Date of Award:
5-1938
Document Type:
Thesis
Degree Name:
Master of Science (MS)
Department:
Political Science
Committee Chair(s)
T. D. Daines (Committee Chair)
Committee
T. D. Daines
Abstract
The Northwestern Shoshone Indians is the tribe of Indians that inhabited the territory north of the Great Salt Lake comprising the northern part of Utah and the Southern part of Idaho. The Indians have loose boundary lines, yet we can definitely state that this tribe occupied the territory from the Weber river on the South to the Snake river on the North; from Bear Lake and Bear river on the East to Raft river and Goose creek on the West. Their confines would take in Weber, Rich, Box Elder, Cache, and part of Morgan, counties in Utah; and Bear Lake, Caribou, Cassia, Oneida, Franklin, Bonneville, parts of Power, Minidoka, Bingham, counties in Idaho.1 This territory2 included the following streams and their tributaries, Bear river, Snake river, Logan river, Malad river, Raft river, Weber river, Blue Creek, Goose Creek, Cassia Creek, and others.1
At an earlier time the habitat of the Northwestern Shoshones extended northward into Yellowstone Park, Southwestern Montana, and into the valleys of the Salmon and Lemhi rivers.2 They were driven from these northern boundaries by the Piegans and Blackfeet who were in possession of firearms. It is probable that Sacajawea, the famous Bird-Woman and guide of the Lewis and Clark expedition, was a member of the Northwestern Shoshones. Upon divorcing her French husband Charbonneau, she lived with this tribe north of the Great Salt Lake for nearly twenty years.3
The Northwestern Shoshones were members of the great Shoshone family which occupied the Rocky Mountain region, taking in that vast territory extending from the Salmon river in Idaho, as the northern boundary, to Arizona on the south.4 From the Wind river in Wyoming, as the eastern boundary, to Oregon and California at the west. This family comprised Indians of many tribes who had similar physical and linguistic characteristics. The Shoshoen group manks with such families as the Siouan, Algonquin, Salishan, Esquamian.
Checksum
30b4e2768384d1541bb2c8a8dfde5f33
Recommended Citation
Evans, Joshua T., "The Northwestern Shoshone Indians, (a) under Tribal Organization and Government, (b) Under the Eccleastical Administration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as Exemplified at the Washakie Colony, Utah" (1938). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023. 7192.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/7192
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