Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and SocietyMurphy, Robert F. (Robert Francis)
History
Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society
Murphy, Robert F. (Robert Francis)
Bannock Indians; Shoshoni Indians
To return to the route to the buffalo country, some alternate trails
must be noted. After leaving Camas Prairie the party sometimes passed
through Arco and Idaho Falls, Idaho, and then headed north over the
Divide, via Monida Pass. They followed Red Rock Creek down to its
confluence with the Beaverhead and followed the previously described
trail.
Also, the buffalo party did not always reach Bozeman Pass via the
Three Forks of the Missouri. The alternate route crossed from the
Beaverhead River to the Madison River via Virginia City. The party
continued down the Madison a short distance and then went east to
Bozeman where the trail joined the one already outlined. There were
undoubtedly several other routes that are no longer remembered by
informants.
The buffalo hunt was conducted by much the same techniques as already
described for the Eastern Shoshone. Two scouts were sent out to
report upon the presence of buffalo, and the party surrounded and
pursued the herd as a group. No police societies to prevent hunting by
individuals were reported by our Idaho Shoshone and Bannock
informants, nor is there historic evidence of the institution. Guns,
spears, and the bow and arrow were used.
Meat was jerked and dried on the plains and the slain buffalo were
skinned and their hides dried. When as much of these commodities as
the pack horses could carry was accumulated, the party struck out for
home. Owing to the great distance between the Snake River Valley and
the buffalo country, winter usually overtook the party en route. If
the passes were still open when the hunters reached the Divide, they
went into winter quarters on the Snake River. If the heavy snows
caught the party while still far from the mountains, they kept
traveling slowly westward and attempted to encamp in one of the well
wooded and sheltered valleys on the east side of the Divide. When the
passes opened in the spring, they crossed into Idaho.
During the winter the party subsisted upon the dried buffalo meat and
whatever game could be killed. An important product of the hunt, the
most important according to one informant, was the buffalo hides from
which tipis and robes were made. Since there was no spring hunt and
other game was plentiful in eastern Idaho and western Wyoming in the
fall, the hides may well have been the primary attraction of the
buffalo country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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