Shoshones

There are two versions of this scene, this luscious watercolor and another, later one patterned after it for the William Walters commission dated around 1858 (CR# 184A). Unlike its companion work, this watercolor pictures a simple but lovely bucolic setting. On one side of the composition several Shoshone or Snake Indian men converse. Two are adorned in painted robes and feathered hair pieces. They set an exotic stage for interpreting the pastoral landscape to the left as a place apart from the normal American experience. Although the encampment in the meadow seems to lack narrative, Miller described it as a busy place in which men are engaged in “preparing jerked meat.” (Rough Draughts, no. 146) Even so, the scene is enshrouded by soft, lazy morning haze. The air is breathable, and the cool light redolent with mist and calm.

Peter H. Hassrick

Tribal Bands:

Some modern ethnologists claim that the meaning of the word “shoshone” has been lost even to the Indians themselves. Others believe “shoshone” means “The Valley People.” The Shoshone identified themselves by various names, many of which referred to primary food resources harvested by the different bands. Causing further confusion, multiple names were sometimes attached to the people in the same or widely separated areas. These bands spoke the same language and had similar customs, but were not politically organized as a tribe and did not identify themselves with only one name. An overall name used by the Northern Shoshone meant “the people.” Some of the names Shoshoni bands called themselves include:

Hukkandeka – “eaters of seeds”

Kammedeka – “eaters of jackrabbits”

Tetadeka – “eaters of pine nuts”

Pengwideka – “eaters of fish”

Agaideka – “eaters of salmon” (These people lived in the Lemhi River valley and upper Salmon River. Lemhi is not a Shoshoni word; European settlers invented it.)

Tukudeka – “eater of mountain sheep” 

Kutsundeka – “eaters of bison”

Yahandeka – “eaters of groundhogs”

Miller likely met people from the bison eater and sheep eater bands at the 1837 rendezvous.

Diggers:

In 1833, Nathaniel Wyeth noted the presence of Shoshone camps made by a tribe that he referred to as “Diggers,” and described them as “miserable.” Modern ethnologists conclude that: “Early non-Indian travelers in the Snake River Plain and Great Basin did not generally differentiate between the Shoshone, Bannock, and Northern Paiute peoples. Instead, they lumped them together under the rubric “Snake Indians,” a term apparently coined by other Native groups in the region. Some observers did, however, distinguish between “Snakes” and “Diggers” – the latter a somewhat derogatory term. Although there was much confusion in terminology, “Snake”commonly referred to horse Indians, while “Digger” often referred to foot-going Indians who relied heavily on root foods for their subsistence.”

Jim Hardee & Clay Landry

For Further Reading:

Hardee, Jim, Obstinate Hope, The Western Expeditions of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, 1832-1833

Shaul, David Leedom, Eastern Shoshone Working Dictionary