460 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



Sho-sho-nees : Snakes, Bannacks, To-si-witches, Go-sha-Utes, Cum-um-pahs. 



Py-Utes. 



Wah-shoes. 



The two latter tribes inhabit the country along the eastern base of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains, and are not sufficiently understood by me to enable me to speak of 

 them in detail. 



The San-pitches speak the Utah dialect, and consequently I have classified them 

 as a subdivision of that tribe, though they are greatly inferior to them in many respects, 

 and the Py-eeds appear to occupy the same relation. 



The Go-sha-Utes appear to be a hybrid race between the Sho-sho-nees and Utahs, 

 and the same may be said of the Cum-um-pahs, the difference between them growing 

 out <>i their relations to the different bands or subdivisions of these two tribes. These 

 mixed bands are known as the Diggers, and commonly called Snake Diggers and Ute 

 1 >i-uvrs. Tin- Snakes and Utahs proper are well formed and featured, but of a darker 

 complexion than the Indians of the plains east of the mountains. 



11 icy are fierce and warlike in their habits, and have been at war with each other 

 tor several generations, and are likely to continue hostile. Each of these tribes are 

 also at war with other tribes whose territories border on their own. The Snakes are 

 at war with the Crows and Klackfeet, and the Utahs with the Cheyennes and Arrapa- 

 hoes.^ They both, however, profess friendship for the white man. It is the boast of 

 the Snakes, under a chief named Wash-i-chee, that the blood of the white man had 

 never stained their soil. 



They occupy the. country bordering on Snake River, Bear River, Green River 

 ; md as t;,r L ; ast :ls tlu ' Wil " 1 R iver. These bands of the Snakes are well supplied with 

 horses and hre-arms, and subsist principally by hunting. Formerly, the buffalo ranged 

 in their country, and formed the principal game ; but according to their own accounts, 

 winch appear to be* corroborated by those of the early trappers, these animals disap- 

 peared trom their range about thirty-five years ago, in consequence of the severity of 

 the winter, and have not since returned.* At certain seasons, however, these animals 

 visit the Sweetwater and Wind Rivers, whither the Snakes repair every summer and 

 autumn to meet them, and this brings them in contact with the Crows, who regard them 

 as trespassers, and have treated them accordingly, and hence the hostilities between 

 the M.akes and Crows, which will be likely to continue so long as the buffalo continues 

 to range upon these waters. 



^ ^ The inferior bands of this tribe, especially the To-si-witches (White Knives), inhab- 

 iting the Humboldt River- who take their name from a beautiful white flint, which they 

 procure from the adjacent mountains, and use as knives in dressing their food— are a 



r Note by Captain Simpson—Governor Denver, when Commissioner of Indian Affairs, addre ssed a lett«s7toHo7 Alex 

 ander H Stephens, Representative in Congress, January 18, 1859, in reference to t ! , ,'. inclndinn tZ 



gold-region of the Pike's Peak country, in which he says the following in relation to Z Z^Zt^ZT ^f^f 

 buffalo frequent the plains along the eastern sides of the Rocky Mountains, but none have ever been found farmer to 



o^; bTn con fi td ed f er : is 8 r rcel f any r idence that boffa,oes ever ■»— that ™ k * b - ri - ^irZeZ 



for I vZ! i! 7 fn 7v y J°, ^^ Valley ° f * he Mfc^PPi-" The governor is here evidently wrong, 

 IZ *w 1 * * . °J ^ m Ech ° CafiOD ' aDd iD the Upper P art of the Timpanogos Valley, all show- 



ing that at not a very remote period the buffalo roamed west of the Rocky Mountains. Besides, Fremont, in his reuort 

 of his second expedition across the Rocky Mountains, expressly states (p. 144) that the buffalo ranged west of Ihl 

 ltUB or 1840 ; and the traditions of the Indians, as given above by Dr. Hurt, cert 



