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe
• Goshute Indian Reservation, 111,000 acres (449 km²) in Nevada and Utah, Western Shoshone
• Lemhi Indian Reservation (1875–1907) in Idaho, Lemhi Shoshone, removed to Fort Hall Reservation
• Lone Pine Community of the Lone Pine Reservation, lower Owens Valley, Inyo County, California; Owens Valley Paiute Shoshone
• Nevada Shoshone Indian Reservation, near Carson City, Nevada, 211 members
• Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Nevada, 1988 acres (8 km²), total 481 members of Shoshone, Paiute, and Washoe bands
• Skull Valley Indian Reservation, 18,000 acres (73 km²) in Utah, Western Shoshone
• South Fork Odgers Ranch Indian Colony, Elko County, Nevada
• Wells Indian Colony, Elko County, Nevada
• Wind River Reservation, population 2,650 Eastern Shoshone, 2,268,008 acres (9,178 km²) of reservation in Wyoming are shared with the Northern Arapaho

See also

• Chief Washakie
• Battle of Kelley Creek
• Old Toby
• Bear Hunter
• Mary Dann and Carrie Dann
• Shoshone language
• United States v. Shoshone Tribe of Indians
• Western Shoshone traditional narratives

References

1. ^ Part 1, "The Shoshoni and the Seeds of Change, 1803-1868"
2. ^ America's Last Indian Battle
3. ^ Ed Hogle memorial
4. ^ NMNH - Repatriation Office - Reports - Great Basin - Nevada
5. ^ "Tribe remembers nation's largest massacre", Indian Country Times, 10 Mar 2008, accessed 6 Mar 2010

The Shoshone people mostly ate nuts, berries, buffalo meat, rabbit, and antelope.

External links

• Northern Shoshoni treaties
• Ely Shoshone Reservation
• Goshute Indian Reservation
• Great Basin Indian Archives
• Reno-Sparks Indian Colony
• Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada
• Timbisha Tribe of the Western Shoshone Nation
• U.S. Treaty with the Western Shoshone 1863, Ruby Valley
• Western Shoshone Defense Project
• The Sheepeaters