AN ETHNOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW AND ASSESSMENT OF THE QZGERM?.N FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT AND OTHER AREAS IN SOUTHERN IDAHO Submitted to: Columbia Cascade System Support Office National Park Service Seattle, Washington Submitted by: L. Daniel Myers, Ph.D. Epochs Past Tracys Landing, Maryland August, 1999 AN ETHNOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW AND ASSESSMENT OF THE HAGERMAN FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT AND OTHER AREAS IN SOUTHERN IDAHO Submitted to: Columbia Cascade System Support Office National Park Service Seattle, Washington Submitted by: L. Daniel Myers, Ph.D. Epochs Past Tracys Landing, Maryland August, 1999 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents . ii List of Figures . vi Abstract . vii Management Summary _ , . viii CHAPTER ONE: NATURE AND SCOPE OF THIS STUDY OBJECTIVES . CONTRACT SPECIFiCATIONS COLLECTIONS AND REPOSITORiES : _ RESEARCH DESIGN DESIGN OF SUCCEEDING'CHAPTERS : : CHAPTER TWO: STUDY AREAS AND AMERICAN INDIAN COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHERN IDAHO OBJECTIVES 1 ANTHROPOLOGICAL'CONTEXT : : : : I NPS STUDY AREAS 8 FIRST TIER STUDY AREAS : : : : 9 HAGERMAN FOSSIL BEDS STUDY AREA , 9 SECOND TIER STUDY AREAS . 12 CRATERS OF THE MOON STUDY AREA . 12 CITY OF ROCKS STUDY AREA . 15 BEAR RIVER MASSACRE STUDY AREA' : 15 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN INDIANS IN SOUTHERN IDAHO 18 SHOSHONE-BANNO& TRIBES 0; FORT HALL 22 SHOSHONE-PAIUTE TRIBES OF DUCK VALLEY 24 NORTHWESTERN BAND IF SHOSHONI NATION OF BRIGHAM CITY, UTAH 21 ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN SOUTHERN ID&O : 29 CHAPTER THREE: SOUTHERN IDAHO IN GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY OBJECTIVES 30 EARLY ANTHROPOLOGY (i868-i900)' : : 31 DESCRIPTIVE ANTHROPOLOGY (1900-1930) 34 FUNCTIONAL ANTHROPOLOGY (1930-1950) 35 CLASSIFICATORY ANTHROPOLOGY 11950-1965) 41 PROCESSUAL ANTHROPOLOGY (1965-1990) 45 POST-MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY (1990-Present) 50 SOUTHERN IDAHO'S ETHNOGRAPHIC RECORD IN RETROSPECT . 50 TABLE OF CONTENTS (cont.) CHAPTER FOUR: THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF SOUTHERN IDAHO OBJECTIVES . 53 TRIBAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF SOUTHERN IDAHO 54 FIRST TIER STUDY AREA . 54 TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION . 56 SETTLEMENT . 59 SUBSISTENCE . 62 MATERIAL CULTURE . 65 SOCIOLOGY . 69 HAGERMAN FOSSIL BEDS STUDY AREA 75 SETTLEMENT . 76 SUBSISTENCE 76 MATERIAL CULTURE : . 11 SOCIOLOGY . II SECOND TIER STUDY AREA . 78 TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION . 78 SETTLEMENT . 78 SUBSISTENCE . 82 MATERIAL CULTURE . 84 SOCIOLOGY . 92 CRATERS OF THE MOON STUDY AREA 98 TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION . 99 SETTLEMENT . 99 SUBSISTENCE . 101 MATERIAL CULTURE . 102 SOCIOLOGY . 102 CITY OF ROCKS STUDY AREA . 103 TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION . 103 SETTLEMENT . 104 SIJBSISTENCE . 105 MATERIAL CULTURE . 105 SOCIOLOGY . 106 BEAR RIVER MASSACRE STUDY AREA 107 TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION . 107 SETTLEMENT . 107 SUBSISTENCE . 108 MATERIAL CULTURE . 108 SOCIOLOGY . 109 INFORMATION GAPS AND ETHNOGRAPHIC RECORD 109 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS (cont.) CHAPTER FIVE: INFORMATION GAPS, ETHNOGRAPHIC RESOURCES, AND NATIONAL PARK SERVICE OBLIGATIONS, RESPONSIBILITIES, AND MANAGEMENT NEEDS OBJECTIVES . 110 NPS OBLIGATIONS, RESPONSIBILITIES, AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES . 110 SUMMARY AND EVALUATION OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC RECORD . _ . 111 GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE ETHNOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATIONS . _ . 115 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY . 117 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 186 APPENDIX A . 188 APPENDIX B . 195 APPENDIX C _ . 203 APPENDIX D _ . 204 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Study Areas in Southern Idaho . 10 Figure 2. Hagerman Fossil Beds Study Area (including Upper and Lower Salmons Falls and Bliss Dam) 11 Figure 3. Map of Intermountain Region showing Floristic Sections . _ . 13 Figure 4. Craters of the Moon Study Area . 14 Figure 5. City of Rocks Study Area . 16 Figure 6. Bear River Massacre Study Area . 17 Figure I. Numic Tribes and Linguistic Groups . 37 Figure 8. Map of Basin-Plateau Area showing Settlement and Subsistence Patterns . 38 Figure 9. Numic Migration in Southern Idaho . 51 Figure 10. Map of Idaho showing Tribal Groups 55 Figure 11. Villages and Subsistence Areas in Southern Idaho . 51 Figure 12. Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence Areas 58 Figwe 13. Villages and Subsistence Areas in Northern Utah . 80 Figure 14. Emigrant Trails in Southern Idaho . 83 vi ABSTRACT This report provides an ethnographic overview and assessment of the historical American Indian populations and their descendants as they relate to four study areas in Southern Idaho. These study areas are: Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, Craters of the Moon National Monument, City of Rocks National Reserve, and the Bear River National Historic Landmark. Using a two tier system of demarcation, each study area is classed by environmental and geographical considerations under a human ecology perspective. To a great extent, descendants of historical Indian peoples reside in one of three Native communities (i.e., Fort Hall, Idaho; Duck Valley, Nevada/Idaho; and Brigham City/Washakie, Utah). A brief history of these communities is presented and discussed for each of the three peoples. Employing a historiographic approach to the study of southern Idaho's ethnography, the contributions and achievements of the anthropologists represent a scientific community. Consistent with the history of Great Basin anthropology, these accomplishments constitute the extant ethnographic record as it applies to the southern Idaho region. Prehistoric and historic evidence documents that southern Idaho was populated by groups speaking the Uto-Aztecan or Numic languages. Descendants of these groups fall under three tribal entities (i.e., Shoshone- Bannocks Tribes at Fort Hall, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes at Duck Valley, and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshoni Nation at Brigham City/Washakie). The ethnographic record of the aboriginal cultures of southern Idaho is arbitrarily divided into four board categories or subject matters (i.e., settlement, subsistence, material culture, and sociology). This ethnographic record is evaluated and assessed for relevant information for NPS management purposes. On the whole, relevant site-specific data for the study areas appears to be fragmentary and inadequate for NPS purposes. General recommendations are made for future ethnographic study for the four study areas. vii MANAGEMENT SUMMARY In the Fall of 1994, the National Park Service (NPS) contracted with Epochs Past to conduct an ethnographic overview and assessment of the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, Craters of the Moon National Monument, City of Rocks National Reserve, and the Bear River Massacre National Historic Landmark in southern Idaho. Contract modifications are described and fieldwork situations and conditions are summarized. Three contemporary American Indian communities in the southern Idaho region, through treaty and legislation, have rights and access to the four study area. These communities are the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, at Fort Hall, Idaho; Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation at Owyhee, Nevada; and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshoni Nation, Brigham City, Utah. Scholarly collections are identified and repositories were visited and/or contacted by mail, telephone, and e-mail. Personal contact was made with senior anthropologists who work with the American Indian groups in the southern Idaho region. The general research design is outlined as a historiographic analysis of Great Basin anthropology focusing on southern Idaho. A contextual interpretation of the history of southern Idaho anthropology is presented. A two tier system of demarcation of the study areas is assumed. The first tier general study area extends from Shoshone Falls to C.J. Strike Dam or the middle Snake River region. The specific study area is the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, which is situated between the Upper and Lower Salmon Falls. The general study area for the second tier study areas encompasses southeast Idaho. The Snake River separates the Craters of the Moon study area from the City of Rocks and the Bear River Massacre study areas and coincides with the Snake River Plain and Basin-Range provinces. The history of the contemporary descendants of these historic Native people is examined from a community, or more properly, reservation perspective. Major events and situations for each of the communities are charted and discussed. The reservation system went through a number of governmental policy changes and legislative actions that had both positive and negative implications for each community. Some of the most prominent actions were the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887, the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the termination policies connected ultimately with the Indian Land Claims Commission in the 1940s and 195Os, and the Indian Self-Determination and Education Act of 1975. A summary reading of this history demonstrates the policy shifts of the federal government. Consistent with the history of Great Basin anthropology, ethnographic research can be chronologically divided into six contextual or thematic periods. They are: Early Anthropology (1868-19001, Descriptive Anthropology (1900-19301, Functional Anthropology (1930-19501, Classificatory Anthropology (1950- 19651, Processual Anthropology (1965-1990), and Postmodern Anthropology (1990-Present). As it applies to southern Idaho, each period is surveyed and reviewed according to the contributions and achievements of the practitioners, theory and method design, and persuasiveness of argument. One of the most prominent scholars in Great Basin anthropology is Julian Steward. His monumental synthesis of Great Basin settlement and subsistence systems is a hallmark for Great Basin, as well as American Anthropology, in general.