Great Basin

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Great Basin
The Shoshoni Tribe
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Presented by Allison Dougherty, Devon Gottman,
Claire Suh
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Clothing

• During the summer, the Shoshoni barely wore
  anything. The men and children normally wouldnt
  wear anything at all.
• Women wore aprons made of woven sagebrush or
  cedar bark pounded to shreds.
• When winter came they used this bark material
  also as sleeveless pullovers and pants for the
  men, and for the women they made blouses and
  skirts.
• The Shoshoni used Jackrabbit pelts that were sewn
  together for cloaks or moccasins, but most people
  just went barefoot.

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Housing

• The Shoshoni lived in domed willow or brush
  wickiups.
• Wickiups were made by putting small pliable poles
  in a circle, then bending them into the center,
  and then tying t he tops together to form an
  igloo shape.
• This building was covered with pieces of bark,
  hides, or grass that were tied into the right
  place with willow branches.
• In worse regions where there were less materials,
  the people lived in a circular framework of
  willow poles with bundles of tule reeds slanted
  toward the center, leaving the top open. A home
  like that looked like a cone without a top

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Food

• Food was scarce in the Basin and so everything
  they could find was used carefully.
• Jackrabbits were their main source of meat.
• Grasshoppers were gathered and roasted, then
  ground into a powder that they added to other
  foods for nourishment.
• The Shoshoni named groups of people after foods
  that were important to each group that was
  indigenous to the area where they lived.
• Tribes had rabbit drives were nets made of yucca
  fiber were set to capture rabbits.

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Recreation

• Most of the Shoshonis time was spent gathering
  and hunting food.
• But they also played games some times. Most of
  the games they played where gambling games which
  they bet some of their few belongings. They had
  little to lose.
• Most of their artistic efforts went in to
  objects like nets for catching game and baskets
  for gathering nuts, berries, and seeds to eat.

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Values

• Most of the ceremonies the Shoshonis had where
  based on prayer and blessings on the trees and
  thankfulness to the earth for providing food.
• The Shoshonis based their lives around
  seasons because in the spring and the summer
  there was more food and in the fall there could
  be feasting.
• But in the winter it could take a whole day of
  hunting to find at least one rabbit, and sometime
  there were periods of starvation.

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Environment

• The Great Basin is located in the western United
  States and is a large baron desert region.
• The Great Basin covers the majority of Utah,
  Nevada, parts of California, Idaho, Oregon, and
  Wyoming.
• The weather ranges from below freezing to 140
  degrees, usually Death Valley.
• There is a scarce amount of water in the Great
  Basin.
• Many of the animals living in the Great Basin
  have unique adaptations to fit the climate.
• There is little vegetation but the spotlight is
  on the yucca, which has edible flowers and fruit.

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