Shoshone
The broader Shoshone nation encompassed multiple groups of Numic-speaking peoples spread across a vast territory from the Rocky Mountains to the Great Basin, including the Wind River Shoshone (Eastern) and various Northern Shoshone bands in present-day Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Lewis and Clark's planning relied heavily on the expectation that the Shoshone would possess the horses needed to cross the Continental Divide, a calculation that proved correct when they reached the Lemhi band in August 1805. The Shoshone had once ranged freely onto the northern Plains for bison hunting but had been pushed westward into the mountains by Blackfeet and Hidatsa raiders who possessed firearms obtained through the Canadian fur trade. The expedition's journals document Shoshone material culture, subsistence strategies in a challenging mountain environment, and the acute military disadvantage faced by peoples without access to Euro-American weaponry.
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons via Lewis and Clark Reach Shoshone Camp
Most Mentioned in Shoshone-tagged Entries
People
- Drouillard (48)
- Capt. Lewis (43)
- Capt. Clark (31)
- Charbonneau (16)
- Nathaniel Pryor (14)
- Joseph Field (13)
- Colter (12)
- Shields (11)
- Cameahwait (10)
- Shannon (10)
Places
- Missouri River (48)
- Columbia River (33)
- Rocky Mountains (31)
- Snake River (22)
- Bitterroot River (9)
- Clearwater River (8)
- Fort Mandan (7)
- Jefferson River (7)
- St. Louis (6)
- Fort Clatsop (6)
Biography
The Shoshone (also known as the Snake Indians) occupied territory in the northern Rocky Mountains and the Snake River plains. The expedition’s encounter with the Lemhi Shoshone band in August 1805 was one of the journey’s most consequential events.
The captains knew they needed Shoshone horses to cross the Rocky Mountains — this was one reason they valued Sacagawea’s linguistic abilities. When Lewis finally made contact with Cameahwait’s band and Sacagawea discovered the chief was her brother, the diplomatic breakthrough ensured the expedition received the horses and guides they desperately needed.
The Shoshone were a horse-rich but gun-poor people, frequently raided by the better-armed Blackfeet and Hidatsa. They eagerly sought the trade relationship the expedition promised, though the hoped-for American trading posts were slow to materialize.
Territory & Encounter Locations
Note: the longest gap between tagged appearances is about 5 months (Nov 11, 1804 → Apr 8, 1805). No journal entries during that window were explicitly tagged with this nation.
Treaties (10)
Tent of Many Voices (11)
41:55
62:42
38:39
49:59
46:09
32:09
45:11
51:15
3:17
48:15
49:52
Journal Entries (164)
Cross-Narrator Analyses
Analyses that cite or discuss Shoshone — showing 24 of the most recent matches.
The Shoshone Nation: Sacagawea’s People and the Horse Trade
Introduction: A Nation Long AnticipatedLong before Lewis and Clark ever laid eyes on a Shoshone person, the nation loomed in the journals…
A Kettle Refused, a Sword Accepted: Four Voices at Yelleppit’s Camp
The 28th of April 1806 found the returning Corps of Discovery encamped near the mouth of the Walla Walla River, in extended…
Across the Divide: Two Parties, Two Stories on the Continental Crest
The journal entries of July 7, 1806 capture the Lewis and Clark Expedition at a moment of geographic and narrative bifurcation. Having…
Crossing the Koos-koos-ke: Bears, Horse Surgery, and a Six-Thumbed Trophy
May 14–15, 1806 at Camp Chopunnish on the Koos-koos-ke: four pens on the crossing, bear hunts, Nez Perce horse surgery, stone cookery,…
Diplomacy, Roots, and a Yankee Phrase: Four Voices at Camp Chopunnish
The journals of June 6, 1806, written from Camp Chopunnish on the Kooskooske while the expedition awaited the melting of snow in…
Eye-Water, Laudanum, and Cowse Roots: Four Pens at Camp Chopunnish
The 19th of May 1806 finds the Corps of Discovery encamped among the Nez Perce at Camp Chopunnish, waiting for the Bitterroot…
Fir Trees Aflame: Four Accounts of a Single Day on Hungry Creek
The expedition's June 25, 1806 entries offer a striking case study in how four men sharing the same camp produced four very…
Four Pens at the Long Narrows: Horse-Trading and a Game of Bones
April 18, 1806 finds the Corps of Discovery encamped at the basin below the Long Narrows of the Columbia, struggling to convert…
Four Pens, One Council: Diplomacy and Doctoring Among the Chopunnish
The 11th of May 1806 finds the Corps of Discovery encamped among the Chopunnish (Nez Perce), reclaiming horses left the previous autumn…
Four Rivers, Four Pens: The Divided Expedition Writes Itself
By mid-July 1806 the Corps of Discovery had fractured into detachments scattered across hundreds of miles of country. The journal entries for…
Frost, Mire, and Two Parties Diverging on the Jefferson
The entries for July 10, 1806 record a single hinge day in the Corps of Discovery's homeward journey, when the expedition was…
Lean Dogs and Lost Horses on Lewis’s River
The entries for May 4, 1806 offer an unusually clear view into how the expedition's journal-keepers worked. Lewis and Clark produce nearly…
One Bear, Many Colors: Naturalist Inquiry and Camp Life at the Long Camp
The entries of May 15, 1806, from Camp Chopunnish on the Kooskooskee (Clearwater) River offer an unusually clear demonstration of how the…
Securing Guides at Weippe: Four Voices on a Pivotal Decision
The expedition's June 23, 1806 entries capture a single contingency plan from four vantage points: the two captains drafting nearly identical command-level…
Stolen Tomahawks and Gambled Horses: Frustration at the Eneeshur Villages
The expedition's struggle to acquire horses from the Eneeshur and Skilloot peoples on April 20, 1806, produced a multi-narrator cluster of the…
The Puppy and the Physician: Three Voices on a Day Among the Chopunnish
The journal entries for May 5, 1806, offer an unusually rich case for cross-narrator comparison. Lewis, Clark, and Sergeant Ordway all describe…
The Sweat Hole at Camp Chopunnish: Four Voices on Frontier Medicine
The journals of May 24, 1806 offer an unusually rich opportunity to compare narrators, because all four diarists present at Camp Chopunnish…
Three Pens at Fort Clatsop: Weather, Gratitude, and an Ethnographic Set Piece
The entries for March 19, 1806 offer one of the clearest illustrations in the expedition record of how differently the three journal-keepers…
Two Bears, Two Pens: Naming Hoh-host and Yack-kah at Camp Chopunnish
The journals of May 31, 1806, written from Camp Chopunnish as the expedition waited for snow to clear from the Bitterroot passes,…
Two Camps, Two Rivers: Discovery and Hunger on the Columbia
The journal entries of April 3, 1806, capture the Lewis and Clark expedition operating on two fronts simultaneously. While Captain Clark concluded…
Two Camps, Two Worlds: Caching at the Falls While Clark Swamps Among Beaver Dams
By mid-July 1806, the expedition had split into detachments pursuing separate routes back across the continent. The journal entries for July 14…
Two Registers at Long Camp: Diplomacy and Deer on the Clearwater
The journal entries for June 4, 1806, offer a textbook case of how rank and role shaped what the four expedition diarists…
Two Trails Diverge: The Expedition Splits and the Journals Follow Suit
By July 5, 1806, the Corps of Discovery had divided. Meriwether Lewis was leading one party overland toward the Great Falls of…
Old Toby: The Shoshone Guide Through the Bitterroots
A Note on the Source RecordThe two journal entries provided for this synthesis (dated September 4 and September 16, 1805) do not…
From the Heacock Memorial Archive
5 lewis-clark.org articles that mention Shoshone, preserved here for Robert Heacock’s photography. The articles were written by that site’s contributing authors.
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