Shoshoni, Western
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FOUR DIRECTIONS
INSTITUTE Shoshoni, Western |
| Ethnie: | SHOSHONI, WESTERN |
| 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 "digger" 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. 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 |
| Aboriginal Locations |
| Number of villages or camps: CA 123, ID 6, NV 42, UT 10 |
| Present California Locations |
| 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 |
| Year | History |
| 1825 | Met by Jedediah Smith, may have been preceded by Old Greenwood |
| 1849 | 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 |
| Year | Total Population | California Estimate | Source |
| 1700 | 4,500 | 500 | NAHDB calculation |
| 1800 | 4,500 | 500 | NAHDB calculation |
| 1845 | 4,500 | Mooney estimate (included 2,000 Northern Paiute) | |
| 1900 | 2,100 | 200 | NAHDB calculation |
| 1910 | 1,800 | Census | |
| 1937 | 1,201 | U. S. Indian Office | |
| 1989 | 3,400 | BIA | |
| 2000 | 3,800 | 500 | NAHDB calculation |
| Other speakers of the same language: |
| CA Koso, ID/WY Northern Shoshoni, OK Comanche |
| Western Shoshoni Sites |
| The Gold Rush Legacy: Greed, Pollution, and Genocide http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/spring98/sp98g_wr.htm |
| Western Shoshoni of Nevada http://www.webpanda.com/white_pine_county/ethnic/shoshone.htm |
Copyright © 2000 by Four Directions Institute