The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern Shoshone, the Western Shoshone and the Eastern Shoshone.
They traditionally spoke the Shoshoni language, a part of the Numic languages branch of the large Uto-Aztecan language family. Some Shoshone were sometimes called the Snake Indians or Bannock Indians by early Europeans.
The Northern Shoshone are concentrated in eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and northeastern Utah. The Northern Shoshone lived in tipis, had horses, and hunted buffalo.
The Eastern Shoshone tribes lived in Wyoming, northern Colorado and Montana. After 1750, warfare and pressure from the Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho pushed them south and westward. Some of them moved as far south as Texas, to become the Comanche.
The Western Shoshone tribes lived in Oregon and western Idaho, and ranged from central Idaho, northwestern Utah, central Nevada. Some are also located in California. The Idaho groups of Western Shoshone were called Tukuaduka (sheep eaters), while the Nevada/Utah bands were called the Gosiute or Toi Ticutta (cattail eaters). In California the Timbisha Shoshone (also known as the Death Valley or Panamint Shoshone) have lived for centuries in the Death Valley, Saline Valley, Panamint Valley and surrounding mountains. They have a federally recognized tribal reservation and government at Furnace Creek, California. Shoshone-Paiute have continued to live in the Owens Valley, California.
They traditionally spoke the Shoshoni language, a part of the Numic languages branch of the large Uto-Aztecan language family. The Shoshone were sometimes called the Snake Indians by early Europeans.
The Northern Shoshone are concentrated in eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and northeastern Utah. The Northern Shoshone lived in tipis, had horses, and hunted buffalo.
The Eastern Shoshone tribes lived in Wyoming, northern Colorado and Montana. After 1750, warfare and pressure from the Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho pushed them south and westward. Some of them moved as far south as Texas, to become known as the Comanche.
The Western Shoshone tribes lived in Oregon and western Idaho, and ranged from central Idaho to northwestern Utah and central Nevada. Some Western Shoshone tribes are also located in California. The Idaho groups of Western Shoshone were called Tukuaduka (sheep eaters), while the Nevada/Utah bands were called the Gosiute or Toi Ticutta (cattail eaters). In California the Timbisha Shoshone (also known as the Death Valley or Panamint Shoshone) have lived for centuries in the Death Valley, Saline Valley, Panamint Valley and surrounding mountains. Shoshone-Paiute have continued to live in the Owens Valley in California.
Shoshone Tribes Indexes
Eastern Shoshone
Northern Shoshone
Western Shoshone
Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation
Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah
Shoshone Battles:
Famous Shoshone
Shoshone Chiefs / Leaders:
Shoshone Chief Washakie (Whoshakik): A Biographical Sketch
Famous Shoshone Women:
Sacajawea, Shoshone (Adopted Hidatsa) (1784-1812?)
Sacagawea’s son: Through the mist of two centuries, a portrait emerges
Enrollment requirements of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation requires members to live on the reservation at least one year out of three and also requires a blood quantum of at least 1/4 Paiute or Shoshone ancestry.
The Enrollment Office oversees the tribal enrollment rolls of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation by keeping enrollment records of tribal members current and accurate.
Genevieve Fields, Enrollment Officer
Ph (435) 234-1267
genevievefields@goshutetribe.com
This department is responsible for the enrollment and updating of tribal membership for the tribe issuing and receiving enrollment applications, issuing tribal identification cards, researching and gathering information, sending correspondences to various tribes and applicants, and preparing completed applications to present to the Goshute Enrollment Committee.
Of 2,448 enrolled Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone members in 2003, an estimated 413 were disenrolled (some 17% of the Tribe), and it is expected that the current disenrollment wave underway by Nevada’s Te-Moak Tribal Council will eliminate the membership of another 300 persons for a total disenrollment of approximately 29% of the Tribe.
In a letter dated January 23, 2012 to the Te-Moak Tribal Council in Elko, Lois Whitney and Myron Tybo informed Council Members a meeting had been held January 21, 2012 to discuss enrollment issues at which the “majority of the people in attendance expressed that the enrollment committee altered their family enrollment,” which the letter maintains is “unconstitutional and a violation.” The letter called on the Tribal Council to investigate its enrollment process.
Ely Shoshone Tribe of Nevada tribal enrollment requirements… To be eligible for enrollment in the Ely Shoshone Tribe of Nevada, you must submit in writing proof of the following requirements as outlined in the Ely Shoshone Tribe Constitution adopted on April 21, 1990 and amended in 1999.