Follow Up on Native American Research Post

In my searching for Shoshone/Bannock tribal treaties, I discovered another resource worth mentioning. Handbook of North American Indians published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. is a bit dated, but still contains lots of information worth looking at with regards to the North American Indians.

This twelve-volume title dedicates a volume to each major region. Volume 11 highlights the Great Basin Indians, which includes the Shoshone/Bannock tribes. Chapters focus on the prehistory, history, ethnology, and special topics of individual areas within the region. Black and white photographs show art, tools, and contemporary individuals. For example, photos include bows, arrows, cradleboards, salmon-skin bags, woven carrying bags, and historical figures, as well as winter and summer dwellings.

The chapter titled "Northern Shoshone and Bannock" provides 29 pages of details about their language, environment, external relations, territory, population, culture, and history. A short history talks about their prehistory, but another chapter goes into greater detail where that is concerned. Multiple authors collaborated to write each chapter, and they include descriptions of their sources with author and date details. The full bibliography appears at the end of each volume, as well as a detailed index and a list of illustrations.

Shoshone Indians (1871). Photo by William H. Jackson. Courtesy of National Park Service.