Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society Part 3

438):

I then asked the Shoshones how they would like to have us settle upon their lands at Green River. They replied that the land at Green River did not belong to them; that they lived and inhabited in the vicinity of the Wind River chain of mountains and the Sweet River (or Sugar Water, as they called it), but that if we would make a settlement on Green River they would be glad to come to trade with us.

Difficulties soon developed between the Mormons and the Indians on Green River (Holeman, 1858, pp. 159-160). The report of Lieutenant Fleming of Fort Laramie in 1854 suggests that the Shoshone had not relinquished the Green River country to the Mormon colonists, despite Young's claim (H. B. Fleming, 1858, p. 167):

The mountain men have wives and children among the Snake Indians, and therefore claim the right to the Green River country, in virtue of the grant given them by the Indians, to whom the country belongs, as no treaty has yet been made to extinguish their t.i.tle.

The Morehead narrative in Connelley's edition of the Doniphan expedition notes that some two or three thousand Shoshone were camped on the Green River in the summer of 1857; Chief Washakie was present at this encampment (Connelley, 1907, p. 607). And Alter's biography of James Bridger states that in the winter of 1857-58 "Chief Washakie and two thousand Shoshone tribesmen at the crossing of the Green had no particular difficulty that winter" (Alter, 1925, p. 303). Forney, in June, 1858, wrote of his plans to establish the Shoshone "under Chief Wash-A-Kee" on the tributaries of the Green River (Forney, 1860_b_, p.

45) and reported that the group was located on that river in May, 1858 (Forney, 1859, p. 564).

Albert H. Campbell, General Superintendent of the Pacific Wagon Roads, wrote in 1859 that the Shoshone were restricted to the area west of the Rockies (1859, p. 8):

The Snakes have received very little attention hitherto from the authorities of the United States, and frequent wars with their powerful neighbors, the Blackfeet and Crows, have compelled them in a manner to withdraw from the buffalo range and keep within the mountain fastnesses, where they derive a scanty subsistence from roots and the smaller game.

The total context of historical material indicates, however, that the Shoshone were hunting buffalo on the eastern side of the Continental Divide during this period and, in so doing, were following a pattern of transmontane hunting familiar to us among the Plateau tribes.

Forney wrote in September, 1858 (1859, p. 564):

I have heretofore spoken of a large tribe of Indians known as the Snakes. They claim a large tract of country lying in the eastern part of this Territory, but are scarcely ever found upon their own land.

They generally inhabit the Wind River country, in Oregon and Nebraska Territories, and they sometimes range as far east as Fort Laramie, in the latter Territory. Their princ.i.p.al subsistence is the buffalo, and it is for the purpose of hunting them that they range so far east of their own country.

This tribe numbers about twelve hundred souls, all under one princ.i.p.al chief, Wash-a-kee. He has perfect command over them, and is one of the finest looking and most intellectual Indians I ever saw.

The duration of the previously mentioned peaceful interlude between the Crow and the Shoshone of Wyoming cannot be accurately determined.

However, Lander reported them at war in 1858 (1859, p. 49):

The Crow and Shoshonee Indians having broken out into open war in the north, did not permit of my risking or exposing the large stock of mules of the expedition at the camp selected as the wintering ground of last year's expedition, on Wind River.

Lander encountered Washakie and "the whole of the great tribe of the eastern Shoshonees" hunting antelope on the headwaters of the Green River (p. 68). The Shoshone spent the winter on Wind River but "the last account from them say they are in a starving condition; they are at war with the Crows, and are afraid to go out to hunt for game" (p.

69). The Shoshone had fought with the Crow on October 27, 1858, which had probably prevented them from attempting the fall buffalo hunt.

They apparently undertook a hunt during the following spring, for Will H. Wagner, an engineer on the South Pa.s.s wagon road, observed in May of 1859 that only a few Shoshone lodges were found on Green River, the main body still being in the Wind River Valley (Wagner, 1861, p. 25).

In February, 1860, Lander wrote a summary of Eastern Shoshone territorial use as of 1859 (1860, pp. 121-122):

The Eastern Snakes range from the waters of Wind river or lat.i.tude 43 30' on the north and from the South Pa.s.s to the headwaters of the North Platte on the east, and to Bear river near the mouth of Smith's Fork on the west. They extend south as far as Brown's Hole on Green River. Their princ.i.p.al subsistence is the roots and seeds of the wild vegetables of the region they inhabit, the mountain trout, with which all the streams of the country are abundantly supplied, and wild game.

The latter is now very scarce in the vicinity of the new and old emigrant roads.

The immense herds of antelope I remember having seen along the route of the new road in 1854 and 1857 seem to have disappeared. These Indians visit the border ground between their own country and the Crows and Blackfeet for the purpose of hunting Elk, Antelope and stray herds of buffalo. When these trips are made they travel only in large bands for fear of the Blackfeet and Crows. With the Bannacks and parties of Salt Lake Diggers they often make still longer marches into the northwestern buffalo ranges on the head waters of the Missouri and Yellow Stone.

These excursions usually last over winter, the more western Indians who join them pa.s.sing over a distance of twelve hundred miles on the out and return journey.

Under the leaders.h.i.+p of Washakie, which dates from approximately the beginning of the period of heavy emigration to the Far West, the Shoshone of Wyoming had maintained amicable relations with the whites.

The early 1860's, however, saw increased clashes between Indians and whites in the Bear River country and in southern Idaho. While the activities of Chief Pocatello's band and of other hostile groups will be further discussed in the section on Idaho, it would be well at this point to clarify relations between Washakie's followers and the people of Bear River. It is impossible to differentiate a Wyoming group as distinct from the Shoshone of Bear River in earlier periods, and, in view of the presence of buffalo in the country of the Green and Bear rivers until at least 1840, it is more than probable that southwestern Wyoming, northern Utah, and southeastern Idaho were common grounds roamed over by several nomadic hunting groups. Lander recognized the affinity between the areas, although he distinguished Washakie's Eastern Shoshone from the Utah residents on the basis of their respective relations with the whites (Lander, 1860, pp. 122-123):

The Salt Lake Diggers intermarry with the Eastern Snakes and are on good terms with them.

Among these Indians [the "Salt Lake Diggers"] are some of the worst in the mountains. Washakie will not permit a horse thief or vagabond to remain in his band, but many of the Mormon Indians go about the country with minor chiefs calling themselves Eastern Snakes.

Old Snag, a chief sometimes seen on Green River, who proclaims himself an Eastern Snake, and friend of the Americans, is of this cla.s.s....

Southern Indians pa.s.s, on their way "to buffalo," (a technical term,) through the lands of the Eastern Snakes and Bannocks, and the latter are often made to bear the blame of their horse-stealing proclivities.

Doty reported depredations on the road between Fort Laramie and Salt Lake City in 1862 (Doty, 1863, pp. 342, 355), and in the following year the Army attacked a large number of the hostiles on Bear River and inflicted very severe losses on them (War of the Rebellion, 1902, pp. 185-187). Doty reported from Box Elder, Utah, on July 30 of the same year (ibid., p. 219):

A treaty of peace was this day concluded at this place by Gen.

Connor [who led the Bear River attack] and myself with the bands of the Shoshones, of which Pocatello, San Pitch and Sagwich are the princ.i.p.al chiefs.

Earlier, on July 2, 1863, a treaty was entered into at Fort Bridger between Doty and the bands of "Waushakee," "Shauwuno," "Tibagan,"

"Peoastoagah," "Totimee," "As.h.i.+nG.o.dimah," "Sagowitz," "Oretzimawik,"

"Bazil," and "Sanpitz" (Doty, 1865, p. 319). Doty noted at this time that the Shoshone "claim their ... eastern boundary on the crest of the Rocky mountains; but it is certain that they, as well as the Bannacks, hunt buffalo below the Three Forks of the Missouri, and on the headwaters of the Yellowstone" (p. 318). Doty continued (pp.

318-319):

As none of the Indians of this country have permanent places of abode, in their hunting excursions they wander over an immense region, extending from the fisheries at and below Salmon Falls, on the Shoshone [Snake] river, near the Oregon line, to the sources of that stream and to the Buffalo country beyond....

The Shoshonees and Bannocks are the only nations which, to my knowledge hunt together over the same ground.

The Shoshone continued to hunt beyond the mountains after the Fort Bridger treaty. Superintendent Irish reported in September, 1864, that the "Shoshonees" were at Bear Lake awaiting their payment and were impatient to "go to their winter hunting grounds on Wind River"

(Irish, 1865, p. 314). Three hundred Cheyenne lodges were reported in Wind River Valley in May, 1865, but the group subsequently withdrew to the "Sweet.w.a.ter mountains and thence to Powder River" (Coutant, 1899, 1:440). In September, 1865, Irish reported that the Shoshone frequented the Wind River country and the headwaters of the North Platte and Missouri rivers (Irish, 1866, p. 311). The Superintendent described the pattern of movement that had become established (ibid.):

Their princ.i.p.al subsistence is the buffalo, which they hunt during the fall, winter, and spring, on which they subsist during that time, and return in the summer to Fort Bridger and Great Salt Lake City.

Agent Luther Mann of Fort Bridger added (1865, p. 327):

They spend about eight months of the year among the Wind River mountains and in the valley of the Wind River, Big Horn and Yellowstone....

The Shoshonees are friendly with the Bannacks, their neighbor on the north ... but are hostile toward the tribes on their eastern boundaries, viz: Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and Crows.

Mann observed that the Eastern Shoshone numbered some 150 lodges.

However, he also noted that Washakie claimed to be too weak to fight his enemies. In his next year's report, Mann wrote that on September 20, 1865, the Shoshone set out from Fort Bridger for the Wind River and Popo Agie valleys where they hunted buffalo, deer, elk, and mountain sheep and pa.s.sed the winter. Only five to ten lodges remained on Green River for the winter (ibid., p. 126).

The Shoshone had some difficulty with hostile tribes during their hunts in the Wind River Valley. The battle of Crowheart b.u.t.te (near Crowheart, Wyoming) has become a legend on the Wind River Reservation, and the facts of the event have become well embellished. More reliable informants claim that the Crow were encamped at the present site of Kinnear, Wyoming, on the north side of Big Wind River and were driven out after a strong attack by the Shoshone. The Crow detachment was evidently not merely a war party, for the men were accompanied by their women and children. Hebard, using doc.u.mentary material unavailable to the writers, places the date of this battle as March, 1866 (Hebard, 1930, p. 151). There is no further mention in the sources of Crow occupation of the Wind River Valley.

This was not the end of the Shoshones' troubles, however, for in the following year (1867), Indian Agent Mann noted (1868, p. 182):

Immediately after the distribution of their annuity goods last year, they left this agency for their hunting grounds in the Popeaugie [Popo Agie River, near Lander, Wyo.] and Wind River valleys, the only portion of the country claimed by them where they can obtain buffalo.

Early last spring the near approach of hostile Sioux and Cheyennes compelled them to leave before they could prepare their usual supply of dried meat for summer use.

Mann further reported that, after being paid the annuity on June 8, 1867, "they have since gone to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, as is usual with them, preparatory to their return to their hunting grounds in autumn" (p. 183). These accounts further doc.u.ment the manner in which the Utah and Wyoming populations merged.

The Sioux were apparently especially active east of the Wind River Range in these years and many other attacks were reported. The Shoshone went to Wind River in 1868 and were again attacked by the Sioux. Agent Mann reported that year that a few small bands of Shoshone had not hunted buffalo in two years for fear of attack (Mann, 1869, pp. 616-618).

The government had a good deal of difficulty in persuading the Shoshone to remain on the reservation established by the treaty of 1868. Captain J. H. Patterson, the new agent, wrote in 1869 (1870, p.

717): "So powerful are the Sioux, it is only after winter is far advanced, and from that time until early in the spring, that the Shoshones can remain on the reservation." They pa.s.sed the winter of 1868-69 at Wind River, but the Sioux attacked on April 26, 1869, before they broke winter camp (J. A. Campbell, 1870, p. 173). On September 14, 1869, Siouan warriors attempted another foray into Wind River Valley but were repulsed by troops. Fearful of another early attack and wary of their new reservation co-residents, the Northern Arapaho and Washakie left Wind River at the end of April of the following year (1870). The Shoshone departed with little stored meat, since they were unable to pursue the buffalo far out on the prairie (G. W. Fleming, 1871, p. 643).

In the following years, we hear little of the hunting activities of the Shoshone. They were moved permanently to the Wind River Reservation, where, according to Agent James Irwin in 1873, they showed a strong desire to abandon their nomadic ways and to learn agriculture (Irwin, 1874, p. 612). Irwin claimed that, although the Bannock population of the "Shoshone and Bannock Agency" at Wind River was transferred in 1872 to Fort Hall, 216 still unsettled Shoshone had expressed intent in the following year to move to Wind River. The Shoshone experienced little success in their early attempts at farming, and the government food allotments were seldom adequate to last through the year. This, combined with the traditional value placed on the buffalo hunt, perpetuated the nomadic pattern for a number of years. As late as 1877, Agent Patten wrote (1878, p. 605):

During the month of October last [1876], while the Shoshones were on one of their annual hunts, the village became divided; Washakie, with the greater portion, struck across the country from the base of the Sierra Shoshone Mountains to the mouth of Owl Creek on Big Wind River; the smallest party, under two braves named Na-akie and Ta-goon-dum, started for the river above the mouth of Grey Bull, where having arrived the prospect of a successful hunt was propitious. Large herds of buffalo were everywhere in sight; but the next morning after their arrival this little band, comprising men, women, and children, were suddenly attacked by Dull Knife's band of hostile Cheyenne warriors.

The Plains were evidently still unsafe, and hunting parties traveled in strength. But the end of the buffalo period was not far off, for hide-hunters and settlers had already made ma.s.sive inroads on the herds, and the open-range cattle-raising industry had begun. It is interesting to note, however, that the itinerary followed in 1876 was much the same as that related by s.h.i.+mkin's informants and by ours.