The Shoshone of western Wyoming were a mobile population whose primary
subsistence was provided by buffalo herds. The Shoshone of Idaho
showed no such unity of ecological adaptation, for the region was
inhabited by mounted buffalo hunters and by less prosperous Shoshone
who fished and gathered wild vegetables for a livelihood. While the
buffalo hunters tended to be located in the southeastern part of Idaho
and the fishing and gathering peoples in the southwestern, the mounted
hunters traveled throughout the southern part of the state and, at
certain times of the year, mingled with the poorer, footgoing Indians.
Because of this diversity we have divided Idaho into six subregions
and present the historical and ethnographic data pertinent to each
area under a separate heading. Indians mentioned in the historical
sources are not always easily identifiable as Shoshone, Bannock, or
Northern Paiute, and a great deal of confusion between the last two is
inherent in their linguistic bond. We shall use the name Bannock in
its most common sense to designate the mounted, buffalo-hunting
Mono-Bannock speakers of Idaho; Northern Paiute refers specifically to
the Mono-Bannock population to the west of the Shoshone. In many
instances we cannot be certain that the Indians encountered by one or
another traveler were permanent residents of the area. Permanency, in
any event, is a rather doubtful attribute of this highly nomadic
people; the term cannot be used except as a designation for the people
who customarily spend the winter in a certain area, and even with this
limitation it must be used with caution.