Wind River Shoshone informants speak little of activities west of the
Continental Divide and tend to place their early economic life almost
entirely in the Missouri drainage. This is not surprising when it is
considered that eighty-six years had passed between the signing of the
Fort Bridger treaty of July 3, 1868, establishing the reservation, and
the field work reported here. Almost seventy years had elapsed between
that date and Shimkin's 1937-1938 field work. That informants have a
one-dimensional view of earlier periods in Shoshone history may well
be expected. The type of data that deals with locales and events, the
movements of peoples and situational adaptation is history of a
different kind from the traditional cultural material with which
anthropologists usually work. It would be an understatement to say
that it would tax the memory of any human being to ask exactly where
and when his people hunted many years before he was born. One of the
oldest living Shoshone, for example, responded to our question about
the location of the chief's lodge in the camp by saying that the
chiefs lived in log cabins near the Agency. And even this was quite a
mnemonic feat.
Most of the following data was obtained from informants and pertains
primarily to the early reservation period. Even for such a relatively
late time, the information is not wholly reliable and is often vague
and fragmentary. Certain aspects of these data are perpetuated in Wind
River tradition, however, and are valid for even earlier periods than
the one discussed. These concern the yearly economic cycle, the rhythm
of movement from buffalo prairies to the mountains, the coalescence
and fragmentation of social groups, the types of fish and game taken
and the technology involved--cultural facts not immediately linked to
situational, historical factors. These comments on reliability of
informants' data should be borne in mind throughout the account below.
The stable center of Eastern Shoshone settlement pattern was the
winter camp. All informants agreed that the chief winter camps were in
the valleys of the Big and Little Wind rivers, in the region of the
present Diversion Dam and Fort Washakie, respectively. There they
were protected from winter storms, and the winds blew enough snow from
the ground to allow the horses to graze. In the bottomlands by the
streams they found water and firewood and enjoyed the protection of
the cottonwood trees. In the period before the ending of intertribal
hostilities in Wyoming camps were closely clustered to allow for
mutual defense in the event of an attack, but after the pacification
of the area, people pitched their tipis farther apart. Although never
safe from attack, the Shoshone had greater security during the winter,
since the cold and snows made their enemies relatively immobile also.
Winter residence at Wind River was not obligatory. Smaller groups were
said to camp on the western slope of the Wind River Mountains, in the
vicinity of Pinedale, and others remained near Fort Bridger.
Contemporary informants gave no confirmation of Shimkin's statement
that a group of Shoshone, under Washakie, customarily wintered in the
Absaroka Mountain foothills on the head of the Grey Bull River
(Shimkin, 1947_a_, p. 247). Also, Shimkin's chart, which shows that
Shoshone occasionally spent the winter in the Powder and Sweetwater
River valleys (p. 279), probably indicates the true situation only for
the period after the area became secure from attack, in the 1870's.
All of these locales would be highly vulnerable to hostiles, as was
the Wind River Valley in the pre-reservation era, and it is highly
probable that Shimkin's informants spoke of post-reservation events
and not of a traditional pattern.
Subsistence during the winter was gained chiefly from the stored yield
of the fall buffalo hunt. The meat was dried and pounded and placed in
large rawhide bags. True pemmican was not manufactured, although the
pulverized buffalo meat was mixed with dried roots and berries
preparatory to being eaten.
Stores frequently ran low towards the end of winter, and some hardship
resulted. However, the stored food was supplemented by elk which had
been driven out of the mountains by snow, and by antelope and deer
meat. Rabbits were also snared.
Some informants stated that the Shoshone went into winter camp as
early as October. Others, however, reported that the winter camp was
made as late as December. It would seem that November to December are
the more probable times. Support for this date is found in Shimkin
(1947_a_, p. 279).
The winter camp broke up in February or March, and the spring buffalo
hunt was then launched. This was a collective venture, as opposed to
the sporadic and individual hunting that went on during the winter.
Informants were extremely vague in saying whether all the winter camp
went on the spring hunt together or whether they broke up into
parties. Shimkin states that the Shoshone split into four bands when
buffalo hunting (p. 247). Some of my own informants, however, said
that all hunted in one group under Washakie. Others said that there
were several chiefs, and each took his people where he chose.
The buffalo in springtime were not of good quality, and the lean,
tough meat was considered very inferior to the fat meat obtained in
the fall. Informants said that the chief purpose of the spring hunt
was to obtain hides for tipis (and all the other uses to which buffalo
hide was put) and to get fresh meat. The spring hunt was generally
pursued in the Big Horn Basin, although there were buffalo in the Wind
River Valley itself, which were also hunted. Although the former
locale is most frequently mentioned, it should be assumed that the
migratory habits of the buffalo imposed some variability.
After the spring hunt, the Shoshone reconvened in Wind River Valley
and in June held their Sun Dance. This was a period of general
gathering and involved visits of people from other areas.
After the Sun Dance was concluded, the participants withdrew from the
valley lands and retired to the Green River country and the mountains
until the autumn buffalo hunt. At this time, the larger buffalo-hunt
and Sun Dance group broke into small units and scattered in several
directions. Shimkin maps some of the trails followed by the summer
hunting parties (p. 249). Although there was considerable deviation
from the trails he indicates, they show a penetration of the
Yellowstone and Jackson Hole country, the Owl Creek Mountains, and the
Green River and Bear River regions.
Shimkin's chart of the yearly subsistence cycle shows June and July as
a period of intertribal rendezvous while August and early September
were spent in family groups (p. 279). My informants indicated that
small groups of families were the essential social and economic units
from June to September; the trade rendezvous held in the Green River
country ended by 1840. Some Shoshone said the summer group
consisted of only one tipi, while others claimed that this was a
post-reservation pattern. In earlier times, it was said, the need for
security from attack caused groups of from six to ten tipis (this
figure is highly uncertain) to travel together. These summer groups
were probably the most stable and cohesive units in Eastern Shoshone
society, although there was a good deal of interchange of members.
Although each summer group often followed the same general route every
year, other groups could and did hunt this territory. There was no
sense of group or band ownership of the lands habitually visited, and
a group could alter or change its route. In June many people went to
the Sweetwater region and across South Pass to hunt antelope. Antelope
were also hunted at various times of the year north of Wind River on
the benches at the foot of the Owl Creek Range and in the Green River
country. In the latter area, the Eastern Shoshone were frequently
joined in September by Shoshone and Bannock from Idaho.
There were several routes to the Jackson Hole and Yellowstone country.
The Yellowstone does not seem to have been visited as frequently
before the final pacification of the area, owing, no doubt, to the
proximity of Crow and Blackfoot. Some groups followed the most direct
route--through the Wind River Valley and across Togwatee Pass (the
present route of U. S. Highway 287). Others hunted first in the Owl
Creek Mountains and then crossed west into the Wind River Valley at
Dubois and thence through Togwatee Pass. Still another route led
through the "Rough Trail," now called Washakie Pass, in the Wind River
Range and gave access to the Pinedale area and the western slope of
the range. From that point, groups hunted in this immediate region or
went northwest to Jackson Hole or south to the Fort Bridger area. Any
one of these routes could be used for the return to Wind River and the
subsequent fall buffalo hunt, but there was a tendency to return by a
different trail than that used on the outward trip.
Summer subsistence activities were varied, but none called for
extensive cooperation beyond the immediate family or the small summer
group. Antelope hunting west of the Continental Divide called for
some joint endeavor, though not on the scale of the buffalo hunt.
Moose and elk were hunted by smaller parties in the high mountain
parks and forests of the Wind River, Grand Teton, and Owl Creek
Mountains. The last range was especially noted for a plentiful supply
of mountain sheep. Deer were killed and rabbits were taken throughout
the year. Sage hens were snared in the spring, and duck were killed on
Bull Lake in Wind River Valley in the fall. After 1840, there were
almost no buffalo left on the west side of the Wind River Range,
although before that time they were pursued there by the Shoshone.
However, the Wind River Valley abounded in buffalo until relatively
late, for the worst excesses of the white hide-hunters did not begin
until after the Civil War. Buffalo were also killed in the Owl Creek
and Wind River foothills and were taken also in Jackson Hole and
Yellowstone Park. Also, a smaller variety of buffalo, called timber
buffalo, which did not follow the migratory pattern of the larger
Plains type, was killed in the high mountain parks.
Fish were of fundamental importance, especially, according to Shimkin
(1947_a_, p. 268), during the spring. Mountain trout were the main
fish; the Eastern Shoshone did not join their colinguists in salmon
fishing on the Columbia waters, at least during this later period.
Shimkin specifically states that "no private ownership of good fishing
places existed, and dams and weirs were not maintained from year to
year" (ibid.). This accords with our own field data.
Summer economic activities involved little estensive cooperation and,
since game was scattered through the mountains rather than
concentrated in large herds, the small groups of families were the
most effective economic units. It is significant in this connection
that, as soon as the security of the country was guaranteed by the
presence of the whites, the one-or two-tipi summer camp displaced its
somewhat larger predecessor. Game in the pre-treaty period was
plentiful in the Wyoming mountains and a single family or small group
of tipis could gain adequate subsistence; the principal reason for
larger gatherings in the summer was defense. The yield probably became
better after camp groups became smaller, for locales were not hunted
out as rapidly.
The only economic activity other than the buffalo hunt which called
for the cooperation of a large group of men was antelope hunting.
Antelope were usually surrounded by the hunters and run in circles by
relays of mounted men. Unlike the Nevada population, the Eastern
Shoshone did not build brush corrals or employ antelope shamans.
Women's economic life could be pursued by individuals. In addition to
cooking, dressing skins, and other household chores, women's efforts
provided all the vegetable foods consumed by the Shoshone. This
activity went on from summer into fall. Various berries were
collected; gooseberries, currants, buffalo berries, and chokecherries
being the most important. All these berries grew near streams and
ripened about August. Gooseberries and chokecherries can be found in
the mountains and foothills while buffalo berries and currants grow in
the lower valleys. The berries were dried and stored for future use.
Roots, also, were a valuable adjunct to the diet. Yamp, the principal
root, was found in the mountains. Bitterroot was dug on prairie hills,
wild potatoes were found in the foothills, and the wild onion grew in
the valley floors. Although special trips were not made to root
grounds (in contrast to the congregations for camas in Idaho) the
women dug them out with pointed sticks near favorable hunting camps.
One informant spoke, for example, of the rich yamp grounds in the Big
Horn Mountains. All the women of the camp group went out together to
dig roots. This was for purposes of companionship; each woman dug and
kept her own tubers.
In September, the scattered camp groups reunited at Wind River for the
fall buffalo hunt. The buffalo was a critical factor in Wind River
subsistence, for it provided the margin of survival through the long
winter. The Eastern Shoshone were frequently joined in the buffalo
hunt by other Shoshone from the Bear River country and, less often, by
Shoshone and Bannock from Idaho. The last two groups usually hunted
buffalo in Montana with certain Plateau tribes, and their routes did
not usually coincide. Informants uniformly said that all the Eastern
Shoshone went out to hunt buffalo together, and Shimkin (1947_a_, p.
280) states that "in full strength, often with Bannocks or others
accompanying them, they would cross the Wind River Range" for the fall
hunt. It seems certain that, insofar as they may have penetrated far
north into the Big Horn Basin, numerical strength was necessary during
the immediate pre-reservation period and shortly thereafter.
As the buffalo camp moved out on the range, scouts were sent ahead to
locate the herds. The actual techniques used by hunters were much the
same as among the Plains tribes. Ideally, two horses were used, one
for riding within reach of the herd, the other a swift horse trained
to run close to the buffalo while avoiding the animal's horns. The
herd was surrounded and run, and the flanking hunters shot arrows and
launched spears at the prey. When a buffalo was killed, the hunter
threw an arrow or some personal, identifying possession on the carcass
to mark it as his.
This was apparently the main technique for buffalo hunting. They were
not stampeded over cliffs, as was the practice of some Indian tribes.
One informant said that Chief Washakie would not permit it for reasons
of conservation. Occasionally, hunters on foot stalked and killed
buffalo with the bow and arrow, but such activities did not take place
during the communal hunts.
When on the fall hunt, individual hunters did not attack the herds,
for the animals might stampede for long distances after only one or
two were killed. The fall hunt was organized cooperatively, but
informants denied the existence of the typical Plains police, or
soldier, societies or any comparable form of institutionalized
discipline to prevent individual hunting.
The time spent in the fall hunt, including travel, appears to have
been about two months--from mid-September to mid-November. Meat and
hides were prepared by the women and packed back to winter camp.
Shimkin doubts the efficiency of the buffalo hunt (1947_a_, p. 266).
If it is assumed that each family had from five to ten horses, three
of which were needed to drag the tipi and utensil-loaded travois and
three for riding, only two horses were, according to his reasoning,
available for packing. Since one would be loaded with hides for trade,
only one was available for carrying meat. The supply carried was
sufficient for no more than twenty days, Shimkin concludes.
The mounted buffalo hunters were not the only Shoshone inhabitants of
Wyoming, and one more group remains to be discussed. In the mountain
chain extending from the Wind River Range northwest to the Teton and
Gros Ventres ranges and northward into Yellowstone lived a Shoshone
population known as the Dukarika, or Sheepeaters. These Dukarika are
not to be confused with a Shoshone population of the same name in the
mountains of Idaho. The two were socially and geographically separate;
their common name is due only to the fact that there were mountain
sheep in the habitats of both. The name thus has no more significance
in terms of political organization than do the food names applied to
Shoshone living in certain areas of Nevada and Idaho.
There is little documentary information on the Dukarika, and
contemporary Wind River informants knew very little about them. Our
earliest reference to these secluded people is found in Bonneville's
journals, when, in September, 1833, three Indians were sighted in the
Wind River Range. Irving writes (1850, p. 139):
Captain Bonneville at once concluded that these belonged to a
kind of hermit race, scanty in number, that inhabit the highest
and most inaccessible fastnesses. They speak the Shoshone
language and probably are offsets from that tribe, though they
have peculiarities of their own, which distinguish them from
all other Indians. They are miserably poor, own no horses, and
are destitute of every convenience to be derived from an
intercourse with the whites. Their weapons are bows and
stone-pointed arrows, with which they hunt the deer, the elk,
and the mountain sheep. They are to be found scattered about
the countries of the Shoshone, Flathead, Crow, and Blackfeet
tribes; but their residences are always in lonely places, and
the clefts of rocks.
Osborne Russell, when trapping in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone Park in
July, 1835, observed (1955, p. 26):
Here we found a few Snake Indians comprising six men, seven
women, and eight or ten children who were the only inhabitants
of this lonely and secluded spot. They were all neatly clothed
in dressed deer and sheep skins of the best quality and seemed
to be perfectly contented and happy.
The Indians had "about thirty dogs on which they carried their skins,
clothing, provisions, etc., on their hunting excursions. They were
well armed with bows and arrows pointed with obsidian" (ibid.).
Russell also saw other "Mountain Snakes" near the headwaters of the
Shoshone River (ibid., p. 64). Speaking of the Dukarika, Hiram
Chittenden says (1933, p. 8):
It was a humble branch of the Shoshone family which alone is
known to have dwelt in the region of Yellowstone Park. They
were called Tuakuarika, or more commonly Sheepeaters. They were
found in the park country at the time of its discovery, and had
doubtless long been there. The Indians were veritable hermits
of the mountains, utterly unfit for warlike contention, and
seem to have sought immunity from their dangerous neighbors by
dwelling among the inaccessible fastnesses of the mountains.
Chittenden continues:
We-Saw [an Indian who accompanied Capt. Jones in 1873] states
that he had neither knowledge nor tradition of any permanent
occupants of the Park save the timid Sheepeaters.... He said
that his people [Shoshone], the Bannocks, and the Crows,
occasionally visited the Yellowstone Lake and River.
Captain W. A. Jones, when on his 1873 expedition to Yellowstone Park,
commented that one of the Indians with him, a Sheepeater, knew the
route back to Wind River (Jones, 1875, p. 39). Beyond these few
citations, the Sheepeaters are almost unmentioned.
In contrast to the previously described Shoshone, the Dukarika
traveled mostly on foot, although a very few had horses. They hunted
timber buffalo near the mountain lakes and killed elk, deer, and the
mountain sheep for which they were named. Antelope were occasionally
hunted near Pinedale by those who owned horses. The best hunting
grounds were considered to be those near Pinedale and on the west
slope of the Wind River Range. Although some Sheepeaters inhabited
Yellowstone Park, their main hunting grounds were farther south. The
Sheepeaters were by no means the only Indians who made use of the
Yellowstone region. Hultkrantz also mentions entry by parties of
"Kiowa, Plains Shoshoni, Lemhi Shoshoni, Bannock, Crow, Blackfoot and
Nez Perce" (Hultkrantz, 1954, p. 140).
All game was tracked and cornered by dogs and dispatched with the bow
and arrow; the buffalo lance was used only by mounted hunters of
Plains buffalo. Dogs were also used for packing--both on back and by
travois.
In addition to their hunting activities, the Sheepeaters speared trout
in the spring and summer. Nets, traps, and weirs were apparently not
used. They also made use of the wild vegetables (previously listed)
that grow in the mountains.
The Sheepeaters stayed in the mountains during the winter and did not
join the valley winter camps of the buffalo hunters. They lived on
stored meat and also continued to take elk, rabbits, and deer. Hunting
was usually done on snowshoes.
Their camp groups were small, and, although no exact figure could be
obtained, they never numbered more than the occupants of a few
buffalo-hide tipis. Each such group had its leader who decided the
hunting itinerary. The Dukarikas had no over-all political
organization; each small camp group was politically and economically
autonomous. "Dukarika," then, can be assumed to be a term defining a
type of economic adaptation rather than a social unit.
The discreet Dukarika social units did not assert hunting rights to
particular territories. Any group could hunt where it pleased, and
they in no way resisted or resented the entry of the mounted Shoshone
during the summer. Although they undoubtedly had contact with the
latter, they did not join the spring or fall buffalo hunts, nor did
they at any time during the pre-treaty period acknowledge the
political leadership of the valley people. After the reservation was
established, however, they left the mountains and settled in the Trout
Creek section of the Wind River Reservation.