Timponogos - Ute Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute Monument Valley - Navajo A BRIEF HISTORY OF UTAH’S NORTHWESTERN SHOSHONES ANCESTRAL SHOSHONE TERRITORY CURRENT SHOSHONE LANDS AND RESERVATIONS The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is a branch of the larger group of Shoshone people that traditionally lived in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada. When whites began encroaching on the dweltarea that between is now the Utah northern in the 1840s, shore three of the different Great Salt groups Lake of and Northwestern the Bear River. Shoshones A third livedgroup here. lived The in misnamed Weber Utes lived in Weber Valley near present-day Ogden, Utah. The Pocatello Shoshones eaters.” the Cache Valley along the Bear River. They called themselves kammitakka, which means “jackrabbit- The Shoshone people were very mobile and skilled at hunting and gathering, and with each change of the season they migrated to obtain the food and other resources they depended on to survive. In the antelope.early autumn, They the sun-dried Northwestern the meat Shoshones for winter moved and used into the the hidesregion as near clothing what and is now shelter. Salmon, In the Idaho, spring to fish. After fishing was over, they moved into western Wyoming to hunt buffalo, elk, deer, moose, and andDuring summer, these themonths, Northwestern they spent Shoshones their time traveled gathering around seeds, southern roots, Idahoand berries and throughout and socializing. Utah. In late summer they dug roots and hunted small game. Around late October, the band moved into west- ern Utah and parts of Nevada for the annual gathering of pinyon nuts (or pine nuts), a nutrient-rich food that formed an important part of the Shoshone diet. The wintering home of the Northwestern andShoshones well-adapted was in Indians an area of around the American what is West. now Preston, Idaho. Based on these migration patterns, experts have claimed that the Northwestern Shoshones were among the most ecologically efficient the horse for mobility and to hunt large game, such as buffalo. The Shoshone way of life came under attackBy the when1840s, non-Indian the Northwestern emigrants Shoshones began to had traverse adopted Shoshone some aspects lands onof Plainsthe trails Indian to California culture, using and Oregon in the early 1840s. The arrival of the members of the LDS Church in 1847 brought added pressure. The Mormons initially settled in the Salt Lake Valley but quickly spread into the Weber 18 WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE Timponogos - Ute Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute Monument Valley - Navajo Timponogos - Ute Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute Monument Valley - Navajo Shoshones and white settlers and emigrants became a serious problem in the late 1850s and early 1860s.and Cache Responding Valleys, entering to the destructionShoshone lands of game and competing and grass forcover vital and resources. the unprovoked Conflict between murder the of - covery of gold in Montana in 1862, more and more whites traveled over Shoshone land. In response toIndians, incidents Shoshone of violence leaders committed like Chief by Pocatello the travelers, retaliated some with Shoshones, raids on includingemigrant atrains. group After led by the Chief dis Bear Hunter of the Cache Valley, began to raid wagon trains and cattle herds. - dred army volunteers from Camp Douglas in Salt Lake City attacked Bear Hunter’s people. A group ofViolence 450 Shoshone erupted onmen, January women, 29, and 1863 children when Colonelwere camped Patrick on Edward the Bear Connor River and twelve about miles two-hun from Franklin, Washington Territory (now Idaho). In the early hours of the morning, Connor and his men surrounded the Shoshones and began a four-hour assault on the virtually defenseless group. Some 350 Shoshones were slaughtered by the troops, including many women and children. This was one of the most violent events in Utah’s history and the largest Indian massacre in U.S. history. In the aftermath of the Bear River Massacre, white settlers moved unopposed into traditional Northwestern Shoshone lands. As American settlements grew around them, the few remaining MormonismNorthwestern and Shoshones settled on lost a church-sponsored their land base and farm could near no Corrine, longer Utah, sustain an areatheir where traditional the Shoshones nomadic lifestyle. In 1875, after years of struggle and starvation, many Northwestern Shoshones converted to rumors that the Shoshones were planning an attack on Corrine, expelled them from the farm and attemptedhad traditionally to force wintered. them onto The the farm newly was founded short-lived, Fort Hall as federal Reservation officials, in Idaho. responding to unfounded traditional homeland were left without a reservation and had to search for alternative means to Some Northwestern Shoshones did move to Fort Hall, but those who wanted to remain in their- western Shoshones acquired and settled land between the Malad and Bear rivers. The Malad Indian secure a land base. Beginning in 1876, using rights guaranteed under the Homestead Act, the North Farm was eventually discarded due to its insufficient size and the difficulty of irrigating in the area. leaderThe Northwestern Washakie, and Shoshones the settlement, considered which moving was managed back to theby membersCache Valley of the but LDS instead Church, moved was tothe a new farm in the Malad Valley just south of Portage, Utah. They named the farm after their admired- tives of the LDS Church, who mistakenly believed that Washakie had been abandoned, burnt the Shoshones’Northwestern houses band’s to thehome ground for the in nextpreparation eighty years. for the Tragically, sale of the in church the summer farm. The of 1960, church representa later gave the band 184 acres of land near Washakie to atone for this mistake. - ernUntil Shoshones 1987, the adoptedNorthwestern a constitution band was and administered tribal council. by Inthe addition federal togovernment the Washakie as part land, of the a larger tribe holdsShoshone some tribe. private That lands year held the governmentin trust by the recognized Bureau of the Indian tribe Affairs as independent, and is attempting and the toNorthwest purchase developing and, in so doing, is reasserting its rightful place in the history of Utah. 19 more land to solidify its home in Utah. The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is quickly WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE Timponogos - Ute Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute Monument Valley - Navajo.