Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society Part 6

Wash-a-kie ... has great influence with his tribe, which I have endeavored to retain for him by always recognizing him as their chief, and referring all others of his tribe to him as the only one through whom I can hold any communication with them.

Wind River Shoshone informants showed more confusion over chieftainship and patterns of leadership, in general, than on any other subject. All knew of Washakie and recognized his chieftaincy, but of those chiefs mentioned in sources confirmation was received only of Nar-kok, and this from but one informant. Shimkin mentions four main bands, each with its own chief (1947_a_, p. 247):

The band led by Ta'wunasia would go down the Sweet.w.a.ter to the upper North Platte [for the buffalo hunt]. That led by Di'kandimp went straight east to the Powder River Valley; that led by No'oki skirted the base of the Big Horn Mountains, pa.s.sing through Crow territory, then swung south again to the Powder River Valley. Washakie ascended Big Wind River, and then crossed the divide to winter near the headquarters of the Greybull.

Except for Washakie, No'oki was the only one of the above chiefs given also by our informants. Parenthetically, it should be emphasized that most of our informants stated that all the Eastern Shoshone hunted buffalo together for self-protection. The preceding historical account also suggests that Shimkin's data do not represent a stable traditional pattern, since the Plains were almost untenable until after the treaty, except for short hunts in strength.

The following is a list of Wind River chiefs in the early reservation period, as given by informants. It should be remembered that a man might have more than one name, and phonetic transcriptions usually vary according to the recorder (and the informant).

Wantsea Wanhi (Wantni) Ohata (Ohotwe) Dupeshipooi (Dupishibowoi) Dabunesiu Bohowansiye (Bohowosa) Witungak Donotsi Noki (No'oki of Shimkin) Wohowat Yohodokatsi Noiohugo Tagi Tishawa Wahawiichi Sunup Nakok (Narkok)

Washakie was mentioned by most informants as the head chief of the Eastern Shoshone. One old woman, however, said that he was more of a chief in the eyes of the whites than among the Shoshone; another commented that there were many chiefs, but that only Washakie was known by the whites. Washakie's most important function was to represent the Shoshone before the whites; this is understandable since the whites would deal with n.o.body else.

It was also commonly agreed that Washakie led the collective buffalo hunt, although the oldest man on the reservation claimed that there were many chiefs and that there was no special leader for the buffalo hunt. Informants said, furthermore, that the head chief acted as such only during those times of the year when all the people were together.

Some stated that he directed them to the winter encampment and told them where to go in springtime and summer. Washakie was said to have acted at these times in council with the lesser chiefs and decisions were made known to the camp through an announcer. One informant said that Noki (No'oki) acted as announcer. The statement that Washakie a.s.signed summer hunting areas to bands is undoubtedly erroneous, for it conflicts with the testimony of most informants that each group went where it chose.

There was also disagreement on the extent of Washakie's influence.

According to some informants, the term "Buffalo Eaters," as applied to Washakie's Wind River band, did not denote the people in the Green River country. Wanhi was said to be the chief of the people in the Fort Bridger area and not Washakie, who was chief only in Wind River.

This division probably refers to the split between those who chose to settle on the reservation and those who did not.

Despite considerable confusion about the role of the subchiefs, or lesser chiefs, they appear to have been men of prestige who had their own small following, although they recognized the personal influence of Washakie during large gatherings and general band endeavors. When not on the buffalo hunt or in winter camp these smaller groups of families, led by one or two of the minor leaders, functioned autonomously. Their itineraries and activities have already been described.

The small band was undoubtedly a much more basic unit in Eastern Shoshone society than the "tribe" as a whole. Intermarriage linked the small camp groups, although one could marry into his own unit if incest rules, as determined by kinship bonds, were not violated.

There was no obligatory rule of residence, but the couple more frequently resided after marriage with the bride's family. This was not necessarily a permanent arrangement, and visits were made to the families of either mate for extended periods. This, combined with individual freedom of choice of band membership, caused affiliations to be shifting and fluid. Ultimately these Shoshone were bilocal and neolocal. As has been said, the bands were not territory-owning units, and their chief functions were to provide economic cooperation and defense against enemies.

Leadership was an attained status and was not transmitted by descent.

Raynolds, however, refers to Cut-Nose as being the "hereditary chief of the Snakes," according to information received from Jim Bridger (Raynolds, 1868, p. 95), and the reservation chieftaincy pa.s.sed patrilineally in Washakie's family until the Reorganization Act established the tribal council. However, all informants agreed that one became a chief owing to merit--primarily through renown as a warrior. That the chieftaincy was neither inherited nor permanent is indicated by the proliferation of chiefs' names in historical sources.

Except for such figures as Washakie and Pocatello, a chief is rarely mentioned twice, and it can be hypothesized that many were the leaders of ephemeral predatory bands that arose for specific purposes of defense or agression against the whites and dissolved shortly after the period of emergency pa.s.sed. Finally, any man who had achieved renown and prestige or was the leader of a camp group, was known as a "chief," for the lack of inst.i.tutionalization and formalization of the office made its tenure most nebulous.

It was not even necessary that a Shoshone chief be a Shoshone. During 1858, we hear of a Delaware Indian named Ben Simons, undoubtedly a former fur trapper, who was at the head of some 150-400 Shoshone on the upper Bear River (Gove, 1928, pp. 133, 146, 277). And Washakie, himself, was born into the Flathead tribe. Washakie's Flathead father was killed by the Blackfoot, and his mother sought refuge with the Lemhi River Shoshone of Idaho. He eventually gained renown in the Green and Bear River country as a warrior and attained his final position as a successful mediator with the whites.

Finally, Washakie's career gives additional evidence that there were no hard and fast lines between the so-called "Eastern Shoshone" and other Shoshone groups. Washakie's wanderings, according to Wilson, took him into Utah, Idaho, and Montana (E. N. Wilson, 1926, pp.

68-73). This was consistent with the general Shoshone pattern of visiting between areas for short or extended periods. The unique character of Washakie's leadership can best be explained in terms of contact with the whites and the Shoshones' need to expand into the buffalo grounds east of the Rocky Mountains. First, Washakie united and represented all those Shoshone who did not choose to join their fellows in northern Utah and southern Idaho in hostilities against the whites. Second, Washakie was an able and vigorous war leader under whom the embattled Shoshone could rally. Although at no time a separate, territorially distinct and exclusive group, the Eastern Shoshone evidently became somewhat differentiated from their people to the west by the latter's long distance from the shrinking buffalo grounds and by their distaste for the warlike activities of their Utah and Idaho fellows. The Eastern Shoshone, however, did not attempt to maintain the area over which they roamed to the exclusion of other Shoshone and of the Bannock. Their neighbors and colinguists to the west, if they were properly mounted, could and did join with them in buffalo hunting.

III. THE SHOSHONE AND BANNOCK OF IDAHO

The Shoshone of western Wyoming were a mobile population whose primary subsistence was provided by buffalo herds. The Shoshone of Idaho showed no such unity of ecological adaptation, for the region was inhabited by mounted buffalo hunters and by less prosperous Shoshone who fished and gathered wild vegetables for a livelihood. While the buffalo hunters tended to be located in the southeastern part of Idaho and the fishing and gathering peoples in the southwestern, the mounted hunters traveled throughout the southern part of the state and, at certain times of the year, mingled with the poorer, footgoing Indians.

Because of this diversity we have divided Idaho into six subregions and present the historical and ethnographic data pertinent to each area under a separate heading. Indians mentioned in the historical sources are not always easily identifiable as Shoshone, Bannock, or Northern Paiute, and a great deal of confusion between the last two is inherent in their linguistic bond. We shall use the name Bannock in its most common sense to designate the mounted, buffalo-hunting Mono-Bannock speakers of Idaho; Northern Paiute refers specifically to the Mono-Bannock population to the west of the Shoshone. In many instances we cannot be certain that the Indians encountered by one or another traveler were permanent residents of the area. Permanency, in any event, is a rather doubtful attribute of this highly nomadic people; the term cannot be used except as a designation for the people who customarily spend the winter in a certain area, and even with this limitation it must be used with caution.

LINGUISTICS

All of the groups discussed in this chapter except the Bannock speak the Shoshone-Comanche, or Shoshone, language. While there were only minor differences of dialect between Shoshone speakers, the Bannock language was almost identical with Northern Paiute. Informants found an especially close affinity between Bannock and the language of the Oregon Paiute, who were frequently referred to as "Bannock" also and were sometimes distinguished from the Fort Hall Bannock only by the statement that "they live in Burns" (a town in Oregon). While some informants referred to the Oregon speakers of Mono-Bannock as "Paiute," this term was generally reserved for the population of west-central Nevada, and "Pyramid Lake" was the locale in which the Idaho Shoshone generally placed the "Paiute." The inhabitants of Duck Valley Indian Reservation were not so vague; they readily distinguished between Shoshone and "Paiute" on linguistic and other grounds. This is understandable because the Shoshone had lived a long time on the same reservation as the Oregon speakers of Mono-Bannock, who were officially designated as Paiute. While no vocabularies were collected on the Fort Hall Reservation among either the Shoshone or Bannock populations, data from informants on the similarity of Paiute and Bannock more than confirm Steward's statement (1938, p. 198):

The linguistic similarity of the Bannock and Northern Paiute (see vocabularies, pp. 274-275) leaves no doubt that they once formed a single group, though within historic times they have been separated by 200 miles.

The vocabularies to which Steward refers were taken from Northern Paiute at Mill City, a town southwest of Winnemucca, Nevada, and at George's Creek, in Owens Valley, California. It is probable that correspondences would have been even closer if vocabularies had been taken among the Northern Paiute of Oregon, for Fort Hall Bannock informants specifically stated that their language was more akin to that of the Oregon Paiute; the Pyramid Lake people were said to "talk fast" or "talk funny." The frequent designation of the Oregon Paiute as "Bannock" by both Bannock and Shoshone at Fort Hall Reservation bespeaks the linguistic similarity or virtual ident.i.ty of the languages of the respective groups.

As for Shoshone and Bannock, the two languages were not sufficiently similar to be mutually intelligible, although there are a great many cognate words. However, they were not so far removed from one another as to make bilingualism difficult. There was considerable bilingualism among the population of the Fort Hall plains.

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION

The following division of the Shoshone-Bannock population of Idaho into six main groups is admittedly arbitrary, although to a certain extent the sectors conform to actual sociopolitical groups or to populations designated by certain characteristics recognized by the Indians themselves. Proceeding from west to east, these are: (1) the population of the Boise and Weiser River valleys; (2) the Shoshone Indians of the middle course of the Snake River between Glenn's Ferry and Shoshone Falls and in the interior on both sides of the river; (3) the Shoshone of the Sawtooth Mountains, west of the Lemhi River, Idaho; (4) the population of Bannock Creek, Idaho, and south therefrom to Bear River; (5) the Shoshone and Bannock of the Fort Hall plains on the upper Snake River; and (6) the Shoshone Indians of the Lemhi River.

It will be seen that the Shoshone population of Idaho was by no means a unitary one, either socially or culturally. The people of these six areas were not politically interrelated, nor were the populations of each area integrated social or political units, although the Fort Hall and Lemhi River people were more highly organized than those of other areas. On the contrary, the Indians subsumed under each of the six divisions primarily consist of people who lived under similar ecological conditions and dwelt in geographical contiguity. Some shared roughly the same nomadic pattern and united upon occasion for diverse reasons. The populations represented by our sixfold division interacted more frequently for economic, social, and religious purposes with people within the area than they did with those from other areas.

Although strong patterns of leadership and a tightly nucleated society were alien to the Shoshone in general, the Shoshone gave verbal recognition to the more frequent interaction that existed between neighboring families or camp groups, especially when such neighborhoods were geographically discontinuous with other neighborhoods. Also, differences in food resources and habits of peoples of certain demarcated ecological provinces apparently impressed other Shoshone as significant criteria by which the people of these neighborhoods could be named. This is the only logical explanation for the common pattern among Northern Paiute and Shoshone of the Great Basin of food names applied to the people of certain neighborhoods. Thus we have "Wada Seed Eaters," "Salmon Eaters," etc.

In fact, it was quite common for the populations so designated to call themselves by these names, although this was not always so. In any event, it would be erroneous to say that such appellations implied membership in any social group, whether defined by united political leadership or by kinship. That individual families subsumed under some name, usually derived from food habits, tended to act more frequently together than with more distant neighbors cannot be denied, nor can we ignore the fact that common environment tended to induce a common subsistence pattern. That such groups were organized, territory-holding units cannot be simply a.s.sumed without supporting evidence, and this evidence is lacking. This view is shared by Steward, who summarizes the political significance of the food names in the following pa.s.sage (Steward, 1939, p. 262):

The emphasis, I think, is clearly upon the territory rather than upon any unified group of people occupying it. The extent of the people so designated depended upon the extent of the geographical feature or food in question. A name might apply to a single village, a valley, or a number of valleys. Some Snake River Shoshone vaguely called all Nevada Shoshone Pine Nut Eaters, the pinyon nut not occurring in Idaho. Furthermore, several names might be used for the same people. This system of nomenclature served in a crude way to identify people by their habitat. Upon moving to new localities, they acquired new names.

In general, the remarks above apply to our Boise-Weiser, Bannock Creek, middle Snake River, and Sawtooth Mountains populations and to the Shoshone of Nevada. The Indians of the Fort Hall plains and the Lemhi River were somewhat different. Both had horses at a relatively early period, were involved in frequent wars, and pursued the buffalo.

These factors tended to promote a somewhat different sociopolitical organization than we find farther west. Band organization, however fluid and shifting, did exist in the Fort Hall and Lemhi areas.

Finally, it should be remembered that the Indians of our six regions frequently wandered far from the areas designated. The areas, then, were centers of gravity in a migratory life. They were areas where subsistence was commonly obtained by the populations in question and, more important, where winter, the most sedentary season of the year, was pa.s.sed.

THE BOISE AND WEISER RIVERS

The region of the Boise, Payette, and Weiser rivers and the near-by sh.o.r.es of the Snake River are of considerable importance because of the contiguity of Shoshone and Northern Paiute populations in this area. We will present the historical data pertinent to an understanding of the mode and extent of Shoshone ecology there and will then give the material gathered through recent ethnographic investigation.

Our earliest information on this region comes from the Stuart diary of the Astoria party. Stuart wrote of the Boise River (1935, p. 83):

... the most renowned Fishing place in this Country. It is consequently the resort of the majority of the Snakes, where immense numbers of Salmon are taken.

The Hunt party arrived at the Boise River on November 21, 1811, and met well-clad and mounted Indians there (ibid., p. 295). One week later, the party came to Mann's Creek, a tributary of the Weiser River, and there found "some huts of Chochonis" (p. 296):

They had just killed two young horses to eat. It is their only food except for the seed of a plant which resembles hemp and which they pound very fine.

In the mountains between Mann's Creek and the Snake River some dozen huts of "Chochonies" were encountered (p. 299); the journals use Snake and "Chochoni" or "Shoshonie" interchangeably.

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 partic.i.p.ated 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 "princ.i.p.al 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.

The journal of John Work in June, 1832, mentioned (Work, 1923, pp.

165-167) "Snake" Indians on the Payette River, immediately below the mouth of Big Willow Creek; on Little Willow Creek; on the Weiser River; and on the east bank of the Snake River, between the mouths of the Payette and the Weiser. Work used the term Snake in a broad sense and we cannot identify this population as Shoshone with certainty. The Indians had horses, and may thus have been a buffalo-hunting group that had traveled west for salmon. Nathaniel Wyeth entered one of the western Idaho valleys in October of the same year and observed "extensive camps of Indians about one month old. Here they find salmon in a creek running through it and dig the Kamas root but not an Indian was here at this time" (Wyeth, 1899, p. 172). Wyeth was on the Boise River in August, 1834, and encountered "a small village of Snakes."

His party proceeded on to the Snake River where they found "a few lodges of very impudent p.a.w.nacks" (p. 229). "Bannock" Indians were also encountered on the Boise River in 1833 by Bonneville's party (Irving, 1837, 2:38) and in the following year his journals noted that "formidable bands of the Banneck Indians were lying on the Boisee and Payette Rivers" (p. 194). The Bannock, or the Indians so termed by our sources, evidently lived near the confluence of these streams with the Snake River, for John Townsend, a young naturalist who joined Wyeth's party, reported several groups of about twenty Indians fishing in the Boise River each of which identified itself as Shoshone (Townsend, 1905, pp. 206-207). Farther down the Boise River the party "came to a village consisting of thirty willow lodges of the p.a.w.nees (Bannocks)"

(p. 210). The Shoshone and the Mono-Bannock speakers did not maintain complete separateness, however, for Townsend wrote (1905, p. 266) that the party met some ten lodges of "Snakes and Bannecks" on the west side of the Snake River, near Burnt River.

The ident.i.ty of the above-mentioned Bannock is somewhat doubtful.