Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and SocietyMurphy, Robert F. (Robert Francis)
History
Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society
Murphy, Robert F. (Robert Francis)
Bannock Indians; Shoshoni Indians
The Irving account of Captain Bonneville's adventures contains
additional information on Eastern Shoshone settlement patterns. It is
here also that we receive our first information on the Shoshone who
later are known to us as the Dukarika and who inhabited the
mountainous terrain of the Wind River Mountains and adjacent high
country (Irving, 1850, p. 139). The journal also supplements Leonard's
account of the trappers' sojurn in Wind River Valley, which, Irving
wrote (1837, 2:17) was infested by Blackfoot and Crow Indians and was
one of the favorite habitats of the latter (p. 22). One of the
trapping party's members was taken captive by the Crow on the Popo
Agie River, which flows past Lander, Wyoming, but was released
unharmed (pp. 24-25). It is to be noted that the trappers were in the
Wind River Valley at the end of September but saw no Shoshone,
although this was approximately the time of the annual buffalo hunt.
Upon leaving Wind River, Bonneville headed for the Sweetwater River,
which, he stated, was beyond the limits of Crow country (p. 26). He
then went to Hams Fork, a tributary of the Green River, and
encountered a Shoshone encampment with the Fitzpatrick party (p. 27).
It is doubtful whether Shoshonean peoples hunted extensively
east of the Continental Divide in the period following their
eighteenth-century retreat from the northern Plains and before the
disappearance of the buffalo west of the Rockies. Although the great
herds of the Missouri drainage were not found in the lands inhabited
by the Shoshone, it is quite possible that there were sufficient
buffalo there to meet the needs of the population. Bonneville met a
group of twenty-five mounted Bannock in the neighborhood of Soda
Springs, Idaho, in November, 1833, and, at their invitation, joined
them in a buffalo hunt there (p. 33). After taking sufficient meat,
the Bannock returned to their winter quarters at the mouth of the
Portneuf River (p. 35). The winter of 1834-35 again found Bonneville
on the Bear River, this time on its upper reaches, where he made
winter camp with "a small band of Shoshonies" (p. 210). Farther
upstream was an encampment of "Eutaw" Indians, who were hostile to the
Shoshone (p. 213). Bonneville, however, managed to prevent conflict
between the two groups. One advantage of this winter camp, and a
possible source of attraction for the Ute Indians, was the presence of
antelope during the winter. Bonneville witnessed one successful
"surround" by horsemen, aided in their efforts by supernatural charms
reminiscent of Great Basin antelope drives (pp. 214-215).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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