Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 3-14(1991).

Seed-Eaters and Chert-Carriers: The Economic Basis for Continuity in Historic Western Shoshone Identities

RICHARD O. CLEMMER, Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of Denver, University Park, Denver, CO 80208.

B•Y "historic Western Shoshone identities," I in an area around Jarbidge and Goose Creek refer to those I found in a short but intensive where there had lived, according to legend, a and productive six-week field season in summer race of giants that ate people and whose ghosts' of 1989. I call these identities historic, rather might still be encountered by the lone traveler; than contemporary, because they do not seem to Watatikka, 'seed-eaters'; Tokoitikka, 'snake- be products of contemporary political condi­ eaters.'' tions. Rather, they seem to either have arisen Steward (1938) made it quite clear that or persisted during the historic period, ca. 1880 throughout the Great Basin, groups of people to the present. Some might call this the "res­ living in specific areas were called by specific ervation period," but since less than 40% ofthe names, or identities, associated with the areas in Western Shoshone population was living on which they lived. These idenfities reflected reservations until well into the 1970s, that food sources, items of technology, or char­ designation is somewhat inappropriate. acteristics of specific areas. For example. These identities were aboriginal, but that is Steward (1938:71) noted that Railroad Valley not the point I wish to stress. Steward (1938: Shoshone called Southern Paiute ''Tavinai,'' 248) flatly denied these identities had any (Tapenii, 'sun-plural' or eastern-dwellers). significance. My purpose, then, is to ascertain Some of these names were applied to more than why they persisted during a period in which one group—for example, Tipattikka, 'pine-nut they would be expected to disappear, or why eaters.' This name was applied to Shoshones in they became more important when, if Steward the Reese River-Austin area, but it also was was right, they had not been so aboriginally. applied by Owens Valley Shoshone to the First of all, what were they? They are too Tubatulabal, and by people living north of the numerous to list here, but among them are Austin area to the Grouse Creek Shoshone in Goshute, or Kusiutta, named for the frequent northern Utah. Some, or perhaps most, of the dry dust storms in their territory and for their groups also applied the names to themselves, proximity to the Utes; Tosawihi, 'white knife although it is not clear from Steward's ethno­ carriers,' (White Knife Shoshone), named for graphy whether the custom was universal their use of white flint-like rock from the aboriginally (cf. Thomas et al. 1986:279-283). Tosawihi quarry area and for their frequent Although Steward was able to elicit much habitation of that area; TiPattikka, 'eaters of information on these identities and their pine-nuts,' so called for their heavy dependence parameters in the 1930s, there are any number on that food item as an important resource; of reasons for predicting their disappearance by Akaitikka, 'eaters of northern salmon'; that time. First of all, these identities, Niwitikka, 'people-eaters,' so named, not according to Steward, did not denote bands and because they ate people, but because they lived had no formal institutions associated with them. 4 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

Their bases were entirely geographic. In a nomic institutions that would subsume any pre­ sense, you were what you ate and where you existing identification with off-reservation areas. lived. Steward's insistence on the nonexistence Within a generation or two at the most, of bands and fixed territories among the Tosawihi, who constituted the bulk of Sho­ Western Shoshone has led to some lively shones at Duck Valley, would surely have debates (see Steward 1970; D. Fowler 1966; become "Sho-Pais"; Watatikka (Wata = Arte­ and C. Fowler 1982 for summaries). Never­ misia biennis seeds and other unidentified food theless, little additional information on the seeds [Steward 1938:21, 309]) in Ruby Valley nature of these food-named and area-named and along the South Fork of the Humboldt groups has been forthcoming, aside from C. would come to identify as "Temoke Sho­ Fowler's (1982) work with the Northern Paiute, shones," and so forth. An analogy with to be discussed below. Thus, Steward's asser­ another Basin group, the Southern Ute, tion that the identities were meaningless in terms strengthens this prediction: the Southern Utes of population units or political relationships did have bands with strong band leadership remains problematical but certainly is not to be (Clemmer 1989). The chiefs of the three south­ dismissed. There is every reason to believe that ern bands, the Weeminuche, Capote, and Tabe- with a shared culture and language, and a kin­ guache, along with their families, all settled at ship system that allowed for maximum flexibil­ Ignacio. But by the 1960s, band identification ity, these identities would be unstable, had become virtually nonexistent as a meaning­ amorphous, and ephemeral from the very start. ful factor in influencing the leadership or power Second, a hundred years of social, structure of the tribe (Johnson 1963:120). In economic, and political change would have the early 1980s, I encountered only one man, a made food- and area-named identities super­ little over a hundred years old, who identified fluous. Steward (1955:57-58) gave this assess­ himself with one of the bands (Capote). We ment of Western Shoshone culture change. would expect, then, that the dichotomy between reservation-based Western Shoshones and non- The Western Shoshoni were spared the more crucial difficulties experienced by Indians who reservation-based people would break apart any had a fairly tightly-woven fabric of community preexisting identities, and the conditioning of cuhure. When miners and ranchers entered lifestyles by either reservation situations or off- their country a century ago, individual families reservation, wage-labor situations would com­ readily attached themselves to white commun­ ities. When their native hunting and gathering plete the process. resources were depleted, they worked for wages sufficient to maintain their very low standard of THE CONSULTANTS living. . . . Most Western Shoshoni . . . were only loosely tied to any definable locality or Imagine my surprise, then, when I found cohesive social group, for there were no these identities alive and well in 1989, community bonds beyond kinship and friend­ especially at Duck Valley, where the Tosawihi ship. Persons commonly wandered from place identity was known and proclaimed. I inter­ to place. . . . Western Shoshoni acculturation has come about . . . through face-to-face viewed 52 individuals: 22 females and 30 association with whites. . . . The individual males. The 40-50 age cohort yielded the largest families were quite free to adjust to changed number of interviewees (10) but the 50-60, circumstances. 60-70, and 70-80 age cohorts had nearly equal Third, it seems likely that persons who had representation. The largest number of inter­ reservation experiences would quickly become viewees was at Owyhee (17), with Battle integrated into reservation political and eco­ Mountain (10) and Lee (8) running close HISTORIC SHOSHONE IDENTITIES seconds. The greater frequency of interviewees Tosawihi individuals did see "Paiute" as over 40 years of age reflects the fact that submerging and denying every variety of Sho­ generally they knew more than those under 40 shone identity. In other words, you cannot be and referred me to others who tended to be in Paiute and also be Shoshone! No one claimed the same age cohort or older.' "Sho-Pai" or "Duck Valley Indian" as an For various reasons that I will detail here, identity. Two interviewees flatly denied the the research design focused on Tosawihi existence of the "Sho-Pai Tribe" as anything identity. Twelve interviewees identified them­ but a legal fiction. selves as Tosawihi. They, in turn, identified Other identities perceived by Tosawihi and another 10 interviewees as Tosawihi who did not consultants and applied to specific Shoshone identify themselves as such. In all, however, individuals were "Bruneau Shoshone"; more than half (55%) of those interviewees "Akaitikka" or "Fish Eaters"; "Tokoitikka" or identifiable as Tosawihi were self-identified as "Snake Eaters"; "Niwitikka," "Weiser Valley such. (Many more individuals whom I was not Paiute," "Northern Paiute," "McDermitt able to interview were identifiable as Tosawihi Paiute," "Paddy Cap Paiute," "Other Paiute," on the basis of known kin ties.) "Goshute," "Those Shoshones in Utah" (near The most frequent additional identities for Portage; most likely Akaitikka, Grouse Creek, self-identified Tosawihi were "Western Sho­ and Promontory Point Shoshones, cf. Madsen shone" and "Shoshone." Those Tosawihi not 1980:94-98; Clemmer and Stewart 1986:531), identifying themselves as Tosawihi most fre­ "Chinese," "Basco" (Basque), and quently identified themselves as "Indian" and "Bannock." One consultant said the Bannock second most frequently as "Western Sho­ also were called "Andavich," or "enemy." shone" or, simply, as "Shoshone." I found individuals self-identifying them­ Besides "Tosawihi," self-attributed eth­ selves in all categories except "Bruneau nicities were "Temoak Shoshone," "Amer­ Shoshone," "Northern Paiute," "McDermitt ican," and "Paiute," as well as what might be Paiute," or "Other Paiute," and I did not called other "old identities" such as interview any individuals identified by others as ''Watatikka," or "Tipattikka." One man "Chinese" or "Bannock." The four individ­ identified himself as "a person from Long- uals identified by others as various kinds of Mountain-Lying-Down," a former village near Paiute also identified themselves as Paiute, but Austin (Steward 1938:102), that Steward wrote without an area-specificity, aside from one as "Gu.vadakiiahunupi." Of a possible 10 that individual who identified himself as "Weiser might have had some claim to the label, only Valley" Paiute. One ofthe individuals ident­ three identified themselves as Watatikka. ified by some one else as "Tosawihi" actually However, six people identified themselves identified herself as "full-pledge Paiute" primarily as "Pine-nut-eaters" ("Tipattikka") because she had enrolled herself that way on or "Austin" or "Tutuwa" Shoshone. Tribal rolls and had accepted the monetary Neither the "old" identities nor "Te- distribution from the Northern Paiute land Moak," "Shoshone," "Western Shoshone," claim. One individual identified a young nor "Indian" was seen as superseding, grandchild whose father is Basque as a "Basco" overriding, submerging, or excluding any other (with no negative approbation), but the child identity. However, with one exception, all self- was too young to be interviewed about what he identified Western Shoshone, Shoshone, and thought his identity was. JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

ANALYSIS the 1930s and which I found in 1989. A few pages later in their report, Powell What accounts for the persistence of these and Ingalls (1874) refer to the Western Sho­ identities? First, it is possible that these are shone as being divided into 31 "tribes." That simply nostalgic memories, persisting in the number almost, but not quite, corresponds to same fashion as ethnic identities linger among the separately listed localities (33) and to the other Americans who say, "I'm Swedish" when number of leaders (28). Service (1962:94-99) what they really mean is that their great-great- took Powell and Ingall's data at face value, and grandmother came from Sweden. Arguments leaped to the conclusion that Western Shoshones that these may be parallel situations are not had had bands. If there were any correspon­ cogent. For one thing, Americans' ethnicities dence between Powell and Ingall's six "tribes," are strongly reinforced by the fact that they or between their 31 or 33 "tribes," or the correspond to modern nation-states. For an­ populations represented by the 28 different other, few Americans who are, say, "Swed­ leaders, and the identities found by Steward, ish," can name the village or specific region of and by me, I might say that the persistence of Sweden from which their ancestors came. West­ these identities was a residue of former band ern Shoshones can, and do. identities. But there is no correspondence. A second possibility is that political leaders Therefore, I reject this possibility, arose who tried, successfully or unsuccessfully, A more reasonable one is based on the work to organize Shoshones on the basis of these old of Omer Stewart, with modifications. Stewart identities. There is no evidence to support this (1939, 1942:235-236, 1966) stopped short of possibility. In fact, just the opposite seems to insisting that Numic groups were all organized have happened. At Duck Valley, a number of into full-scale bands with distinct chiefs, etc. Shoshone leaders emerged who all seemed to (cf. Eggan 1980; Stewart 1980). But he did have been White Knife, but Jack Harris (1940: ascribe a localized territoriality to Northern 100) reported from his field work in 1937 that Paiutes, Utes, Southern Paiutes, and Western reservation factions and their leadership had "no Shoshones. Paradoxically, he relied on Julian roots in the aboriginal life." Steward's work to support his conclusion. I say A third possibility is one that stretches all "paradoxically" because to the end Steward the way back to Powell and Ingalls and resur­ (1970) denied that there was any sense of rects the Steward-Stewart-Service debate over territorial boundedness among Shoshones, the aboriginality of the family-level of socio- except in a few instances, as among Shoshones cultural integration as opposed to the band level. near Austin and Shoshone in the Fish Lake Powell and Ingalls (1874), relying on key Valley whose culture "differed only in minor informant interviewing in 1873 and using the details" from that of the nearby Owens Valley Paiute, whose pine-nut and seed-gathering plots Battle Mountain Hotel as their headquarters, were owned by families (Steward 1938:61-62, discovered—or thought they discovered—six 73, 105-106). True territorial boundedness distinct "tribes" of Western Shoshones in would have been a characteristic of a band-level Nevada, under 28 different leaders, living in 33 organization that Steward vehemently denied to different localities (Fowler and Fowler Shoshones, except briefly when the White Knife 1971:105-114). Presumably, each of these Shoshone, Goshutes, and a few others organized "localities" was a distinct community. None of "predatory bands" in response to non-Indian the named "tribes" corresponds to any of the intrusion (Steward 1938:248-249). locality-based identities that Steward found in HISTORIC SHOSHONE IDENTITIES

But on the basis of Willard Park's hereto­ The second source from the 1930's is the ethnobotanical study by Dr. Percy Train of the fore unpublished field notes, C. Fowler (1982) University of Nevada, Department of Botany. concluded that, among the Northern Paiute, . . . This research required the finding of old camp groups consisting of up to 10 co-resident Indians ... to guide the botanists to the growing families occupied discrete "home-districts" and medicinal plants. . . . Only a person familiar were given, or perhaps asserted, food-named with a particular area could be helpful. designations. These groups played key roles in Perhaps, then, identities persisted because defining rights to resources. Although individ­ people continued living in exactly the same uals moved freely between "home districts," places that they had lived 50, 100, or even 200 they were expected to "check-in" with local years previously. But even if this were true 50 residents before gathering food. Access to food years ago, it is not nearly as true today. Even was never denied, but birthplace and kinship in the 1930s, most of the Tosawihi were living would always tie an individual to his or her at Duck Valley. So, although continued resi­ "home district." Thus, the "home district" dence in a natal habitat may be part of the provided a lasting regional identity to individ­ answer, we must look for something beyond uals raised there, and an individual would residence, or something that might supplement always be associated with his or her "home residence, that explains persistence of locality- district." One of Fowler's consultants, who based identities clear into nearly the 21st had served as an interpreter for both Julian century. Steward and Willard Park in the 1930s, put it One possibility is that the annual Gwini this way: "It all depends on where you were (Harris 1940:53-54) festivals, held in con­ raised. Later some people might have you as junction with pine-nut and other harvests, part of their group, and some will always think brought people back to their natal localities and of you as an outsider" (C. Fowler 1982:125). thus reinforced locality-based identities. While Why, then, could Western Shoshones not have this process undoubtedly did take place, there is had a similar relationship to territories? more evidence to indicate that, in post-contact This kind of relationship could easily times, these festivals became mechanisms for account for what Omer Stewart (1978:81-83) integrating people from disparate localities, interpreted as "ancient intelligence and rather than reinforcing provincialism. A July adaptability." 4th pow-wow pretty much replaced the Gwini at The ancient Toughness [sic], intelligence, and Duck Valley, and as early as 1915, Sun Dances adaptability demonstrated by the Western were being held in various communities. They Shoshone of Nevada by their living from time continued to be held intermittently through the immemorial in an environment which in many 1920s, 30s, and 40s in Elko, Deeth, Wells, Ely, areas was harsh and afforded little of practical value for a hunting and gathering people has and Battle Mountain and attracted Shoshones persisted to the present and was documented by from many different communities, including Dr. Julian H. Stewart [sic] . . . and Dr. Percy those as far away as Fort Hall. In other places, Train, et al., in the 1930's, ... Dr. Steward the Gwini festival evolved into a "fandango" visited eighteen of these communities and recorded ethnographic information about each that included a rodeo as well as the traditional locality from elderly Western Shoshone who had round dances and "talking" (Clemmer 1990a). spent their lives in those areas. ... He made Regarding the festival held around Austin, the point that the various localities scattered Steward (1938:106) said: over the entire extent of Western Shoshone country had been continuously occupied by the The aboriginal area participating in festivals same people since time immemorial. . . . is open to question. In post-Caucasian times JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

Austin became the site of large festivals which not only link alternating generations (i.e., drew people from not only throughout Reese River Valley north to Battle Mountain, and from grandparent-grandchild) but also virtually lump, lone. Smith Creek, and Edwards Creek valleys, in terms of categories, self-reciprocating, but even Paiute from Walker River and Walker alternating generational kin together. Self- Lake, 100 miles away. reciprocating terms for "cousin" (dui, detch, etc.) reinforce the collateral coordinates of the On the basis of what we now know about generational system. the increasing discussions of Treaty rights, I think this system might have worked to cultural heritage, and pan-Shoshone political maintain identities over generations in the strategies that were going on in the 1920s and following way. I will use a Tosawihi - Wata­ 1930s (cf Crum 1987), I think the fandangos tikka marriage, say, around 1870, to illustrate were contexts in which these discussions were what I mean, that is, a marriage of someone multiplied and magnified manyfold. Although whose natal homeland was somewhere north of Steward (1939) disagreed. Jack Harris (1938, the Humboldt and west of the Jarbidge area, 1940:53-54) regarded the six-day Gwini festival with some one from the Lamoille Creek-Ruby as an important integrative mechanism, having Valley area. If Harris (1940:50-51) was correct multiple functions. In addition to re-enforcing that Tosawihi practiced some bride service and certain cultural and religious beliefs, the temporary matrilocality, then a Watatikka man, festivals also were opportunities for shamans say in Ruby Valley, who married a Tosawihi and curers to practice their powers, for woman, would have remained with his in-laws, information about subsistence resources to be a Tosawihi family, for a time. Assuming that exchanged, for kin ties to be renewed; for the Tosawihi did spend a season in Ruby Valley marriages and liaisons to be contracted, and for (cf. Harris 1940:44) each year until being identities to be reinforced. The importance of moved to the short-lived Carlin Farms Reserve place of birth, then, would have been auto­ and later to Duck Valley between 1879 and matically reinforced in these get-togethers. I do 1880, the relationship between a man and his not think, however, that reinforcement of parents and a woman and her in-laws could bounded, territorially-defined identities occurred have been renewed annually. Even if the family to the exclusion of the development of a more decided to throw in their lot with the Tosawihi transcendental Western Shoshone identity. In and move to Duck Valley, the inter-generational fact, I think there are good reasons for seeing relationships would have been strengthened at the Gwini, the pine-nut festivals, and later the the births of children. Grand-parent-grandchild fandangos as vehicles for uniting these various relationships were traditionally especially close disparate groups and for transcending the (Harris 1940:48) and remain so to this day. boundaries that might have existed. Reciprocal grandchild-grandparent relationships would have not only maintained differentiation TOWARD EXPLANATION of mother's and father's kindred, but also would I submit that three factors have kept these have marked the distinction between the old identities alive: kinship, shared culture, and Tosawihi and Watatikka descent lines, without economy. First, to kinship: Shoshone kinship there being actual, formal descent lines. is not lineal and therefore it would seem un­ Female and male children of a Tosawihi man likely that identities could be maintained through would call their father's Tosawihi father Kinu; inheritance. The kinship system is a genera­ he would also call each of them Kinu. They tional one in which self-reciprocating kin terms would call their father's Tosawihi mother hucci. HISTORIC SHOSHONE IDENTITIES and she would call each of them also by the as random or haphazard migrations may have same term. In contrast, they would call their been very patterned ones. I suggest that indi­ mother's father toko and their mother's mother, viduals and families "wandered" to areas where kaku. Their Watatikka grandmother would call they had kin, and that due to marriage patterns, them kaku and their Watatikka grandfather an individual might have two or three choices as would call them toko. to where to go. Making a beeline for an area I suggest then that the kinship system, post­ where there would be kin, especially recipro­ nuptial residence rules, and kin terminology cating kin of one of your identities, only makes played an important part in structuring the sense. Western Shoshones' kin relations and parameters of community configurations. This the locality-based identities that went with them pattern may be widespread throughout the Great became more and more crucial to their survival, Basin, since Johnson (1963:120) reported that in especially toward the turn-of-the-century when the Reservation Period, there was evidence for there was increasing economic competition from the persistence of band identity among the non-Indian immigrants, continual restriction of Southern Utes in choice of marriage partners, if traditional subsistence opportunities, and grow­ in no other aspect of life. I further suggest that ing racism on the part of whites. it is through the kinship system that individuals What, then, were the kin doing "there," could and did activate more than one identity, wherever "there" was? Let us again take the which was tied to the preferred place of resi­ Tosawihi—the White Knives—as an example. dence of classificatory grandparents. Through First of all, it is important to note that even kin terms, a person could activate the particular though the White Knives moved nearly en identity derived from an adaptation to a partic­ masse to Duck Valley in 1879-1880, most left ular place. a few years later amidst rumors that the Reser­ But persons do not live by kin alone. vation was going to be closed (McKinney 1983: Shared culture, such as the formation of hand 79-83), and because it was not an attractive game teams at festivals, undertaking cures or place for permanent living at that time. Since it shamanistic healings at power spots or springs, had always been seasonally, rather than perman­ and maintaining various enculturative practices ently occupied, and there was no infrastructure would reinforce kin ties as well as ties to such as irrigation facilities, wagon roads, etc., specific localities. For example, upon birth of there was little economic opportunity. Where a first child, a man should take a cold bath as did these people go? Many of them went right well as a sweat under the direction of his father- back into the territory they knew best, just south in-law. At the same time, shared culture rein­ and west of Duck Valley and north of Battle forced at festivals, which were becoming in­ Mountain and Elko. What did they do? They creasingly NON-localized, would have promoted did wage work for farms and ranches, continued pan-Western Shoshone identity. Pan-Western to hunt and gather, learned how to can produce, Shoshone identity, then, throughout the late 19th worked on shares for part ofthe farm crop, and century and the first half of the 20th, became tried farming on their own. rooted in localized identities maintained through Sometimes they even used farming and kin networks. ranching facilities and techniques to accomplish But persons also do not live by shared traditional foraging goals. One woman told me culture alone. Economics played a pivotal role. in 1989 that when she was working for a ranch While individuals did move around, I suggest near Tuscarora, they used to get "squirrel" that what may have appeared to Julian Steward (enA:a-nppa/j—"red prairie dog"). "It's easy," 10 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

she said, "when you're irrigating. You flood that her grandfather and other Indians had farms the field and the water makes them come up out at the confluence of these streams. of their holes. Then you just grab them and When the Battle Mountain Colony was es­ wring their necks." Her description was not tablished in 1918, they were told that they had unlike that for a traditional rabbit drive: in the to leave their farms and move to the Colony pre-contact era, loosely-related individuals because, they were told, that was "where they forming a camp would surge into a clearing to belonged." Non-Indians then took that land, draw a net around the rabbits where they could she said. Familiarity with these areas must be clubbed, under the direction of a rabbit boss have initially made these adaptations successful. who coordinated the net-tightening process. In Tosawihi already knew the locations of springs the farming and ranching era, loosely-related kin and potentially good land. Hunting and gather­ would surge into a field to nab the prairie dogs ing continued to play an important part in under the direction of the "ditch boss," who supplying food, supplementing wage labor and opened the gate and caused the water level to farming. Rabbits, prairie dogs, kangaroo rats, rise. In both cases, members of related, ex­ and ground hog (rock chuck) especially were tended families cooperated to forage for dinner. sought. One consultant affirmed that his rel­ Some Shoshones tried full-time farming. atives in the parental and grand-parental Consultants mentioned Indian settlements and generations used to come down from Duck homesteads for Rattlesnake Creek, Antelope Valley to Carlin in winter. There they worked Creek, Rock Creek, and Magic Creek—all trib­ for wages cutting ice from Maggie Creek for utaries of the Humboldt River. One of them is the ice plant and, incidentally, hunting rock drawn as an "Indian Homestead" on a General chucks. Seasonal work such as bucking hay, Land Office land plat drawn in the 1890s. Four irrigating, running horses and cattle, and specific individuals were remembered and cooking for ranch crews either from a chuck named as having had places there along with wagon or in the ranch kitchen provided some their families. Three had left by 1927, one cash as well as "on-the-job-training" in some moving to Battle Mountain and the other two to aspects of farming and ranching. Cash would Duck Valley. One had already died by that have been useful in purchasing capital equip­ time, with his family presumably leaving upon ment and horses, and some Shoshones used it his demise, also for Duck Valley. for just that purpose. Definite beginning dates for these farming However, ecological, economic, and polit­ settlements could not be ascertained. However, ical conditions were against them. Irrigation establishment of cattle and sheep ranches and over more than a few seasons can result in truck farms by non-Indians in a given area alkali deposits that kill most domesticated seems to have given rise to similar efforts by plants. Undependable growing seasons result in Indians. One consultant described what seemed frosts either in June or September or both once to be a similar process in the Starr Valley- every few years. Such frosts damage all but the Deeth-Wells area, with Indians and non-Indians hardiest grasses and potatoes. Cattle and sheep competing for arable land and water resources. are easily subject to disease, death, and rustling. Still other consultants recounted something Indians were well-equipped with the knowledge similar for the Maggie Creek area and for an and skills they needed to farm and ranch, but area close to the confluence of Antelope Creek were not equipped with the access to capital and the Humboldt River, near present-day Battle necessary to rebound from setbacks. Legal Mountain. One woman in her eighties recalled interpretations of the times favored white HISTORIC SHOSHONE IDENTITIES 11 ranchers with deeds. Even though Shoshones relation of population to resources over a large continued to hold title by right of use and area [1982:113]. occupancy (Forbes 1965; Rusco 1989) neither Additional data indicate that such moves Nevada nor U.S. land-tenure law gave them were made in times of plenty as well as in times of stress. People like to visit; or, as Park put it, legal parity with better-capitalized non-Indian they seem to move sometimes 'just for the ranchers. One consultant told me flatly that change.' Such ventures expand people's geo­ white ranchers kept stealing water. When asked graphic horizons, bringing new information on why the Indian ranches and farms had been subsistence areas and options. . . . What may begin as economic (or social) necessity or from abandoned, consultants responded that they curiosity may soon become solidified by a could just "not make a go of it." One case of kinship bond. Very soon a network of relation­ an Indian being forced out by gunpoint on ships is created that grants new rights and sets Maggie Creek was recounted. The creation of up obligations of reciprocal sharing [1982:127]. the Battle Mountain Colony and non-Indians' I think this process is largely responsible for assertion of fee-patent over Indians' aboriginal the persistence of locality-based identities, such title is a similar situation. as "Tosawihi," and there is good evidence that CONCLUSIONS the process has continued well into the post- contact era. How those kin- and locality-based While "ancient toughness" and psych­ identities have been welded into an emerging ological attachment to homeland were certainly Western Shoshone Nation, and where various factors in the continued occupation and use of tribal segments fit into this picture, is part of certain areas by the Western Shoshone, persis­ another story, most of it belonging to the field tence of locality-based identities into the present of political science. But the cultural component is neither an epiphenomenal kind of nostalgia of that movement cannot be explained if Julian nor a residue of putative band solidarity and Steward's assumption—or assertion—that eco­ affiliations. Rather, this persistence reflects a nomic integration and acculturation obliterated number of successful efforts to use land-based any sense of locality-based identification and resources in the best possible way—whether to made social structure inchoate—is taken at face farm, to ranch, to hunt, to forage, to earn cash, value. I think it is seriously in error. Shimkin or all of the above. Many spots were also used and Reid's (1970:189-190) interpretation of for curing, religious, and personal purposes, just socio-economic data from the mid-1960s on as they had been in the past, by the descendants Numic people of the lower Carson River Valley of people who had used the area in the past and revealed a definite socio-political structure unit­ like their ancestors knew it well. ing seemingly disparate on- and off-reservation Individuals maintained identities with Indian populations where one is not immediately localities by invoking kin ties that would ensure apparent. I think a similar structure has per­ legitimacy in moving to those localities and sisted among the Tosawihi and other Shosho- using the resources there, whether those re­ neans of the Humboldt and Reese River drain­ sources were intrusive whites with their wage ages. If anything, economic change reinforced labor or the natural flora, fauna, land, and some "old identities" by providing supplements water. C. Fowler (1982) suggested that local­ to traditional hunting and foraging pursuits in ity- and food-named groups those localities with which they were associated. . . . were highly salient to people throughout the The maintenance of the kinship system and kin- Great Basin and . . . may have provided key relations has provided continuity for those ecological information as to the availability of identities which economics reinforced. alternative foods at a distance, thus affecting the 12 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

NOTES man-Orr Foundation, through the Nevada State Museum. The assistance of Donald R. Tuohy, Cura­ 1. Co'appih or ghost, in Shoshone belief, may tor of Anthropology, and of Amy Dansie, Assistant appear at any time, complete with body, clothes, etc. Curator of Anthropology, is gratefully acknow­ Ghosts are almost always seen as "the old people," ledged, as is that of the Elko District Office of the that is, as people from precontact times. I have Bureau of Land Management, the Western Shoshone never heard of a specific individual being seen as a National Council, and the Western Shoshone Council Co'appih. Also, the Co'appih most often appear in of Elders. I also thank Wick Miller for assistance groups. While potentially dangerous due to their with Shoshone orthographic transcriptions. power as spirits, living people who are shamans or regard themselves as having some power themselves REFERENCES may increase their power by approaching the Co'appih. This was part of the logic behind the Clemmer, Richard O. "Ghost Dance" started by the Paiute, Wovoka, 1989 Differential Leadership Patterns in Early which was maintained as a religion by some Sho­ Twentieth-Century Great Basin Indian So­ shone individuals as late as the 1970s (Vander 1990). cieties. Journal of California and Great 2. I have used transcriptions based on the Basin Anthropology 11:35-49. orthography described by Thomas et al. (1986:262) 1990a Fandango, Symbol, Oratory and Identity: wherever possible, or the spellings of Steward (1938) The Changing Ideological Role of Myth or Harris (1940) where they are more commonly Among The Western Shoshone. Paper accepted and known in the literature, such as for presented at the Great Basin Anthro­ Tosawihi and Gwini. pological Conference, Reno. 3. Research results summarized in this paper 1990b From Ethnic to Ethnicity: Conditions are extracted from a larger report deposited at the Affecting Tosawihi ("White Knife") Nevada State Museum (Clemmer 1990b). The re­ Shoshone Culture and Identity in the search results in this paper as well as in the larger Reservation Era. Report on file at the report should not, and cannot, be interpreted in­ Department of Anthropology, Nevada dependently of the conclusions to which they lead State Museum, Carson City. within the theoretical framework used to organize them, nor of the procedures that were followed in Clemmer, Richard O., and Omer C. Stewart generating them. Because I used the "key infor­ 1986 Treaties, Reservations, and Claims. In: mant" and "networking" approaches, the research Handbook of North American Indians, results should not be interpreted in the same way as Vol. 11, Great Basin, Warren d'Azevedo, those that might have been obtained from either a ed., pp. 525-557. Washington: Smith­ random or a stratified sample often used in survey sonian Institution. research. The results caiuiot be tested statistically Crum, Stephen J. for significance. In other words, the numbers and 1987 The Western Shoshone People and Their percentages of persons in any particular category Attachment to the Land: A Twentieth neither indicate nor reflect anything statistically Century Perspective. In: Ethnicity and significant. They cannot be interpreted as either the Race in Nevada, Elmer R. Rusco and Sue total universe of persons in that category or as any Fawn Chung, eds., pp. 15-18. Nevada sort of percentages of responses that might be Public Affairs Review No. 2. obtained for that category if all 6,000 estimated Eggan, Fred Western Shoshones had been contacted. Likewise, 1980 Shoshone Kinship Structures and Their it goes almost without saying that other inquiries by Significance for Anthropological Theory. other investigators who use different techniques or Journal of the Steward Anthropological who approach different people on different reser­ Society 11:165-193. vations or who ask different questions might derive different results and reach different conclusions. Forbes, Jack D. 1965 The "Public Domain" of Nevada and Its Relationship to Indian Property Rights. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Nevada State Bar Journal 30:16-47. An earlier version of this paper was presented at Fowler, Catherine S. the Great Basin Anthropological Conference, Reno, 1982 Food-Named Groups Among Northern Nevada, October 14, 1990. Research summarized in Pauite in North America's Great Basin: this paper was supported with a grant from the Tru- An Ecological Interpretation. In: Re- HISTORIC SHOSHONE IDENTITIES 13

source Managers: North American and Service, Elman R. Australian Hunter-Gatherers, Nancy M. 1962 Primitive Social Organization: An Evo­ Williams and Eugene S. Hunn, eds., pp. lutionary Perspective. New York: 113-129. American Association for the Random House. Advancement of Science Selected Sym­ Shimkin, Demitri B., and Russell M. Reid posium No. 67. Boulder: Westview Press. 1970 Socio-Cultural Persistence among Sho- Fowler, Don D. shoneans of the Carson River Basin 1966 Great Basin Social Organization. In: The (Nevada.) In: Languages and Cultures Current Status of Anthropological Re­ of Western North America: Essays in search in The Great Basin: 1964, Warren Honor of Sven S. Liljeblad, Earl H. d'Azevedo, Wilbur A. Davis, Don D. Swanson, ed., pp. 172-200. Pocatello: Fowler, and Wayne Suttles, eds., pp. 57- Idaho State University. 73. Reno: University of Nevada, Desert Research Institute Publications in the Steward, Julian H. Social Sciences and Humanities No. 1. 1938 Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups. Bureau of American Ethnology Fowler, Don D., and Catherine S. Fowler Bulletin 120. 1971 Anthropology of the Numa: John Wesley 1939 Some Observations on Shoshonean Dis­ Powell's Manuscripts on the Numic tributions. American Anthropologist Peoples of Western North America, 1868 41:261-265. -1880. Smithsonian Institution Contri­ butions to Anthropology No. 14. 1955 Theory of Culture Change. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Harris, Jack 1938 The Western Shoshone. American Anth­ 1970 The Foundations of Basin-Plateau ropologist 40:407-411. Shoshonean Society. In: Languages and Cultures of Western North America: 1940 The White Knife Shoshoni of Nevada. Essays in Honor of Sven S. Liljeblad, In: Acculturation in Seven American Earl H. Swanson, ed., pp. 113-151. Indian Tribes, Ralph Linton, ed., pp. 39- Pocatello: Idaho State University Press. 116. New York: D. Appleton-Century. Stewart, Omer C. Johnson, Clark 1939 The Northern Paiute Bands. University of 1963 A Study of Modem Southwestern Indian California Anthropological Records 2(3). Leadership. Ph.D. dissertation. Uni­ versity of Colorado, Boulder. 1942 Culture Element Distributions XVIII: Ute-Southem Paiute. University of Madsen, Brigham California Anthropological Records 6(4). 1980 The Northern Shoshoni. Caldwell, ID: Caxton. 1966 Tribal Distributions and Boundaries in the Great Basin. In: The Current Status of McKirmey, Whitney Anthropological Research in the Great 1938 A History of the Shoshone-Paiutes of the Basin, Warren d'Azevedo, Wilbur A. Duck Valley Reservation. Salt Lake City: Davis, Don D. Fowler, and Wayne Sut­ The Institute of the American West and tles, eds., pp. 167-238. Reno: Univer­ Howe Brothers. sity of Nevada, Desert Research Institute Powell, John Wesley, and G. W. Ingalls Publications in the Social Sciences and 1874 Report on the Conditions of the Western Humanities Publications No. 1. Shoshones of Nevada. In: Annual 1978 The Western Shoshone of Nevada and the Report of the Commissioner of Indian U.S. Government, 1863-1950. In: Se­ Affairs for 1873, pp. 41-46. Washington: lected Papers from the 14th Great Basin Government Printing Office. Anthropological Conference, Donald R. Rusco, Elmer R. Tuohy, ed., pp. 77-114. Ballena Press 1989 Early Nevada and Indian Law. Western Publications in Archaeology, Ethnology Legal History 2:163-190. and History No. 11. 14 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY

1980 Temoke Band of Shoshone and the Oasis 283. Washington: Smithsonian Institu- Concept. Nevada Historical Society Quar­ tion. terly 23:246-261. Vander, Judith Thomas, D., L. S. A. Pendleton, and S. Cappannari 1990 Nature in Numic Myth and the Shoshoni 1986 Western Shoshone. In: Handbook of Ghost Dance. Paper presented at the North American Indians, Vol. 11, Great Great Basin Anthropological Conference, Basin, Warren d'Azevedo, ed., pp. 262- Reno.