During the years 1954 to 1957, the authors engaged in ethnographic and
historic research on the Shoshone and Bannock Indians under the
sponsorship of the Lands Division of the Department of Justice in
connection with one of a number of suits brought by Indian tribes for
compensation for territory lost to the advancing frontier. The action
was brought jointly by the Shoshone Indians of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah,
and Nevada, and the Bannock of Idaho; it excluded the Shoshonean
speakers of California, and the Bannock remained separate from the
suit brought by their colinguists, the Northern Paiute of Oregon and
Idaho.
Most anthropologists are aware of the ethnographic issues involved in
the Indian lands claims cases, for the profession has had an active
role in them. Of central importance, of course, is the question of the
extent of territory used and occupied by the tribe in litigation.
Other basic problems include the determination of the nature and
composition of the groups involved, the rhythm of their seasonal
activity, their political identity, and the actual time at which they
occupied and used the terrain. Beyond these specifically
anthropological considerations, other professionals have had an
equally important role in delivering expert testimony in the cases,
and we wish only to note in passing that historians, land appraisers,
attorneys, and others have had much to do with their outcome.
The extent of the territory in question and the complexity of the
historical period in point, that preceding the treaties of 1863 and
1868, required considerable research. We spent the summer of 1954 on
the Shoshone reservations at Wind River, Wyoming, Fort Hall, Idaho,
and Duck Valley, Nevada. Some six weeks each were spent at Wind River
and Fort Hall and a week at Duck Valley. At each of these places we
spoke to the oldest informants available. Salvage ethnography of this
type is generally an unrewarding and unsatisfying task, and it was
complicated in this investigation by the fact that we were asking our
informants to recall historical material that is often ill preserved
in the oral tradition. Thus, an old Indian may well remember some
custom connected with war or ceremony that he had either experienced
or that had been told to him by an older person. But he would be less
likely to recall the exact places where game could be found, the
trails used, the organization and composition of the group that
pursued the game, and so forth. This is especially true of the
buffalo-hunting Shoshone, for any informant who actually took part in
a hunt as a mature individual would have been in his late seventies,
at least, at the time of our research. And informants did not, of
course, distinguish clearly between pre-and post-reservation times.
Only careful cross-checking would reveal whether the individual was
speaking of the 1860's or the 1890's. As might be expected, it was
virtually impossible to determine whether the data supposedly valid
for the 1860's was true of the preceding decade or the one before
that, and any student of Plains and Basin-Plateau history recognizes
that such historical continuity cannot be assumed.
Because of these limitations on the reliability of informants, most of
our work was by necessity based on ethnohistoric research. Every
attempt was made to examine the most important literature on the area
and period. The total number of sources scrutinized far exceeded the
bibliography at the end of this monograph, for many of them contained
data that were at best scanty and superficial and at worst totally
false. Despite our best efforts to approximate an adequate historical
criticism, some of the data presented were found in works that can be
used only with great caution. Alexander Ross, for example, has
reported much material of doubtful authenticity, and one may labor
long and hard in the accounts of Jim Beckwourth to separate fact from
a delightful tendency to make the story exciting and his own personage
more impressive. It is a wry commentary on the veracity of the
mountain men that John Coulter's account of Yellowstone Park was long
laughed at by his own peers as being simply an addition to a
snowballing folklore of the fur country. Among other dubious sources,
we can add W. T. Hamilton and the Irving account of Captain
Bonneville's adventures. The problem of criticism becomes particularly
difficult during the fur period from about 1810 to 1840 owing to the
paucity of sources available for cross-checking particular data.
Bonneville and Ross are especially rich in information, most of which
cannot be easily verified. The choice became one of dismissing them
altogether or using them. We elected to use them, but we have
attempted restraint in drawing any important conclusions from them.
The monograph follows substantially the report submitted to the Indian
Claims Commission. It has been edited, and we have also shifted
emphasis at certain points to our own special interests. These are
concerned with the relations between the social groups of the Basin
and those of the Plains and the impact of the ecology of either region
upon the social structures of the native population. A few
qualifications should be noted. The limitations imposed by our
assignment and by time did not allow the collection of as full a range
of material on social structure as would be wished. Also, we have
excluded any discussion of the Shoshone of Nevada, for our field work
there was far too brief. Our one week at Duck Valley only served to
reinforce our opinion of the truly masterful ethnography represented
by Steward's "Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups," and we
could add little to his work.
Finally, we wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to the Board of
Editors of the University of California Publications in
Anthropological Records for their valuable comments and to our many
friends on the reservations visited for their friendship and
cooperation. We have also profited greatly from discussions with Drs.
Sven Liljeblad, Ake Hultkranz, and Julian Steward. This work owes much
of whatever merit it may be found to have, and none of its
shortcomings, to all these people.
Robert F. Murphy
Yolanda Murphy