| Before they had horses, the Shoshone
ate roots, insects, salmon, seeds, nuts, small game birds, groundhog, jack
rabbit, and other small mammals. Sometimes they had bird eggs. They used
over 100 different types of seeds and plants.
After the Shoshone got horses, they began hunting large game, such as deer, antelope, mountain sheep and bears. Because of horses they could go further to dig camas and other roots. The Shoshone-Bannock almost hunted the southeastern-Idaho bison to the point of extinction. When they ran out of bison in Idaho, they went to Wyoming and Montana to hunt bison. The Shoshone hunted mostly in the spring and the summer. Women gathered berries, roots, nuts, seeds, and insects. The men hunted for deer, squirrels, antelope, rabbits and water birds. When they hunted antelope and rabbits, they would surround the animals and herd them into nets to kill them. The Shoshone used snares and spring-pole traps, and pitfalls to trap animals. They used wooden and horn-bow and arrows to kill larger animals. Their arrows were made of obsidian. |