Book Review: The Shoshone People

 The Shoshone People: Native American Cultures by Kristen Rajczak, Garret Stevens Publishing, 2015.

There are three distinct groups of Shoshone.  There are the Northern, Eastern and Western Shoshone.  The Northern and Eastern Shoshone had earlier access to horses.  They hunted buffalo and lived in tepees.  These facilitated their nomadic style.  The Northern Shoshone lived along the Snake River in western Wyoming and Idaho.  They and also ate salmon.  They Eastern Shoshone extended farther into Wyoming in the Green River area.  They would also travel into northern Utah.  The Comanche in Texas were once part of the Shoshone.

The Western Shoshone did not have as meny horses as the Northern and Eastern.  They lived in brush huts called wickiups.  There territory included eastern Utah, Nevada and extended into the Death Valley region of California.  The were gatherers, including pine nuts and roots and seed.  They also hunted small game.  

The book lacks information about specific Shoshone, but it does tell the story of Sacagawea who jioned the Lewis and Clark expedition.  She was Shoshone but living with the Hidatsa as she had been taken slave.  She was able to serve as a guide and help the companhy purchase horses from the Shoshone.

The book also mentions the Bear River Massacre.  In January of 1863 U.S. soldiers attacked them because of issues along the Oregon Trail and attacks on Mormon settlers.  250 Shoshone were killed, including women and children, the largest loss of Native American life in a battle.  

After this defeat the reservation system was established.  Chief Washakie worked with the government to establish the Wind River Reservation in 1868 for Eastern Shoshone.  Also Fort Hall and Lemhi Reservation were established for Northern Shoshone.  However in 1905 those at Lemhi were forced to move to Fort Hall.  There are numerous reservations and colonies that dot Nevada and eastern Utah.  

Very good information but where this bok says it is about the people, I would have liked more information on Shoshone people.

Video Review: Newe The Shoshone People

Newe: The Shoshone People - Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada and Utah. Turtle Island, USA

This movie is mostly drum music playing with written narrative.  Shoshone comes from the word for high grass.  They refer to themselves as Newe.  They were first called Shoshone by Meriweather Lewis.  This video tells a brief story of the Shoshone culture and talks of some of the differences between groups of Shoshone; Western, Northern, Eastern and Gosiute.  Eastern took the customs of the plains Indians.  The were driven south  by other tribes and the Comanche in Texas may have been Shoshone.  The Northern and Eastern peoples livied in tipis (teepees) which could be easily taken down like a tent.  This allowed them to follow the animals they hunted, such as buffalo.  The Northern Shoshone would also sustain themselves with salmon which the caught in nets or baskets.  A camp could be torn down in an hour and ready to move.  The used dog pulled travois.  However the Western Shoshone made lodges out of grass.  These were more permanent and harder to move.  They relied more on eating roots, pine nuts and seeds.  They would hunt smaller game such as deer or rabbit.  

This video introduced me to a new game, Shinny ball.  This game is most similar to field hockey.  It is played with sticks made from willow, which are heated and bent to make like a hockey stick.  

This movie has many pictures of Shoshone people, but they are not labeled.  It talks of the different tribes being lead by a chairman, and their having their own governments.  It talks about many conflicts and wars--especially the Bear River Massacre which saw the largest loss of life in Shoshone history.