Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society Part 7

Farnham met a number of Shoshone Indians engaged in fishing the Boise River in September, 1839 (Farnham, 1843, pp. 75-76). Some thirty traveling miles downstream from Boise, however, he noted in apparent contradiction of Townsend, that there were no more "Shoshonie," for "they dare not pa.s.s the boundary line between themselves and the Bonacks." The Bannock are described as a "fierce, warlike, and athletic tribe inhabiting that part of Saptin or Snake River which lies between the mouth of Boisais or Reed's River and the Blue Mountains." The question arises whether the Bannock mentioned in the sources were the buffalo-hunting Mono-Bannock speakers who regularly inhabited the upper Snake River or whether they followed the fishing and seed-collecting pattern of the Mono-Bannock speakers of Oregon.

Townsend's report of their use of willow lodges suggests that they were Mono-Bannock, but Farnham observed that the Bannock found on the Snake River made war on the Crow and Blackfoot (p. 76). This would definitely suggest life during part of the year in southeastern Idaho and, also, the pursuit of the buffalo. Later historical data and the testimony of contemporary informants suggest that both the Oregon and eastern Idaho populations of Mono-Bannock speakers fished on the Snake River and in the lower reaches of the Boise and Weiser rivers. There was no clear boundary between the Shoshone and the Oregon people termed Northern Paiute, and the mounted buffalo-hunting Bannock also visited western Idaho to fish for salmon. It is thus doubtful whether the ambiguities of the historical sources will ever be resolved.

The subsequent historical references to the native population of this region cover the outbreak of hostilities against the white emigrants on the Oregon Trail and the subsequent attempts to establish peace with the Indians and place them on reservations. In 1862 Special Indian Agent Kirkpatrick surveyed the southwestern Idaho Indians and reported: "The Winnas band of Snakes inhabit the country north of Snake river, and are found princ.i.p.ally on the Bayette, Boise and Sickley Rivers" (Kirkpatrick, 1863, p. 412). He reported them as warlike and numbering some 700 to 800 people. Kirkpatrick's "Winnas band" probably corresponds to the designation of the "Wihinasht" in the Handbook of American Indians; these are said to be "a division of Shoshoni, formerly in western Idaho, north of Snake River and in the vicinity of Boise City" (Hodge, 1910, 2:951). During our field work, we found that the term "Wihinait" was often applied generically to the Shoshone population of Fort Hall Reservation.

In later years, other bands are reported in southwestern Idaho.

Governor Caleb Lyon made a treaty with "San-to-me-co and the headmen of the Boise Shoshonees" on October 10, 1864 (Lyon, 1866, p. 418) and in the following year placed some 115 "Boise Shoshone" at Fort Boise (Lyon, 1867, p. 187). Special Indian Agent Hough mentioned Boise, Bruneau, and Kammas bands of Shoshone in 1866 and commented: "The Bruneau and Boise are so intermarried that they are in fact all one people and are closely connected by blood, visiting each other as frequently as they dare pa.s.s over the country" (Hough, 1867, p. 189).

Governor Ballard, in the same year, reported that the "Boise Shoshones" numbered 200; insecurity due to Indian-white hostilities kept them from camas-root digging during the summer (Ballard, 1867, p.

190). In 1867 many Shoshone of the Boise and Bruneau rivers and a group of Bannock were placed temporarily on the Boise River, some thirty miles upstream from Boise (Powell, 1868, p. 252). The Bannock were said to have been under the leadership of a chief named "Bannock John"; the report, dated July 31, 1867, also mentioned that these Bannock engaged in salmon fishing in the Boise River and camas collection on Camas Prairie during the summer, but intended to go east for the buffalo hunt in the fall. That the above Bannock were mounted buffalo hunters rather than Oregon Paiute seems manifest from this statement. This was not the only Bannock band, however, for on July 15, 1867, Agent Mann of Fort Bridger, Wyoming, reported a conversation with "Tahjee, the chief of the Bannacks" in which he learned that "there does exist a very large band of Bannacks, numbering more than 100 lodges" (Mann, 1868, p. 189). Mann stated that 50 lodges of these Indians were present that year. This and other references to the diverse, but simultaneous, locations of the Bannock suggest that they were not a unitary political ent.i.ty.

References to the Bannock and to the Shoshone on the Boise and Bruneau rivers continue during the next two years. Powell gave their numbers in 1868 as 100, 283, and 300, respectively, and stated (C. F. Powell, 1869, p. 662):

... [the Bannock] remained under my charge for several months, when they were permitted to go on their regular buffalo hunt, their country ranging through eastern Idaho and Montana. When through their hunt they return to the Boise and Bruneau camp; they and the Boise and Bruneau are on the best of terms, all being more or less intermarried.

Ballard reported that on August 26, 1867, a treaty was signed by Tygee, Peter, To-so-copy-natey, Pah Vissigin, McKay, and Jim, in which the Bannock agreed to settle on Fort Hall (Ballard, 1869, p. 658); the Bannock and also the Bruneau and Boise Shoshone were removed from the Boise Valley on December 2, 1868, and brought to Fort Hall (C. F.

Powell, 1870, p. 728). They were joined there by 500 Bannock under Tygee, who had just returned from a joint buffalo hunt with the Eastern Shoshone in Wind River Valley (p. 729). Indian Agent Danilson of Fort Hall wrote that in 1869 there were 600 Bannock, 200 Boise Shoshone, 100 Bruneau Shoshone, and 200 Western Shoshone on the reservation (Danilson, 1870, p. 729). The beginning of the reservation period marks the effective end of the independent occupancy of the Idaho area by the Shoshone and Bannock. The rest of this section deals with ethnographic data. In regard to extent of Shoshone settlement, Omer Stewart has reported that eastern Oregon, about the mouths of the Malheur and Owyhee rivers, and southwest Idaho as far east as a line well past Boise, were the territory of a Northern Paiute band called the Koa'agaitoka (Stewart, 1939, p. 133). Blythe places a Northern Paiute band called "Yapa Eaters" in the Boise River Valley (Blythe, 1938, p. 396) and mentions data given by one informant to the effect that a mixed band of Paiute and Shoshone called "People Eaters" lived to the north of the Yapa Eaters (p. 404). Neither historical research nor ethnographic investigation among the Shoshone confirms the existence of such bands in the area described. On the contrary, Steward writes (1938, p. 172):

Shoshone seem to have extended westward about to the Snake River which forms the boundary between Idaho and Oregon. They also occupied the Boise River Valley and probably to some extent the valleys of the Payette and Weiser Rivers. They probably never penetrated Oregon beyond the Blue Mountains.

But the area nearer the Snake River was not occupied exclusively by Shoshone, for Steward continues (ibid.):

This population was neither well defined politically nor territorially. It was scattered in small independent villages of varying prosperity and tribal composition. Along the lower Snake, Boise, and Payette Rivers Shoshone were intermixed with Northern Paiute who extended westward through the greater portion of southern and eastern Oregon. Slightly to the north they were probably mixed somewhat with their Nez Perce neighbors.

Our own field work, as presented below, tends to confirm Steward's data on most points and is in accord with historical information.

Although there were salmon-yielding streams in Oregon, the Boise and Weiser rivers were richer in these fish, and salmon could be caught on the Boise River upstream to its headwaters. During the spring and fall salmon runs, many Northern Paiute evidently crossed the Snake River and fished in the Boise and Weiser. Relations seem to have been friendly, and there was considerable intermarriage. Many Paiute evidently wintered in this area and could therefore be said to be as regular residents as the Shoshone. They maintained separate winter villages and tended to remain along the downstream stretches of the Boise and Weiser rivers. Informants disagreed on the extent of this interpenetration. Some characterized the population, especially of the Weiser Valley, as "mixed," while others said that only a very few Northern Paiute remained through the winter. More reliable and older informants characterized the population as mostly Shoshone. One old woman, a present resident of Duck Valley Reservation, identified herself as a Northern Paiute from the Weiser country. Her conversation, however, immediately revealed that she was actually speaking in the Shoshone language and that this was her first language. This attempted deception is partially explained by the somewhat greater prestige enjoyed by the Northern Paiute on that reservation.

As has been mentioned, the composition of the population of this region is further confused by the fact that some camp groups of Bannock pa.s.sed by the more commonly used fishing sites below Shoshone Falls and fished on the Boise and Weiser rivers. An added inducement to the Bannock was the possibility of trade with the Nez Perce Indians in the upper valley of the Weiser River. The Bannock did not stay long in the area, however, and never wintered there.

The Boise-Weiser country is relatively rich. The streams gave a good yield of fish, roots abounded in the valleys, and game was found in the near-by mountains. The floors of the valleys are well below 3,000 feet, and winters are comparatively mild. Although the Shoshone residents of the area wandered far on occasion, a full subsistence could be obtained within the immediate area. Stretches of mountainous and barren lands tended to mark off this population from other Shoshone to the east. The testimony of informants is somewhat contradictory to Steward's statement (1938, p. 172) that the Boise-Weiser Shoshone "imperceptibly merged with the Agaiduka of the Snake River and the Tukaduka of the mountains to the north." It is true that there were no concepts of territorial boundaries and that the above-mentioned populations interacted, interchanged, and interpenetrated, but the locus of movement of each of the above three populations, especially their wintering places, did differ.

While Steward reports that the rubric "Yahanduka," or "Groundhog Eaters," was applied to the residents of the Boise-Weiser areas, we were unable to obtain this name. Yahandika was variously reported by Fort Hall informants as referring to a district in Nevada; by others as applied to certain Oregon Northern Paiute. Another informant said that it was an alternate term for the Shoshone of the middle Snake River, who are more generally called "Summer Salmon Eaters." The latter, stated this informant, had very close relations with the Boise population. All of the informants were probably right in a sense; only the uncertainty of these appellations is indicated.

Steward obtained "Su:woki" as the name of the Boise-Weiser country. My informants applied this name to the people of the region also, who were called "Sohuwawki," or "Row of Willows." The place name had evidently been transferred to the people or, more accurately, the place name was applied to whatever people used the locale. The name was especially used to denote the people and country of the Weiser River, although one informant thought the name covered the Boise people also. Another name given to the Weiser Shoshone was "Woviagaidika," or "Driftwood Salmon Eaters." This name is derived from the salmon's habit of lying under the driftwood in small streams.

Only one informant reported a name for the dwellers of the Boise Valley, "Pa avi."

Informants sometimes spoke of the Boise-Weiser Shoshone as being "just one bunch." Certainly the populations of this section of Idaho merged, shifted, and interacted to such an extent that it would be difficult to distinguish them, although "one bunch," two chiefs, Captain Jim and Eagle Eye, were reported for the area. The former was said to be chief of those who usually wintered in the vicinity of Boise; the latter was chief of the winter residents of the Weiser valley. No clear delineation of the functions of these chiefs could be obtained.

The actual nature of Boise-Weiser Shoshone society can be understood better from their subsistence patterns. Winter was spent in small camps scattered along the valleys of the streams. There was little danger from hostile intruders, and camp grounds were not the larger population nuclei that we find in the Fort Hall area. Favorite winter camp sites were at the present site of the city of Boise, near present-day Emmett on the Payette River, and on the lower Weiser River, near the mouth of Crane Creek. Some families were said to have wintered on both sides of the near-by Snake River. While it was common for the same families to form winter camp groups, there was considerable shifting and changing each year, dictated by personal preference. Also, it was not necessary for the camps to spend every winter in the same place, and changes occurred constantly.

Winter was spent by their caches of roots and salmon; the dried and jerked game meat was said to have been kept in the lodge. The common type of winter dwelling was a sort of tipi made of rye gra.s.s. Stored food supplied the main subsistence during the winter, but sagehens, blue grouse, and snowshoe rabbits were also taken. Antelope were chased on horses (probably by the surround method), and deer frequently came down from the mountains and were killed while floundering in deep snow.

Springtime brought no extensive migrations. Some roots were available in the area, but the chief source of springtime subsistence was the salmon run, which began in approximately March or April. A second run followed immediately upon the first and continued until the end of spring. Fish traps were made on the Payette River, in the vicinity of Long Valley, and on the lower Weiser River. Salmon were also taken in the Boise River. According to informants, the people of this area did not resort to the great salmon fisheries in the vicinity of Glenn's Ferry and upstream to Shoshone Falls. The abundance of fish in local waters made this unnecessary. Although the population divided and went to various fishing sites, the salmon runs were periods during which stable residence in small villages was possible.

At the end of spring and in early summer, many of the Indians of the Boise-Weiser country traveled to Camas Prairie, where roots of various kinds were dug. These people stayed there through part of the summer, and during this time roots were collected and dried. This was also a time of dances and festivities, for a large part of the Shoshone and Bannock population of Idaho, plus a sprinkling of the Nez Perce and Flathead, resorted at the same time to these root grounds. These were probably the largest gatherings of people among all the Shoshone.

There was no large, single encampment, but families and camp groups were in such close contiguity that social interaction was intense.

At the conclusion of the root-collecting season at Camas Prairie, the inhabitants of the Boise and Weiser region wandered back to their customary area and set out upon their late summer and fall activities.

Fish were taken during the fall run and dried for winter provisions, but the chief activity was hunting. Both hunting and fishing could be pursued at the same time in the upper waters of the Boise and Payette rivers, although salmon did not ascend far up the Weiser. Hunting was done by small camp groups of 3 to 4 lodges, and the population scattered throughout the mountain country surrounding the river valleys. The princ.i.p.al game taken was deer, elk, bear, and some bighorn sheep. None required the collective efforts of a large number of men, and all were found throughout the mountain area. The small camp group was, therefore, the most effective social unit for the fall hunt, as it was for the summer wanderings of the Wyoming Shoshone.

The hunters ranged up the Boise and Payette valleys into the Sawtooth Mountains as far as the beginnings of the Salmon River watershed.

Though the Salmon River country was entered, the hunting parties did not penetrate very far. A favored hunting territory was in the Stanley Basin, at the headwaters of the Salmon River and in the vicinity of the present-day village of Stanley. The kill of game was dried in the mountains and packed down to the winter quarters in the valleys of the Boise, Payette, and Weiser rivers.

In general, it is difficult to define the social organization of the Boise-Weiser Shoshone. While Shoshone social organization is characteristically amorphous, some groups developed a closer integration owing to such factors as warfare and collective economic activities, which demanded leadership. But warfare was rare in this region, and hunting and root-and berry-collecting were essentially carried on by families. The building and operation of fish traps and the distribution of the catch undoubtedly called forth some leadership functions, but not on the band level. Also, the presence of other groups which fished the same streams during the appropriate seasons seems to argue against the consolidation of either the Boise or Weiser people into territorially delimited bands. It was impossible to elicit exact information from informants on the functions of leaders, and it can only be inferred that they probably served as intermediaries with the whites or were simply local men enjoying some prestige as dance directors or leaders of winter villages.

The Shoshone of this area were poorer in horses than the buffalo hunters, but they did possess some. The valleys of the Boise, Payette, and Weiser evidently afforded adequate grazing for small herds, and the natives enjoyed a greater mobility than did their neighbors to the northeast and southeast. The resulting ease of communication would perhaps be conducive to band organization, but neither living informants nor historical sources offer any confirmation of this. That such sociopolitical groups did exist is suggested by mention of chiefs, but the groups did not have clearly defined territories which excluded other peoples, and they could only have been most loosely organized.

THE MIDDLE SNAKE RIVER

This area includes all of Idaho south of the Sawtooth Mountains between American Falls and the Bruneau River. It has been seen that the area of the Boise, Payette, and Weiser rivers was entered regularly by populations that did not customarily winter there; this is true also of the area of the middle Snake, and to a much greater degree. First, the salmon run did not extend above Shoshone Falls, and the population living upstream from that point resorted regularly to favored fishing places below the Falls. Second, the prairies about the locale of present-day Fairfield, Idaho, were the richest camas-root grounds in this section of the Basin-Plateau area and large numbers of Indians convened every summer to gather the roots. Historical sources testify to the numbers of Indians found in the area during certain times of the year, but it is usually impossible to determine the geographical locus of these people during the remainder of the year.

Travelers observed small, impoverished groups of Indians and also larger camps of mounted people. Near Glenn's Ferry, Idaho, Stuart on August 23, 1812, noted (1935, p. 108):

... a few Shoshonie (or Snake) Camps were pa.s.sed today, who have to struggle hard for a livelihood, even though it is the prime of the fishing season in the Country.

Stuart encountered some 100 lodges of Shoshone fishing at Salmon Falls (p. 109). In 1826 Peter Skene Ogden met a camp of 200 "Snakes" bearing 60 firearms and a quant.i.ty of ammunition at Raft River, above the limit of the salmon run (Ogden, 1909, p. 357). In October of the following year he visited Camas Prairie, the camas grounds in the vicinity of Fairfield, and noted a pattern of movement that is still reported by informants (p. 263):

It is from near this point the Snakes form into a body prior to their starting point for buffalo; they collect cama.s.se for the journey across the mountains. Their camp is 300 tents. In Spring they scattered from this place for the salmon and horse thieving expeditions.

Buffalo were formerly found on the plains of the upper Snake River, but American Falls was apparently their approximate western limit.

Wyeth was at American Falls in August, 1832, and wrote (1899, p. 163):

We found here plenty of Buffaloe sign and the p.a.w.nacks come here to winter often on account of the Buffaloe we now find no buffaloe.

The Wyeth party then turned up the Raft River where they "met a village of the Snakes of about 150 persons having about 75 horses" and farther upstream found "the banks lined with Diggers Camps and Trails but they are shy and can seldom be spoken." On Rock Creek, the party met some 120 Indians who evidently had fresh salmon, and farther on their journey on this stream they found "Diggers," "Sohonees," and "p.a.w.nacks" (ibid., pp. 166-168). A chief and some sub-chiefs were mentioned at one of these camps. Small and scattered camps of Indians were mentioned throughout Wyeth's journeys on the southern tributaries of the Snake River.

Fewer Indians were encountered in the salmon-yielding sections of the Snake River during the winter. Bonneville's party met only footgoing Indians near Salmon Falls in the winter of 1834; the Indians lived in a scattered fashion and groups of no more than three or four gra.s.s huts were found (Irving, 1873, p. 300), although large numbers of Indians were seen in the same area during the salmon season (p. 444).

Crawford met numbers of Indians along the Oregon Trail in southern Idaho in August, 1842 (Crawford, 1897, pp. 15-17) and in October of the following year Talbot observed of Indians near Shoshone Falls (1931, p. 53):

These Indians speak the same language as the Snakes but are far poorer and are distinguished by the name of Shoshoccos, "Diggers," or "Uprooters." They have very few, and indeed most of them, have no horses....

Near Glenn's Ferry, however, Talbot met a large number of Indians of the "Waptico band of the Shoshonees," who had many horses (ibid., p.

55). Talbot drew the following conclusion from his experience on the Snake River (p. 56):

It seems that there is a monopoly of the fisheries on the Snake River. The Banak Indians who are the most powerful, hold them in the spring when the salmon and other fishes are in best condition--later on different tribes of Shoshonees hord the monopoly. Last, and of course weakest of all, the miserable creatures such as are with us now, come, like gleaners after the harvest, to gather up the leavings of their richer and more powerful brethren.

Other sources contradict Talbot's observations, however, and give a picture of simultaneous use of the abundant salmon run by people of diverse locality and condition. But it is possible that mounted and more powerful people occupied the choicest sites.

During the late 1850's, the hostilities that broke out throughout Utah and Idaho also affected the Snake River. Wallen reported Indians peacefully fishing at Shoshone Falls in 1859, but commented that the Bannock upstream were well armed and formidable (Wallen, 1859, pp.

220, 223). In the same year. Will Wagner met on Goose Creek "several men of the band under the chief Ne-met-tek" (Wagner, 1861, p. 25) and encountered both Shoshone and Bannock in the high country between the Humboldt and Snake rivers (p. 26). Not all the Indians met exhibited hostile intentions in 1859 or in 1862 and 1863, when punitive forces were sent against the hostiles. Colonel Maury noted that "those perhaps who are more hostile are near Salmon Falls, or on the south side of Snake River" (War of the Rebellion, 1902, p. 217). Actually the hostiles were raiding along the Oregon Trail south of the Snake River, and it is probable that many of the peaceful Indians encountered also indulged in occasional attacks when in the neighborhood of the whites. Seventeen lodges and about 200 Indians were found near Shoshone Falls in August, 1863; these people reported that "the bad Indians are all gone to the buffalo country" (ibid, p.

218).

Further information from the military forces indicates a continuation of the older nomadic patterns. Colonel Maury said of Camas Prairie (ibid., p. 226):

All the Indians living northwest of Salt Lake visit the grounds in the spring and summer, putting up their winter supply of camas, and after the root season is over, resort to the falls and other points on the Snake to put up fish.

In October, 1863, after the mounted people had left the fishing sites, Colonel Maury reported on the population along the Snake River (ibid., p. 224):

They live a family in a place, on either side of the river for a distance of thirty or forty miles; have no arms and a very small number of Indian ponies; not an average of one to each family.... There are from 80 to 100 of this party, all Shoshones, and, aware of the treaties made at Salt Lake, scattered along the river from the great falls to the mouth of this stream [the Bruneau River], a distance of 100 miles.