The Shoshone lived across a wide area. This area covered  parts of California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. In 1905, after first meeting the white man over 100 years before, Ulysses S. Grant forcibly moved the Shoshone, on the Trail of Tears, away from their native grounds to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation.




Clothing


The Shoshone Indians wore clothing wade of animal skins. The women would wear a type of apron in the summer. The men would wear loincloths during the summer. Both guys and girls would wear long robes in the winter.


Hunting Methods


The Shoshone were very meticulous about hunting. They would use things like a bow and arrow, but they would rub a poisonous plant on the tip of the arrow, so that the animal would die if hit. This was used mainly for large animals like a deer, elk or buffalo. Smaller animals were hunted using clubs or spears. They would also use a bow and arrow, but they would conserve time, energy, and supplies by using an arrow without the poison on the tip.


Dances


Nobody knows for sure what dances the Shoshone did, but many people believe that they did a Sun Dance, as well as a Ghost Dance. The Sun Dance was meant to appease the Sun God, therefore giving the shoshone more sunlight. The Ghost Dance, however, was not meant to please any of the Gods, but to attract the spirits of the Shoshone's ancestors. They believed that if their ancestors were nearby, then they could ask advice from the wise spirits of their ancestors.


Music



 Tools and Weapons


The Shoshone, being nomadic, didn't carry much. They used the same weapons for war as they did to hunt. They had only the bow and arrow, club, and spear to fight. This was because they traded only with the Spanish. The Spanish people did not trade guns, or any other real kind of weapon for that matter, to the Native Americans. As for tools, the Shoshone only carried small knives, scrapers, and other small items that can be carried, or left behind, very easily.


Religion/Legends


Duma, a.k.a. Our Father or The Creator, was where the people would pray to the sun as it rose in the morning, believing that the sun's rays would carry their words to the god. The Shoshone also would tell stories about the spirit world, as well as the animals. One of these legends is about a Wolf and a Coyote. It says that the Wolf created man, while Coyote was a trickster who was responsible for all chaos in the world. Another is about the Nunumbi. Nunumbi were a very strange creature. They were believed to shoot invisible arrows at people they disliked to wound and eventually kill them, at which point the Nunumbi would eat the person. 


Government


The main government system of the Shoshone wasn't really a government. They had a council, and a chief, but in most cases, they were led by a Shaman, or medicine man. The council was most of the men in the tribe. The head chief was normally one of these men. The most common way that they use to decide who got to be head chief was by age. The chief was usually the oldest of all the men. 


Family Structure

Shoshone men and women had important roles, respectively, to keep the tribe going. The men would be out hunting for large portions of the day. The women would raise the kids and gather roots and berries. The Shoshone did not punish kids for misbehaving. They believed that this would literally "break" the kids' spirits.


Food


Shoshone food, many say, was one of the biggest parts of their culture. They ate anything that they could. Being that they were on the move, they weren't very picky eaters. They would eat veggies, mostly roots, most of the time. They would use a watertight basket and some very hot rocks to boil these vegetables. During the spring time, they could find wild onions, cattail stems, wild asparagus, and carrots. During the summer,  the Shoshone would gather wild strawberries, gooseberries, and sun flower seeds. They would use certain plants, like wild roses, as their medicine. In the fall they ate currants, buck berries, and service berries. They would also harvest pine nuts from the pinon pine trees during any time of year. The Shoshone would make bread by digging a ditch, and then scaring crickets, grasshoppers, and other insects into the ditch. They would then harvest them, and grind them into flour. They also made nets to help catch salmon. They would trap the fish in nets, spear them, or shoot them with an arrow.





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