Shoshone

The Shoshone are a Native American tribe in the United States. Historically, the Shoshone spoke their own language, also called Shoshone, a Numic, Uto-Aztecan language. The Shoshone tribe members, also referred to by early white settlers and traders as the Snake Indians, were divided into three sizable divisions: the Eastern, the Northern, and the Western. These three subtribes were very different in many ways.

The Eastern Shoshone were originally located in northern Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming. Starting around 1750, warfare and other forms of pressure from a number of tribes, including the Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, and Lakota, forced the Eastern Shoshone southward and westward. Eventually, some Eastern Shoshone moved southward enough to merge with the Comanche in Texas.

The Northern Shoshone were originally located in eastern Idaho, northeastern Utah, and western Wyoming. Unlike the Eastern and Western Shoshone, the Northern Shoshone were largely nomadic and lived in tepees that were easily moved. They were horsemen and used the horse to hunt buffalo, which were a staple of their lifestyle.

After years of infectious diseases and some warfare, the approximate population of the Northern and Western Shoshone taken together in 1845 was 4,500. Led by Chief Pocatello, the Northern Shoshone fought their way through a turbulent 1860s, battling settlers in Idaho—hence the town of Pocatello, Idaho. As more settlers moved west, they inevitably invaded Shoshone territory. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, and this enabled unprecedented numbers of Euro-American settlers to arrive in Shoshone territory.

As a result, the Shoshone raided settlements for food and occasionally even attacked settlers. This ongoing violence finally culminated in the Bear River Massacre of 1863. The massacre saw the murder of 350 to 500 Northern Shoshone, including women and children, at the hands of U.S. forces. The Shoshone families were at their winter encampment and this massacre was the most grievous violence suffered by the Shoshone at the hands of U.S. forces.

In the coming years the Northern Shoshone allied with the Bannock, a related tribe, for battle against the U.S. military. From 1864 to 1868, the tribal alliance fought the United States in the Snake War. The Northern Shoshone and Bannock again fought U.S. forces in the 1878 Bannock War. However, the Northern Shoshone were [Page 1935]not always allied against U.S. forces. In 1876, the Shoshone fought their long-standing rivals, the Cheyenne and the Lakota, alongside the U.S. Army in the Battle of the Rosebud.

A Shoshone encampment in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming, 1870. As more settlers migrated west, tensions arose with indigenous people, and many battles were fought throughout the second half of the 19th century.

In 1879, a group of around 300 Western Sheepeater Shoshones fought in the Sheepeater Indian War. This conflict has the distinction of being the last Indian war fought in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1911, a Bannock leader, Mike Daggett, or “Shoshone Mike,” led a small group of Bannock in the murder of four Nevada ranchers. The rest of the area's settlers formed a posse and, hoping for revenge, went after the Bannock group led by Shoshone Mike. The posse found their quarry on February 26, 1911, and eight Bannock were slaughtered. Ed Hogle was the sole member of the posse to die. In its more grisly acts, the posse captured three children and a woman. At a later date, a rancher donated partial remains of bodies of various ages and sexes to the Smithsonian Institution for study; this was believed to be all that remained of Shoshone Mike's family. In 1937, there were approximately 3,650 Northern Shoshone and 1,201 Western Shoshone, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 2000, there were approximately 12,000 Shoshone counted by the census.

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