A branch of the Uto-Aztecan family, who formerly occupied a vast area including what is now southeastern Oregon, Idaho, western and southern Montana, northern Utah, Nevada, and western Wyoming. They also were called Snakes and the tribe was known as the Snake Nation. The largest group was the Wind River Shoshoni of Wyoming.
The name Snakes had already been given these Indians when Lewis and Clark came across them at the headwaters of the Missouri River in 1805. Some say it came from their former habit of eating snakes. However, the term Snakes later was applied to those living on the Snake River in Idaho and a few bands in Oregon. Another band was known as "Sheepeaters," a name said to have been given them because they loved on the flesh of mountain sheep at a time when they fled from their enemies.
The northern and eastern Shoshoni early obtained horses from their kinsman, the Comanche. They soon became horse and buffalo hunting Indians, and lived in tepees. Others, however, in the sagebrush country, lived in roofless grass huts which were little more than windbreaks.
Shoshoni men were smaller than the average Indian. The women, too, were short in stature, with rounded faces. Men wore headdresses imitating those of the Crow, Flathead, and Dakota.
The Shoshoni were at war in the early days with the Blackfoot, Dakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. With the Kiowa and Comanche they formed a long line of defense from Montana to Mexico, with the Rockies at their back.
The name Shoshoni has been applied to rivers and mountains in Wyoming and Nevada; to a lake in Yellowstone National Park; to Shoshoni Falls on the Snake River; a county in Idaho; and places in California, Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming.
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