The Plains were evidently still unsafe, and hunting parties traveled in strength. But the end of the buffalo period was not far off, for hide-hunters and settlers had already made massive inroads on the herds, and the open-range cattle-raising industry had begun. It is interesting to note, however, that the itinerary followed in 1876 was much the same as that related by Shimkin's informants and by ours. Except for that given in the one account by Hamilton, it has no antecedents in the historical literature. EARLY RESERVATION PERIOD Wind River Shoshone informants speak little of activities west of the Continental Divide and tend to place their early economic life almost entirely in the Missouri drainage. This is not surprising when it is considered that eighty-six years had passed between the signing of the Fort Bridger treaty of July 3, 1868, establishing the reservation, and the field work reported here. Almost seventy years had elapsed between that date and Shimkin's 1937-1938 field work. That informants have a one-dimensional view of earlier periods in Shoshone history may well be expected. The type of data that deals with locales and events, the movements of peoples and situational adaptation is history of a different kind from the traditional cultural material with which anthropologists usually work. It would be an understatement to say that it would tax the memory of any human being to ask exactly where and when his people hunted many years before he was born. One of the oldest living Shoshone, for example, responded to our question about the location of the chief's lodge in the camp by saying that the chiefs lived in log cabins near the Agency. And even this was quite a mnemonic feat. Most of the following data was obtained from informants and pertains primarily to the early reservation period. Even for such a relatively late time, the information is not wholly reliable and is often vague and fragmentary. Certain aspects of these data are perpetuated in Wind River tradition, however, and are valid for even earlier periods than the one discussed. These concern the yearly economic cycle, the rhythm of movement from buffalo prairies to the mountains, the coalescence and fragmentation of social groups, the types of fish and game taken and the technology involved--cultural facts not immediately linked to situational, historical factors. These comments on reliability of informants' data should be borne in mind throughout the account below.