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 1818-19 journals of Alexander Ross gave considerable
attention to hostilities between the "Snakes" and the Sahaptin
("Shaw-ha-ap-tens")-speaking peoples (Ross, 1924, pp. 171, 210, 214).
Part of this action took place in southwestern Idaho. Ross attempted
to arrange peace between the hostile populations and wrote of a
council held there under the chiefs "Pee-eye-em" and "Ama-qui-em" and
participated in by the "Shirry-dikas," "War-are-ree-kas," and
"Ban-at-tees" (p. 243). The two chiefs, said by Ross to be brothers,
were previously mentioned as the "principal chiefs" of "the great
Snake nation" (p. 238). They belonged to the people called
"Shirry-dika," a buffalo-hunting population, for Ross spoke of the
acquiescence of "Ama-ketsa," a chief of the "War-are-ree-kas"
(fish-eaters, according to Ross), in the maintenance of peace and the
cowing of the "Ban-at-tees" by the two leaders (p. 246). Ross
represents the Shoshone as having a very large population; those at
the peace conference were said to have stretched their camps along
both sides of a stream for a distance of seven miles. The
"Shirry-dikas" are depicted as the most powerful, and the
"War-are-ree-kas," though numerous, are said to lack power and unity.
The "Ban-at-tees, or Mountain Snakes" are described as a fragmented
population, living in the mountain fastnesses and preying upon the
trappers. This seems to characterize the Northern Paiute of Oregon
more accurately than the mounted buffalo-hunting Bannock of
southeastern Idaho.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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