The Prehistoric Peoples of Jackson Hole (continued)
By Stephanie Crockett
Protohistoric Period (A.D. 1700 to 1850)
The presence of European goods in the archeological record signals the beginning of the Protohistoric period. This period lasted from around A.D. 1700 to 1850, by which time North American Indian tribes were being relocated to reservations.
Probably the most significant item to be acquired by the tribes was the horse. The introduction of the horse broadened the territories of mounted Indian peoples. The horse increased the mobility of many tribes and brought together the Great Basin and Plains cultures. According to D. B. Shimkin, the introduction of the horse into the Wind River Shoshone culture upset the economic and social balance. Because horses were initially scarce, the men generally rode in order to be fresh for hunting. As a result, women had to walk, which upset the social equilibrium between the sexes. Individuals and families acquired more movable goods, and hunting, gathering and fishing territories changed. The tribes with horses also became more efficient at communal hunting, which allowed them to provide more food for a larger population. At the same time, however, these tribes lost their intimate knowledge of the smaller game species, such as squirrels and rabbits.  In and around Jackson Hole, however, early nineteenth-century trappers encountered mountain-dwelling peoples who appeared to be thriving without horses. Trapper and explorer Osborne Russell described an 1835 encounter with mountain-dwelling people in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park.
These people lived on berries, herbs, roots, small mammals, and larger game animals such as elk, deer and mountain sheep. Their diet also included native trout and whitefish from the mountain lakes. 
Other nineteenth-century encounters with American Indian peoples in the region describe them as traveling in small family groups. Large dogs, used as hunting and pack animals, accompanied these groups. Often, these dogs pulled a V-shaped travois, used to carry moderate-sized burdens. The travois was made of two long poles; the front tips were attached to a harness at the dog's shoulders, while the ends were left dragging on the ground. Midway up the poles was a frame used to carry burdens such as wood, food, small children, and the sick or elderly [Figure 13].  Therefore, it appears that although the introduction of European trade goods brought about changes in the economic and cultural systems of the plains tribes, the mountain-adapted peoples of Jackson Hole maintained their highly adapted and efficient subsistence strategy.
The Shoshone in Jackson Hole
The first mountain-dwelling peoples encountered by the trappers and early nineteenth-century explorers in Jackson Hole were generally known as the "Sheep-eaters" and were said to have spoken in the "Snake" tongue, which is a reference to the Shoshone.  The Shoshone language is part of a large language group known as Uto-Aztecan. Members of this group range from the Northern Plains to the Cascade Mountains and into the southwestern United States to Mexico.  It is not certain where the Shoshone got their name, but the earlier-used term "Snake" was likely a misinterpretation of the serpentine hand gesture used to describe the in-and-out motion by which they wove their grass-and-brush shelters. 
The term "Sheep-Eaters" described those members of the Eastern Shoshone who subsisted, at least in part, on mountain sheep. The "Tukudika," as they called themselves, remained high in the mountains and were still without horses when they were placed on the Wind River Reservation around 1868.  The "Sheep-Eaters" were just one of several specialized groups considered part of the Eastern Shoshone tribe. Other names, such as "Kucundicka" (meaning the "Buffalo Hunters" of the Plains), the "Pa'Iahiadika" or "Elk-Eaters," who hunted the western slopes of the Tetons, and the "Do'yia" or "Mountain Dwellers," who were scattered throughout the mountains of the Yellowstone region, describe members of a single cultural group. Although these groups utilized the mountains and northwest Plains in much different ways, they were all members of one tribe, the Eastern Shoshone. 
To the Shoshone, these names did not define a rigid political or cultural division of people. All were one tribe and spoke one language, and their names did not separate individual political or social groups. Instead, they defined ecological niches. For example, the Sheep-Eaters of the Northern Rocky Mountains specialized in hunting mountain sheep, while the Elk-Eaters hunted primarily elk. These individual group names demonstrate the way American Indian tribes, such as the Shoshone, conveyed important information concerning the ecosystem within which they lived. They also offer a clue to the vast and intimate knowledge that these people had of their home land and the species within it. 
D. B. Shimkin wrote a similar account of Wind River or Eastern Shoshone demographics. According to Shimkin, during the early 1800s the entire Wind River Shoshone tribe was comprised of 2,000 to 3,000 individuals. During the winter and spring, this tribe split into three to five smaller groups called bands. Each band was made up of 100 or 200 people and occupied a different portion of the Shoshone territory. During the summer, each band divided into individual extended family groups. These family groups might have consisted of 10 to 30 closely related individuals, like the group encountered by Osborne Russell in 1835.
With the coming of the autumn months, the individual family groups reunited with the larger tribe for the annual communal bison hunt in the inter-montane basins and open plains. This hunt was necessary for obtaining and processing dried meat supplies for the upcoming winter. For the winter, the tribe could again divide into smaller bands, each of which resided in a different part of the vast Shoshone territory. 
Archeological remains also offer insight into the spiritual bond that the Shoshone and prehistoric peoples had with Jackson Hole. High in the mountains of both the Teton and Gros Ventre Ranges are semicircular stone enclosures. These enclosures, and many like them in the mountains of northwest Wyoming, offer clues to the spiritual importance of these high mountain peaks.
For the modern Shoshone, who continue to maintain close cultural ties to this region, the majestic and snow-capped peaks of the Tetons hold special significance. In the Shoshone belief system, mountain peaks provide access into the spirit world, where they gain special powers for such things as hunting or healing. On these peaks, referred to as "puhadoya," which is translated as "Power Mountain," individuals enter the spirit world through visions or dreams. 
According to anthropologist Âke Hultkrantz, who has extensively documented the Shoshone culture, the attainment of power for the ordinary Shoshone individual requires special preparation. Alone and without a weapon, the individual sets out for places known through legend and tradition to be the home of the spirits.
During the vision quest, a person remains on the mountain for at least two, and perhaps as many as five days without food or water. While on the mountain, the person dreams and acquires the full power of those dreams throughout the following year. The stone enclosure serves as a bed in which the vision seeker lies during this quest. 
The importance of such sites is difficult to impress on a culture that separates religion from the day-to-day activities of life. For the American Indian tribe that is culturally and spiritually linked to Jackson Hole, this separation does not exist. For the Shoshone, all of lifeincluding religion, politics, daily subsistence, the natural environment and the spiritual worldare interrelated and connected by the life sustaining energy or "puha" that flows through all things. 
Summary and Conclusions
Although local residents have long been aware that extensive prehistoric sites and a wealth of artifacts can be found throughout Jackson Hole, it has only been during the last 25 years that archeologists have been able to piece together part of the prehistoric record of this area. This record has revealed that prehistoric people lived in Jackson Hole for much of the last 11,000 years. During the earliest Paleoindian period, human populations were generally small and probably occupied the area sporadically. There is little evidence to suggest that humans were in the valley for anything other than hunting and procuring obsidian for their tools until around 5,800 years ago.
During the Archaic periods, the number of archeological sites increases in Jackson Hole. Roasting pits also appear in the archeological record. These findings suggest an increase in the overall population, or an increasingly mobile population. However, it is difficult to use the size of an archeological site to indicate population size, since people probably used the same campsites time and time again.
Although spear point styles and travel patterns changed, hunting and food-processing techniques remained fairly constant throughout prehistory. Even as hunting technology shifted from the atlatl spear-thrower to the bow and arrow, and the horse was introduced to many tribes, Jackson Hole's people continued a hunter-gatherer form of subsistence and lived in relatively small groups. By the time the early trappers arrived, this area was part of the vast territory of the Shoshone tribe. In general, we know that throughout the time period extending from about 1,500 to 11,000 years ago, plants heavily influenced the travel and subsistence patterns of Jackson Hole's prehistoric people. Sites found at high elevation that date throughout the prehistoric continuum, and which are associated with edible plant species, support this model. 
D. B. Shimkin's demographic description of the Wind River Shoshone also supports the original archeological model proposed by Gary Wright. The large base camps found along the shores of Jackson Lake could well represent the locations where a band of individuals camped during the spring and early summer. Smaller sites found in the canyons and higher alpine meadows could represent the individual family camps. Consequently. the overall population residing in Jackson Hole at any given time would have been relatively small and on the bandrather than triballevel. During the summer months, this group would disperse into family groups throughout the mountains surrounding Jackson Hole. However, recent findings have revealed that obsidian, other raw material sources, topography, and spiritual pursuits also guided the travel patterns of American Indians. These cultural necessities were not addressed in the original predictive archeological model proposed by Gary Wright and his colleagues.
Clearly, there are many unanswered questions about the prehistory of Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole. It is still unknown what types of living structures were used within the park through much of early prehistory. There also remain questions about the different adaptive strategies for the northern and southern parts of the valley. Future archeological investigations within the park and surrounding areas will continue to evaluate and reconstruct models of adaptation and, perhaps, lead to new theories and a better understanding of the cultural and spiritual lives of the earliest people of Jackson Hole.
Last Updated: 24-Jul-2004