Tribe: The Shoshone, from the Shoshone word "Sosoni." There are the Eastern, Northern and Western Shoshone.
Meaning of Name: Shoshone means "High Grass People." They call themselves the "Newe" which means "People." Their ancestors had been in the high desert for thousands of years and called themselves the "Numa." They are also called the "Snake People" probably because many of them lived by the Snake River in Oregon.
Location: Originally, in 2000 BC, the Shoshone were in Nevada and Utah. Then, between 700 BC and 1500 AD, they were pushed into Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Oregon and some Shoshone migrated as far south and west as Southern California.
Original Language: Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
Tribal Affiliations: Comanche (a branch of the Shoshone), Crow, Nez Perce, Paiute. They also traded with the Spanish, who would not give them guns, which made the Shoshone susceptible to the other tribes in the Great Plains who had guns.
Traditional Enemies: The other tribes of the Great Plains, namely, the Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and the Lakota. The good news is that they weren't terribly interested in destroying their enemies, but in counting coup (taking slaves and trophies.)
Traditional Style of Housing: Teepees and wickiups (small temporary tents made of grasses, branches and leaves.)
Traditional Attire: buckskin breechcloths and leggings for the men, long dresses with wide sleeves for the women. These were often richly adorned with fringes, quills and beadwork. In colder weather and climes, they wore rabbit robes and pants. They also wore their hair long and often in braids, and did not, originally, wear fancy headdresses.
Traditional Foods: Since this was such a wide-ranging and nomadic tribes, what they ate depended on where they were. Of those who were hunters and gatherers, they ate bison, sheep, fish, antelope, rabbit, beaver, elk, fox, roots, berries, seeds, nuts and even pulverized grasshoppers. Of those who lived in more settled areas, they had a more agrarian society and grew and ate wheat, squash, corn, pumpkins and barley. However, as their game thinned, even their more permanent villages were temporary. Shoshone were, on the whole, not particularly well-off, economically-speaking.
Position of Women: Neutral. Women were valued as artists, home-makers (literally), child-bearers and gatherers, but it is not known how great a role they had in their individual bands. Their value, along with the value of their children, seemed to have been primarily as slaves for other tribes. They and their children tended to huddle in the middle of their encampment for safety during a raid, and if a warrior from the other tribe managed to get as far into that encampment as to reach the women and children, and to capture them, this was considered a great accomplishment.
Shoshone Courtship: Outside of frequent kidnapping, not much is known.
Interesting Tidbits: The Shoshone divide themselves into the following bands: Buffalo Eaters, Sheep Eaters, Sage Brush People, Salmon Eaters, Mountain People, Jackrabbit Eaters, Wild Wheat Eaters, Mountain Sheep Eaters, Groundhog Eaters, Bitter Root Eaters, Mentzelia Seed Eaters, Fish Eaters, Redtop Grass Eaters, Pine Nut Eaters, Tulle Eaters, Ricegrass Eaters, Ryegrass Eaters, Buffalo Berry Eaters and seven or eight other bands with less-interesting translated names. So, like the Paiute, you are what you eat.
Traditional Religion: Native American religion, Christianity.
Slavery and the Shoshone: Since they lived as nomads in the Frontier, they probably didn't participate much in the Civil War, and as a group, they were generally too poor to afford slaves. Sacagawea, on the other hand, was captured during some skirmish by another tribe, and sold to a Frenchman, which would make her a slave until he married her.
Current Population: There are between 12,000 and 30,000 registered Shoshone.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Crafts, tourism, casinos in Idaho.
Famous Shoshone: Sacagawea, Shoshone guide to Lewis and Clark.
No comments:
Post a Comment