The journal of Thomas J. Farnham, written in 1839, documents the growing economic difficulties of the Shoshone of the Wyoming-northern Utah area. In July of that year, Farnham received news that the Shoshone on the Bear River were "starving" and subject to the depredations of marauding Blackfoot and Siouan war parties (Farnham, 1906, p. 229). While on "Little Bear River" (a Bear River tributary), Farnham observed that, despite the present barrenness, he had heard that this area was formerly rich in buffalo and that game had abounded in the mountains (p. 233). Further indication of the growing poverty of the Shoshone country is seen in his comment that the Shoshone suffered less from enemy attacks because "the passes through which they enter the Snake country are becoming more and more destitute of game on which to subsist" (pp. 262-263). Poverty, it would seem, did not bestow complete immunity upon the Shoshone of Wyoming nor did it entirely inhibit occasional forays against their enemies. Father De Smet, who was present at the Green River rendezvous in 1840, wrote that the "Snakes" were then preparing a war party against the Blackfoot (De Smet, 1906, 27:164). But by 1842, the Shoshone had other concerns than the traditionally hostile Blackfoot. Medorem Crawford noted that on July 23, 1842, the encampment of whites then situated near the Sweetwater River was joined by a party of over one hundred "Sues and Shians who had been to fight the Snakes" (Crawford, 1897, p. 13). The Shoshone had experienced previous armed encounters with Siouan groups to the east, but the pressure of the latter in these years was such that the Crow and Shoshone allied for defense against the powerful eastern tribes (Fremont, 1845, p. 146). The Crow, according to Fremont, had been present at the 1842 rendezvous on Green River (p. 50). Despite the alliance, Fremont regarded the Wind River Mountains as the eastern limit of Shoshone occupancy. He noted in 1843 that the Green River was twenty-five years earlier "familiarly known as the Seeds-ke-dee-agai, or Prairie Hen River; a name which it received from the Crows, to whom its upper waters belong" (p. 129), and both Farnham (1906, p. 261) and Russell (1921, pp. 144-146) placed the Shoshone no farther east than the Green River drainage in the years immediately preceding Fremont's observation. Siouan aggressions continued over an indefinite period, for Bryant reported in June, 1846, that about 3,000 Sioux had collected at Fort Laramie preparatory to an attack against the Shoshone and Crow (Bryant, 1885, p. 107). Bryant and his companions informed the Shoshone of the impending raid when they arrived at Fort Bridger on July 17, 1846. The approximately 500 Shoshone assembled there broke camp immediately, presumably to organize a defense (pp. 142-143).