SOLID STATE PRESS
← Back to catalog
The Shoshone cover
Coming soon
Coming soon to Amazon
This title is in our publishing queue.
Browse available titles
History

The Shoshone

Sacagawea, the Bannock War, and the Northern Shoshone-Bannock Nation

You have a test on westward expansion, a paper on Native American history, or a unit on Lewis and Clark — and your textbook gives the Shoshone about two paragraphs. This guide fills that gap.

**The Shoshone: Sacagawea, the Bannock War, and the Northern Shoshone-Bannock Nation** is a concise, readable primer covering everything a high school or early college student needs to know about one of the American West's most significant Indigenous peoples. It opens with traditional Shoshone lifeways and language before sustained European contact, then traces how the horse transformed Great Basin and Plateau cultures after 1700. From there it moves to Sacagawea and her actual documented role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition — separating the historical record from the legends that grew up around her — making it an ideal Sacagawea Lewis and Clark study guide for anyone tired of half-truths.

The second half covers the hard history: US treaty-making, the 1863 Bear River Massacre, the creation of the Fort Hall and Wind River reservations, and the causes and collapse of the Bannock War of 1878. A closing section brings the story to the present, examining the modern Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, sovereignty battles, cultural revitalization, and ongoing environmental fights.

This is a Native American history high school primer built for time-pressed students — clear prose, key terms defined on contact, no filler, short by design. Everything you need, nothing you don't.

Pick it up and walk into class ready.

What you'll learn
  • Identify the major Shoshone divisions (Eastern, Northern, Western) and where they lived
  • Explain how the horse, the fur trade, and US expansion transformed Shoshone life in the 1700s-1800s
  • Describe Sacagawea's actual role in the Lewis and Clark expedition, separating fact from myth
  • Trace the causes, events, and aftermath of the Bear River Massacre and the Bannock War of 1878
  • Understand the formation and present-day status of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes at Fort Hall and related reservations
What's inside
  1. 1. Who Are the Shoshone?
    Introduces the Shoshone peoples, their language, geographic divisions, and traditional lifeways before sustained contact with Europeans.
  2. 2. Horses, Trade, and the Reshaping of Shoshone Life
    Covers the arrival of the horse around 1700, the rise of buffalo-hunting Shoshone bands, conflict with the Blackfeet, and early encounters with fur traders.
  3. 3. Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition
    Tells the story of Sacagawea, her role as interpreter and guide in 1804-1806, and separates the historical record from popular legend.
  4. 4. Treaties, the Bear River Massacre, and Loss of Land
    Examines US expansion into Shoshone country, the 1863 Bear River Massacre, the Fort Bridger Treaty, and the creation of the Fort Hall and Wind River reservations.
  5. 5. The Bannock War of 1878
    Details the causes, key events, and aftermath of the Bannock War, including the role of Buffalo Horn and the collapse of armed Shoshone-Bannock resistance.
  6. 6. The Shoshone-Bannock Today
    Surveys the modern Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, sovereignty issues, cultural revitalization, and ongoing legal and environmental fights.
Published by Solid State Press
The Shoshone cover
TLDR STUDY GUIDES

The Shoshone

Sacagawea, the Bannock War, and the Northern Shoshone-Bannock Nation
Solid State Press

Contents

  1. 1 Who Are the Shoshone?
  2. 2 Horses, Trade, and the Reshaping of Shoshone Life
  3. 3 Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition
  4. 4 Treaties, the Bear River Massacre, and Loss of Land
  5. 5 The Bannock War of 1878
  6. 6 The Shoshone-Bannock Today
Chapter 1

Who Are the Shoshone?

Long before the first American or European explorer crossed the Rocky Mountains, the Shoshone people had already worked out a precise and sustainable way of living across one of the most demanding landscapes on the continent.

The Shoshone are a Native American people whose homeland stretches across a vast arc of the American West — from the Great Basin desert of present-day Nevada and Utah, north through Idaho, and east into Wyoming and Montana. At their widest extent, Shoshone-speaking peoples occupied an area roughly the size of western Europe. Today their descendants live primarily on reservations in Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada, and form the core of the modern Shoshone-Bannock Tribes you will read about in later sections.

Language: The Numic Connection

The clearest thread connecting all Shoshone groups is language. Shoshone belongs to the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family — one of the largest language families in the Americas, which stretches from southern Idaho all the way down to central Mexico. The Numic languages include Shoshone, Comanche, Paiute, and several others. Linguists estimate that Numic-speaking peoples began spreading across the Great Basin roughly 1,000 years ago, gradually filling in the region's river valleys, mountain ranges, and desert flats.

A common misconception is that all Native American groups in a given region spoke related languages — actually, the languages of neighboring peoples were often as different as English and Chinese. The fact that Numic languages spread so widely tells us something real about Shoshone migration and adaptability, not just about geography.

Three Major Divisions

Scholars typically group the Shoshone into three broad divisions based on geography and lifeway. These are not rigid tribal boundaries — Shoshone identity was organized at the band level, not the nation level — but the divisions are useful landmarks.

Western Shoshone occupied the driest terrain: the Great Basin, the broad inland bowl between the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies that covers most of present-day Nevada and parts of Utah and Idaho. The Great Basin receives little rainfall and has no rivers draining to the ocean, creating a harsh environment of sagebrush flats, salt pans, and isolated mountain ranges. Western Shoshone groups lived in small, mobile bands and developed extraordinary skill at finding food where outsiders saw none.

About This Book

If you are a high school student working through Native American history for a class, prepping for an AP US History or state-standards exam, or searching for a clear Shoshone tribe history resource for students, this book is for you. Homeschoolers, tutors, and parents helping a student review are equally welcome.

This guide covers the full arc of Shoshone experience in the American West: pre-contact lifeways, the horse trade, the Sacagawea and Lewis and Clark story that shows up on almost every US history exam, the Bear River Massacre and treaty era, and the Bannock War of 1878 explained in plain terms alongside its causes and consequences. It also covers Fort Hall Reservation history and the modern Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. A concise overview with no filler.

Read straight through for the full story, then use the review questions at the end to test what stuck.

Keep reading

You've read the first half of Chapter 1. The complete book covers 6 chapters in roughly fifteen pages — readable in one sitting.

Coming soon to Amazon