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Relationship with the U.S.
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Snake
River plains,
near Mountain Home, Idaho.
Copyright © Ralph
Maughan, used with permission. |
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Two
tipis in the Lemhi Valley.
Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management.
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Red
Butte
S. Thompson phot
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Buffalo
Plains near Madison River, in Montana.
(Taken from Madison Buffalo Jump State Park).
K. Lugthart photo
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Lemhi Pass > Culture >Homelands
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"American Falls" on
the Snake River, with the Three Buttes in background,
from Report of Fremont's Exploring Expedition 1843-'44.
Courtesy University of Montana's Mansfield Library, K. Ross Toole Archives.
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Shoshone Map Rock
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| The Indians who called the Snake River plain "home"
left a record on the rocks of their comings and goings. Hundreds of petroglyphs
(etched images) and pictographs (painted images) can be found on boulders
and rock walls along the Snake and Salmon rivers and their tributaries.
"Map Rock", located southeast of Boise along the Snake River,
has long been interpreted as a map of the upper Snake River country. Both
the Snake and Salmon Rivers can be observed in the design, alongside images
of many animals of the region. |
"Map Rock" in archaeological
park southeast of Boise. Barry Rose photo taken in 1991, courtesy Bureau
of Land Management. |
Courtesy of Bureau of Land Management |
Buffalo, deer, mountain sheep, elk, antelope, and human figures are
present. The richest hunting area within the Shoshone homeland was in this
northeastern area, where the basins meet the mountains, and the ecological
diversity is great. |
| Would people draw a map of hunting areas to be seen by all who passed
along the road? Mark Warhus, in his book Another America, suggests
that the images might better be understood "as an expression of the
spiritual relationship between the land, its resources, and the people who
depended upon them… The petroglyph may have been made as part of a
ritual meant to keep all these elements in balance and to secure the continued
health of the people" (Warhus: 1997:21). |
Historic
photo of Shoshone Map
Rock with man on Schwinn motorbike.
Courtesy BLM.
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Bannock Trail through Yellowstone
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The
Bannock Indian Trail and the hunting areas accessible from it.
(from Aubrey Haines, The Bannock Indian Trail, 1964)
| For many years during the 19th century, the Bannock Trail
was traveled from Camas Meadows over Targhee Pass and through Yellowstone
Park country to the Absaroka Mountains. It connected with a half dozen routes
which led to buffalo plains and other hunting grounds. It was in heaviest
use from the end of the fur trade era, when buffalo disappeared from Snake
River country, until reservation days.
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Shoshone on staged buffalo
hunt in Yellowstone Park, 1925
Courtesy National Park Service.
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| Portion of Jean Pierre DeSmet's
map
Courtesy Midwest Jesuit Archives, DeSmetiana Collection, C-8 #13
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