Western Shoshoni
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FOUR
DIRECTIONS INSTITUTE
Western Shoshoni |
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| Ethnie: | SHOSHONI*, WESTERN (NEWE) *also spelled SHOSHONE |
| Language: | Central Numic |
| Family: | Numic |
| Stock: | Uto-Aztecan |
| Phylum: | Aztec-Tanoan |
| Macro-Culture: | Great Basin |
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| The Western Shoshoni were a nomadic hunter/gatherer dialectic group and culture closely related to the Northern Shoshoni. They were primarily of a foraging type culture in that they occupied the arid Great Basin as relied on small game, fish, and dug for roots for subsistence. They spanned over a large area in just under 200 small villages or camps. They ranged from central and western Idaho south into northwestern Utah, central and northeastern Nevada, and California about Death and Panamint Valleys but wondered well outside of the aforementioned territories hunting, gathering, and foraging for food.. The Western Shoshoni avoided White contact, thereby resulting in little of their post arrival history being recorded. The introduction of domestic livestock destroyed the vegetation on which they relied for food. The Panamint Shoshone and Koso became transitions cultures prior to White contact embracing the Southern California culture, becoming semi-sedentary rather than nomadic, and intermarrying with the tribes of Southern Califoania. Please click here for a more detailed historical narrative of the Timbasha Shoshone relative to the proposed casino at Hesperia, California |
| Aboriginal Locations |
| Number of villages or camps: CA 123, ID 6, NV 42, UT 10 |
| Present Locations |
| CA Big Pine Reservation, Big Pine |
| Bishop Reservation, Bishop |
| Bridgeport Indian Colony, Bridgeport |
| Death Valley Indian Community, Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, Death Valley |
| Lone Pine Reservation, Lone Pine |
| NV Battle Mountain Colony, Battle Mountian |
| Duck Valley Reservation, Owyhee |
| Duckwater Reservation, Duckwater |
| Elko Colony, Elko |
| Ely Colony, Ely |
| Fallon Colony and Reservation, Fallon |
| Fort McDermitt Reservation, McDermitt, NV & OR |
| Ruby Valley Reservation, Ruby Valley |
| South Fork and Odgers Ranch Reservation, Lee |
| Winnemucca Colony, Winnemucca |
| Yomba Reservation, Yomba |
| UT Goshute Reservation, Ibapah |
| Skull Valley Reservation, Grantsville |
| Year | History |
| 1825 | Met by Jedediah Smith, may have been preceded by Old Greenwood |
| 1849 | Panamint of California first contacted by Whites, negatively affected by Gold Rush, livestock depleted food supplies |
| 1851 | Smallpox epidemic |
| 1862 | Began attacking stage lines and pony express, Army massacred large number of tribe at Steptoe Valley |
| 1863 | U.S. treaty with Western Shoshone at Ruby Valley |
| 1933 | Panamint (Timbasha) ancestral lands taken to create Death Valley National Monument |
| 1983 | Timbasha Shoshone federally recognized |
| 2000 | Desert Protection Act dictated that the Timbisha Shoshone are to be given a viable reservation |
| 2004 | President Bush signed Western Shoshone Distribution Bill forcibly distributing $145 million to tribes for their 24 million claimed acres against wishes of tribe thereby claiming termination of the Ruby Valley Treaty |
| Year | Total Population | CA | ID | NV | UT | Source | |
| 1700 | 4,500 | 500 | 400 | 2,900 | 700 | NAHDB calculation | |
| 1800 | 4,500 | 500 | 400 | 2,900 | 700 | NAHDB calculation | |
| 1845 | 4,500 | Mooney estimate (included 2,000 Northern Paiute) | |||||
| 1900 | 2,100 | 200 | 1,800 | 100 | NAHDB calculation | ||
| 1910 | 1,800 | Census | |||||
| 1937 | 1,201 | U. S. Indian Office | |||||
| 1989 | 3,400 | BIA | |||||
| 2000 | 6,000 | 500 | 5,200 | 300 | NAHDB calculation |
| Other speakers of the same language: |
| CA Koso, ID/WY Northern Shoshoni, OK Comanche |
Last updated 08/23/07 Copyright © 2007 by Four Directions Press