The Indians in this Territory, with the exception of the Sioux and
Northern Arapahoes and Cheyennes, mentioned under the heads of Dakota
and Montana respectively, are the eastern band of Shoshones, numbering
about 1,000. The Shoshones are native to the country. Their reservation
in the Wind River Valley, containing 2,688,000 acres, was set apart for
them by treaty of 1868.
But little advancement in civilization has been made by these Indians,
owing to their indisposition to labor for a living, and to the incessant
incursions into their country of the Sioux and the Northern Arapahoes
and Cheyennes, with which tribes they have for many years been at war.
The losses sustained from these incursions, and the dread which they
inspire, tend to make the Shoshones unsettled, and unwilling to remain
continuously on the reservation. They therefore spend most of the year
in roaming and hunting when they should be at work tilling the soil and
improving their lands. There is one school at the agency, having an
attendance of ten scholars, in charge of an Episcopal missionary as
teacher.