It is necessary to preface all discussions of Shoshone Indians with a
clarification of what is implied by the names attached to Shoshone
subgroups. The commonly used appellation "Wind River Shoshone" implies
no more than reservation membership. Thus, we also have "Owyhee
Shoshone" and "Fort Hall Shoshone" (and Bannock). Wind River residents
of admitted descent from other groups are also referred to as "Wind
River people," if they are on the agency rolls. They were, of course,
not known by this name or a native equivalent in the pre-reservation
period. The names, "Eastern Shoshones" and "Eastern Snakes," by which
the Shoshone of Wyoming are also known in anthropology, were first
consistently applied by government officials during the 1850's and
1860's (cf. Lander, 1860, p. 131; Head, 1868, p. 179; Mann, 1869, p.
616). Lander also referred to the Eastern Shoshone as the "Wash-i-kee
band of the Snake Indians" (Lander, 1859, p. 66). This term came into
common use after Chief Washakie rose to prominence in the eyes of the
whites.
Previous to this period the Eastern Shoshone were called Snakes and
Shoshones (or variations thereof), indiscriminately. As has been
mentioned, the only firm distinction was made according to whether or
not the Indians in question owned horses and hunted buffalo. Although
Lewis and Clark never visited the Wyoming lands, the tribal lists
which they compiled at Fort Mandan before pushing west mention a
group, said by Clark to be "Snake," called the "Cas-ta-ha-na" or "Gens
de Vache" (Lewis and Clark, 1904-06, 6:102). They were said to number
500 lodges having a population of about 5,000 people. The Shoshone
identity of this people is somewhat obscured by Clark's report of an
affinity between their language and that of the Minitaree, but, on the
other hand, they were said to "rove on a S. E. fork of the Yellow Rock
River called Big Horn, and the heads of the Loup" (ibid.). The
"Cas-ta-ha-na" are mentioned also during the return trip of the
expedition. Lewis and Clark noted of the Big Horn River: "It is
inhabited by a great number of roving Indians of the Crow Nation, the
paunch Nation (a band of Crows) and the Castahanas (a band of Snake
In.)." The editor of the journals, Reuben Thwaites, identifies the
latter as "Comanche." (Ibid., 5:297.)
The paucity of boundary nomenclature found in the historical sources
is continued in the ethnographic data, for the food-area terminology
used by the Nevada and Idaho Shoshone is even more diffusely applied
in Wyoming. One old Nevada Shoshone woman referred to the Eastern
Shoshone as Kwichundoeka, while a native of Wind River referred to his
people as Gwichundoeka, slight phonetic variants of the common term
meaning "Buffalo eaters." This name appears in Hoebel (1938, p. 413)
as Kutsindika. Hoebel also reports that the Idaho Shoshone referred to
the Wyoming people as Pohogani, "Sage Brush Home" and Kogohoii, "Gut
Eaters" (ibid.). (Hoebel's terms are here anglicized.)
Whatever names may be applied to identify the Shoshone of Wyoming,
none refer to any sort of political group maintaining a stable
territory. As Shimkin says (1947_a_, p. 246):
The identification of the Wind River Shoshone and their
territory is not a simple matter. It is complicated by several
facts. These people had no developed national or tribal sense;
affiliation was fluid. Nor did they distinguish themselves by a
special name. They merely knew that others called them ... Sage
Brushers, ... Sage Brush Homes, or ... Buffalo Eating People.
Furthermore, they felt no clear-cut distinctions of private or
tribal territories.
One may speak of an eastern population of Shoshone Indians, but it
would be inaccurate to speak of one Eastern Shoshone band, despite the
fact that leadership was better developed in Wyoming than in other
parts of Shoshone territory.
It is doubtful whether there was any accurate estimate of the Eastern
Shoshone population until the post-reservation period. Burton (1861,
p. 575) cited the no doubt exaggerated figure of 12,000 for the
population led by Washakie. Forney numbers the total Shoshone
population at 4,500 in 1859 (1860_a_, p. 733), while Doty raised this
to 8,650 in 1863 (1865, p. 320). The more reliable estimate of 1,600
Eastern Shoshone was given by Agent Mann in 1869 (1870, p. 715), after
the establishment of the Wind River reservation. This number was later
reduced to 1,250 in official reports (Patten, 1878, p. 646). Kroeber
has estimated the Wind River Shoshone population at 2,500 (1939, p.
137). These figures are not representative of earlier periods, for the
ravages of smallpox and other new diseases made heavy inroads on the
pre-treaty population, and it is probable that the population at the
time of the treaty did not greatly exceed 1,500.