SHOSHONE-BANNOCK SUBSISTENCE AND SOCIETY

BY

ROBERT F. and YOLANDA MURPHY

ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECORDS

Vol. 16, No. 7

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS

ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECORDS

Editors (Berkeley): J. H. Rowe (C), R. F. Millon, D. M. Schneider
Volume 16, No. 7, pp. 293-338,
1 map

Submitted by editors September 4, 1959
Issued November 23, 1960
Price, $1.00

University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles
California

Cambridge University Press
London, England

Manufactured in the United States of America

PREFACE

During the years 1954 to 1957, the authors engaged in ethnographic and historic research on the Shoshone and Bannock Indians under the sponsorship of the Lands Division of the Department of Justice in connection with one of a number of suits brought by Indian tribes for compensation for territory lost to the advancing frontier. The action was brought jointly by the Shoshone Indians of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada, and the Bannock of Idaho; it excluded the Shoshonean speakers of California, and the Bannock remained separate from the suit brought by their colinguists, the Northern Paiute of Oregon and Idaho.

Most anthropologists are aware of the ethnographic issues involved in the Indian lands claims cases, for the profession has had an active role in them. Of central importance, of course, is the question of the extent of territory used and occupied by the tribe in litigation. Other basic problems include the determination of the nature and composition of the groups involved, the rhythm of their seasonal activity, their political identity, and the actual time at which they occupied and used the terrain. Beyond these specifically anthropological considerations, other professionals have had an equally important role in delivering expert testimony in the cases, and we wish only to note in passing that historians, land appraisers, attorneys, and others have had much to do with their outcome.

The extent of the territory in question and the complexity of the historical period in point, that preceding the treaties of 1863 and 1868, required considerable research. We spent the summer of 1954 on the Shoshone reservations at Wind River, Wyoming, Fort Hall, Idaho, and Duck Valley, Nevada. Some six weeks each were spent at Wind River and Fort Hall and a week at Duck Valley. At each of these places we spoke to the oldest informants available. Salvage ethnography of this type is generally an unrewarding and unsatisfying task, and it was complicated in this investigation by the fact that we were asking our informants to recall historical material that is often ill preserved in the oral tradition. Thus, an old Indian may well remember some custom connected with war or ceremony that he had either experienced or that had been told to him by an older person. But he would be less likely to recall the exact places where game could be found, the trails used, the organization and composition of the group that pursued the game, and so forth. This is especially true of the buffalo-hunting Shoshone, for any informant who actually took part in a hunt as a mature individual would have been in his late seventies, at least, at the time of our research. And informants did not, of course, distinguish clearly between pre-and post-reservation times. Only careful cross-checking would reveal whether the individual was speaking of the 1860's or the 1890's. As might be expected, it was virtually impossible to determine whether the data supposedly valid for the 1860's was true of the preceding decade or the one before that, and any student of Plains and Basin-Plateau history recognizes that such historical continuity cannot be assumed.

Because of these limitations on the reliability of informants, most of our work was by necessity based on ethnohistoric research. Every attempt was made to examine the most important literature on the area and period. The total number of sources scrutinized far exceeded the bibliography at the end of this monograph, for many of them contained data that were at best scanty and superficial and at worst totally false. Despite our best efforts to approximate an adequate historical criticism, some of the data presented were found in works that can be used only with great caution. Alexander Ross, for example, has reported much material of doubtful authenticity, and one may labor long and hard in the accounts of Jim Beckwourth to separate fact from a delightful tendency to make the story exciting and his own personage more impressive. It is a wry commentary on the veracity of the mountain men that John Coulter's account of Yellowstone Park was long laughed at by his own peers as being simply an addition to a snowballing folklore of the fur country. Among other dubious sources, we can add W. T. Hamilton and the Irving account of Captain Bonneville's adventures. The problem of criticism becomes particularly difficult during the fur period from about 1810 to 1840 owing to the paucity of sources available for cross-checking particular data. Bonneville and Ross are especially rich in information, most of which cannot be easily verified. The choice became one of dismissing them altogether or using them. We elected to use them, but we have attempted restraint in drawing any important conclusions from them.

The monograph follows substantially the report submitted to the Indian Claims Commission. It has been edited, and we have also shifted emphasis at certain points to our own special interests. These are concerned with the relations between the social groups of the Basin and those of the Plains and the impact of the ecology of either region upon the social structures of the native population. A few qualifications should be noted. The limitations imposed by our assignment and by time did not allow the collection of as full a range of material on social structure as would be wished. Also, we have excluded any discussion of the Shoshone of Nevada, for our field work there was far too brief. Our one week at Duck Valley only served to reinforce our opinion of the truly masterful ethnography represented by Steward's "Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups," and we could add little to his work.

Finally, we wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to the Board of Editors of the University of California Publications in Anthropological Records for their valuable comments and to our many friends on the reservations visited for their friendship and coöperation. We have also profited greatly from discussions with Drs. Sven Liljeblad, Åke Hultkranz, and Julian Steward. This work owes much of whatever merit it may be found to have, and none of its shortcomings, to all these people.

Robert F. Murphy
Yolanda Murphy

CONTENTS