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Shoshone

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Shoshone around their tipi, probably taken around 1890
"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.

This article deals with the Shoshone Native American tribe. For other topics of the same name see Shoshone (disambiguation).

The Shoshone, Shoshoni, or Snake are a Native American group consisting of several bands. They are closely related to the Paiutes, Comanches, and Utes and share very similar Shoshone languages. The Shoshone lived in a wide area around the Great Basin and Great Plains areas in a number of bands headed by chiefs with shifting membership. The Shoshone adopted a horse culture but had trouble competing with tribes to their east who had better access to European trade and weapons. Famous tribe members include Washakie, Sacagawea who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition, and Pocatello whose name was used by the city of Pocatello, Idaho.

There are three large divisions of the Shoshone - the Northern, the Western and the Eastern. The Northern concentrated in eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and north-eastern Utah. The Eastern lived in Wyoming, northern Colorado and Montana. Conflict with the Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyennes, and Arapahos pushed them south and westward after about 1750. The Western ranged from central Idaho, northwestern Utah, central Nevada, and in California about Death Valley and Panamint Valley. This group is sometimes called the Panamint. The Idaho groups of Western Shoshone were called Tukuaduka, or Sheep Eaters while the Nevada/Utah ones were called the Gosiute and the Toi Ticutta (cattail eaters).

The Shoshone had many celebrations and ceremonies, but only one main religion. They believed that the animal spirits Coyote and Wolf were the first beings on Earth, and that Coyote was the creator god and Wolf was his trickster brother.

One of the creation stories said that Coyote took a long journey to where the Sun rose, and found a wife. He had many children, which were all of the Indian tribes. He placed all of his children in a closed basket, and set back to the Great Basin. On his way back, he opened the basket and all of his children fell out all over the Americas. When he got home, the only two tribes left were the Shoshone and the Paiute. At once they fought each other, but Coyote kicked them apart and told them that they were his only children left, and that they would beat all of the other tribes, because they were the best.

Relations with the United States

The tribe was party to the Fort Bridger Treaty Council of 1868.

The estimated population of Northern and Western Shoshoni was 4,500 in 1845. 3,650 Northern Shoshoni and 1,201 Western Shoshoni were counted in 1937 by the United States Office of Indian Affairs.

The Northern Shoshone fought conflicts with settlers in Idaho in the 1860s which included the Bear River Massacre and again in 1878 in the Bannock War. They fought with the U.S. Army in the 1876 Battle of the Rosebud against their traditional enemies, the Lakota and Cheyenne.

In 1982 the Western Shoshone, who also invited "unrepresented tribes", made a declaration of sovereignty and began issuing its own passports as the Western Shoshone National Council.

Reservations

Rabbit-Tail
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