While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Shoshonean Family. The extent of
country occupied renders this one of the most important of the linguistic
families of the North American Indians. The area held by Shoshonean
tribes, exceeded by the territory of only two families—the Algonquian and
the Athapascan,—may thus be described: On the north the south west part of
Montana, the whole of Idaho south of about lat. 45° 30', with south east
Oregon, south of the Blue Mountains, west and central Wyoming, west and
central Colorado, with a strip of north New Mexico; east New Mexico and
the whole of north west Texas were Shoshonean. According to Grinnell,
Blackfoot (Siksika) tradition declares that when the Blackfeet entered the
plains south of Belly River they found that country occupied by the Snake
and the Crow. If this be true, south
west Alberta and north west Montana were also Shoshonean territory. All of
Utah, a section of north. Arizona, and the whole of Nevada (except a small
area occupied by the Washo) were held by Shoshonean tribes. Of California
a small strip in the north east part east of the Sierras, and a wide
section along the east border south of about lat. 38°, were also
Shoshonean. Shoshonean bands also lived along the upper courses of some of
the streams flowing into the San Joaquin. Toward the broken southern
flanks of the Sierras, Shoshonean territory extended across the state in a
wide band, reaching north to Tejon Creek, while along the Pacific the
Shoshoni occupied the coast between lat. 33° and 34°.
From the wide extent of country thus covered, and its
varied climatic and topographic features, the habits of the peoples
occupying it might be expected to vary considerably, and such is indeed
the case. The Hopi, in
particular, differ so widely from the rest that they have little in common
with them but linguistic affinity. On the north and along the entire east
border of the territory, where lived the
Shoshoni, Bannock,
Ute, and
Comanche divisions, their
habits were essentially those of the hunting Indians generally. None of
them cultivated the soil, and all derived the larger part of their
subsistence from the pursuit of large game. The Comanche alone can be said
to have been buffalo Indians, though buffalo were pursued more or less by
all the tribes mentioned. Horses early became abundant among them. In
general character they were fierce and warlike.
To the west of the Rocky Mountains, in Idaho, west
Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, and Oregon, the Shoshoneans were of a
different character. The country occupied by many of them is barren in the
extreme, largely destitute of big game, and of such character generally as
to compel its aboriginal inhabitants to resort to humble methods of
procuring subsistence. Rabbits and small game generally, fish, roots, and
seeds formed the chief support of these tribes, among which were included
the representatives of the family that possessed the rudest and simplest
culture. It was chiefly to these tribes individually and collectively that
the opprobrious name of "Diggers" was applied. These are the tribes, also,
which were called by the settlers and by many writers,
Paiute. Representing as a class,
as they undeniably do, a culturally low type of Indian, they were by no
means so low as many writers of repute have asserted. They have been
represented as closely approaching the brutes in their mode of life, and,
like them, of passing the winter in a semitorpid state in holes in the
ground, from which they crawled forth in spring to eat grass upon hands
and knees. Of all men they have been said to be the lowest. Such pictures
of their condition are nonsensical. They are not true of them today, when,
decimated in numbers and with tribal organization broken up, the remnants
of many of the tribes have been forced to a precarious and parasitic mode
of livelihood obtained from the whites. Still less are they true of their
former condition when living under their own social organizations. The
inhospitable nature of their country compelled them, it is true, to a less
adventurous and humbler mode of life than their eastern brethren, who
possessed a more richly endowed country. However, they made and used bows
and arrows, basketry, and in parts pottery; and, more important than all,
a number of the tribes, as the Paiute of Corn Creek, Utah, the Gosiute of
Utah, the Chemehuevi of the Rio Colorado,
and some of the Nevada tribes, practiced a rude agriculture.
The Hopi of north east Arizona, who had made further
progress toward civilization than any other of the Shoshonean tribes, had
become true village Indians. Long contact and probably considerable
blood-amalgamation have given them the physical type of their neighbors of
the south west, and have made them an integral part of the well-defined
and highly specialized Pueblo culture. They derive their subsistence
mainly from agriculture, and are skilful potters and weavers.
Over the wide expanse of territory above indicated the
Shoshoneans were split into a number of major divisions, each composed of
numerous bands speaking a great number of related dialects.
On linguistic grounds, as determined by Kroeber, it is
found convenient to classify the Shoshonean family as follows:
Mono-Paviotso: Mono, Paviotso, part of the
Bannock, and the Shoshoneans of
Eastern Oregon.
Kern River Shoshonean
Southern
California Shoshonean
Serrano
Gabrieleńo
Luiseńo-Kawia:
Agua Caliente, Juaneno, Kawia, Luisefio.
For the smaller divisions see
under the several subordinate heads.
The genetic relationship of the Shoshonean languages
with those of the Piman and Sonoran group, and of the Nahuatl or Aztec
group in Mexico, was investigated by Buschmann in the middle of the last
century. Powell has since regarded the Shoshonean group as constituting a
distinct family, but others, including Brinton, Chamberlain, and Kroeber,
have maintained that it is only part of a larger family, which they have
designated Uto-Aztekan.
