ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECORDS :5:4 WIND RIVER SHOSHONE ETHNOGEOGRAPHY BY D. B. SHIMKIN UNIVERSITY- OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BKELEY AND LOS ANGELES t947 WVIND RIVER SHOSHONE ETHNOGEOGRAPHY BY D. B. SHIMKIN ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECORDS Vol. 5, No. 4 CONTENTS Page Preface . .. a. v Introduction . 245 Identification of the people, 246 Wind River Shoshone territory.. 247 Demography . .. 254 Environment . 256 Adaptation: means of livelihood . O.. O.. 265 Adaptation: detailed ethnobotany and ethnozoology .. .. ...... ..... .... 271 Ecology . 279 Bibliography . 282 Explanation of plates . .. 286 FIGURE IN TEXT 1. Temperature and precipitation for type stations in western Wyoming. 261 PLATES 1. Typical ecological zones, Upper Sonoran to Canadian . 287 2. Typical ecological zones, Canadian to Arctic-Alpine ................ 288 NAPS L Trails and foci . 00 I*0000000 000 . 249 2.. Place names and travels, 1825-1875 . 00 0000 000 0000 250 3. The Wind River Shoshone world, 1825-1875 00 0000 0000 0&0 250 4.. Place names .............. 253 5. Profiles . 0 ,e 257 6. Physiography and soils ......... 258 7. Climates. 259 8. Life zones (after Cary). 263 9. Utilization of natural areas ...... a 0 267 [iii] PREFACE The present paper is part of a series dealing with the cul- ture of the Wind River Shoshone of Wyoming. It is based on researches by the author in 1937 and 1938 which were financed by the Board of Research of the University of California through the Department of Anthropology. I am indebted to Miss Alice Eastwood of the California Academy of Sciences for the botanical identifications, and to Mr. Carlos Garcia for much of the clerical work. Assistance in the preparation of these materials was fur- nished by the personnel of Work Projects Administration Official Project No. 665-08-3-30, Unit A-15. The orthography of native words in this paper follows strictly that recommended by Franz Boas et al. (SI-MC, vol. 66, no. 6), 1916, and modified by George Herzog et al. (AA 36: 629-631), 1934. [vI WIND RIVER SHOSHONE ETHNOGEOGRAPHY BY D. B. SHIMKIN INTRODUCTION The present essay sketches the habitat of' the Wind River Shoshone culture has been essen- Wind River Shoshone between 1825 and 1875, approx- tially that of the Plains for a good two hun- imately. It regionalizes this habitat according dred years; pioneer etbnographers have vastly to the variations of' several geographic factors: overemphasized the Basin affiliations. Con- topography, physiography and soils, climates, sequently, the data contained in the pages which and biota. It studies Shoshone adaptation to this follow will, I believe, be of interest to most environment in considerable detail, and attempts specialists on the Plains Indians. They illus- to establish, in general terms, the nature of trate a phase of life which is very little known economic conditioning within this culture. The for this part of America, despite the fact that technique of' ethnogeographic analysis which my many able scholars have concentrated their atten- paper follows simply exemplifies that set forth tion upon study of-the area. Lowie, for instance, by Kroeber in his fundamental work, Cultural has given u-s superlative materials upon the and Natural Areas of Native North America.' social organization, mythology, and many other The temporal limits of this essay should be aspects of Crow culture. Yet he has nowhere pub- noted carefully, for the history of the Wind lished even a map of Crow territory, or its River Shoshone has been complicated. As I have political or ecological divisions. Furthermore, stated elsewhere,2 they began moving on to the the data underscore the cyclical abundance and Plains from the West at the beginning of the scarcity of Plains subsistence, an observation eighiteenth century, or shortly before. They were made by other recent studies for the Plains Cree the earliest, in most of the northern Plains, to and Sarsi.4 They give some basis for questioning get the horse. As a result, their power extended, the theory ably expounded by Wissler, on the in- by 1730-50, into Saskatchewan and South Dakota. fluence of the horse on Plains culture.5 Did the The acquisition of guns by their enemies and horse raise Plains culture to its zenith? Archae- epidemics forced them to retreat west once more. ological materials prove that it did not do so Around 1800 they resided largely west of the in the southern Plains; it merely intensified Rockies, daring massacre at the hands of eastern some specialties, wiped out many others.6 My enemies only during seasonal bison hunts. The etimogeographical materials suggest that this military assistance furnished by friendly white process too took place in the northern Plains. traders reestablished the Shoshone~s' eastern ter- Ultimate decision of the problem must await fur- ritories after 1825, however. Reservation life ther etbnogeographical research, particularly began effectively about 1875; the events transpir- among the Arapaho and Western Dakota, as well as ing since that date form part of other papers.4 extensive digging. 1KEroeber, 1939. 4 Jenness, 1938; Mandelbaum, 1940. 2 Slimkin, 1941va. 5Wissler, 1914. 3Shivmkin, MS. a; b. B Strong, 1935. [245] IDENTIFICATION OF THE PEOPLE Study of Shoshone ethnogeography includes lands on their summer trip to Green River. The consideration of three main factors: the iden- obverse of this may be noted: The Popo Agie tification of the people and their area, assess- (River) and the Seeds-ke-deagie 0 or Green River ment of the environmental opportunities, and both in the heart of the Wind River Shoshone investigation of the degree of utilization of range, were known to white travelers by Crow those opportunities, or ecological adaptation. names"--Owl River (po: pate owl; a: 'e river) The identification of the Wind River Shoshone and Prairie-Chicken River (ci:'cga prairie-chicken; and their territory is not a simple matter. It a: as river), respectively. is complicated by several facts.7 These people In spite of these difficulties, contemporary had no developed national or tribal sense; affil- travelers recognized the basic unity of the Sho- iation was fluid. Nor did they distinguish them- shone of Wyoming. Thus Granville Stuart wrote:'2 knew that selves by a special name. They merely "The 'Green-River' Snakes (Shoshones) occupy others called them p)'h)ing (Sage-Brushers), the country drained by Green River and its p)'h)ganhLt (Sage-Brush Homes),B or ku'6ndidkanY branches. They are known also as 'Wash'-a-keeks (Buffalo-Eating People).9 Furthermore, they felt band,' and their principal hunting ground is in no clear-cut distinctions of private or tribal the Wind River mountains and on Wind River (which territories. A part of them went each year through is a main branch of the Big Horn River) and its admittedly Crow territory to reach the Yellowstone tributaries, where they meet and have numerous River and Powder River hunting grounds. Virtually battles with the Crow Indians, who also claim all of them crossed du'kurka (Sheep Eater Shoshone) that country." 7See also Shimkin, 1938. 10 Fr6mont, 1853:163. 8 Hoebel, 1938. 13 I owe analyses of the Crow names to the kindness of Professor R. H. Lowie. 9lHoebel, 1938; the name ko'hogole was unknown to the Wind River themselves. See Steward, 1937, 1 Stuart, 1865:80. fig. 1. [246] 248 ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECORDS "One remarked that the Snake chief Pah-da- crossed to reach the headwaters of Yellowstone hawakunda, was becoming very unpopular, and it River, which is followed down to Yellowstone Lake, was the opinion of the Snakes in general that where it joins the trail previously described. Moh-woom-hah, his brother, would be at the head The divides crossed are extremely difficult. of affairs before twelve months as his village 3. From the "big bend" of Wind River along the already amounted to more than three hundred left bank to Dry Fork, which is followed up to its lodges, and, moreover he was supported by the head, and a low divide crossed to the headwaters bravest men in the nation, among whom were Ink-a- of Owl Creek near Washakie Needles, whence it tQsh-a-pop, Fibe-bo-un-to-wat-see and Who-sha-kik, passes up this stream to its source, passing who were the pillars of the nation and at whose through a remarkably fine hunting ground for moun- names the Blackfeet quaked with fear. tain sheep. There is here one of those luxurious In the winter of 1842 the principal chief mountain parks which nature seems occasionally to of the Snakes died in an apoplectic fit and on the throw off in the very midst of her most forbidding following year his brother, but from what disease works. Its existence would never be suspected from 1 could not learn. These being the two principal without... pillars that u held the nation the loss of them 4. From Camp Brown northward over the Owl Creek was and is to Ms day deeply deplored. Imme- Mountains and still further north to the buffalo diately after the death of the latter the tribe grounds of the Big Horn Valley and the Stinking scattered in smaller villages over the country in Water River (Shoshone River), near Heart (Hart. consequence of having no chief who could control Mountain, thence up the North Fork of the river and keep them together," and over the divide to the trail along Yellowstone Lake. Functionally, the entire Shoshone territory 5. From the "big bend" of Wind River eastward fell into W-- foci, (B) routes, and (C) hinter- along thenorthern face of the Sweetwater Valley, lands. The actual of these will be by the head of Powder River to the Sioux country exploitation east of the Big Horn Mountains. discussed later.