Snake Indians is a collective name given to the
Northern Paiute
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ...
,
Bannock
Bannock may mean:
* Bannock (food), a kind of bread, cooked on a stone or griddle
* Bannock (Indigenous American), various types of bread, usually prepared by pan-frying
* Bannock people, a Native American people of what is now southeastern Orego ...
, and
Shoshone Native American tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
s.
The term was used as early as 1739 by French trader and explorer
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye when he described hearing of the ''Gens du Serpent'' ("Snake people") from the Mandans. This is probably the first written mention of the Shoshone people. The term "Snakes" is also used to refer the Shoshone by British explorers
David Thompson and
Anthony Henday
Anthony Henday (fl. 1750–1762) was one of the first Europeans to explore the interior of what would eventually become western Canada. He ventured farther westward than any white man had before him.
As an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company ...
.
The term was also used by
Plains Tribes to refer to the Shoshone. They called the Shoshone "snake" referring to the Shoshone sign in
Plains Indian Sign Language for the Shoshone people. The sign was used for
salmon but the fish was unknown on the
Great Plains.
This term was widely used by American immigrants on the
Oregon Trail in the
Snake River and
Owyhee River
The Owyhee River is a tributary of the Snake River located in northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon in the United States. It is long.Owyhee Rive accessed November 3, 2019
The river's drainage basin is in area, one of the l ...
valleys of southern
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...
and
Eastern Oregon
Eastern Oregon is the eastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is not an officially recognized geographic entity; thus, the boundaries of the region vary according to context. It is sometimes understood to include only the eight easternmost ...
. The term "Snake Indian" later included the Northern Paiute tribes found in the basins between the
Cascade Mountains
The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...
and these valleys in Oregon and northern
Nevada and northeastern
California. These people were the opponents of the
California,
Oregon and
Washington Volunteers
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
and
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
, in the
Snake War
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...
.
In Canadian history
From 1688-1720s, when the British Empire first came into prolonged trade contact with the Western Cree and
Blackfoot
The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'' or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bla ...
, both of these groups were united in a war against "the Snake Indians" of Canada. It is not clear if this term (used in this period of Canadian history) is meant to refer to the
Northern Paiute people
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ...
, inaccurate, or perhaps entirely unrelated.
In modern
Plains Cree language, the term "kinêpikoyiniwak / ᑭᓀᐱᑯᔨᓂᐘᐠ", literally translating to "Snake Indian" refers to
Shoshone people
The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
* Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
* Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho
* Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah
* Goshute: western Utah, e ...
.
Itwêwina Plains Cree Dictionary - kinêpikoyiniw
/ref>
See also
*Bannock War
The Bannock War of 1878 was an armed conflict between the U.S. military and Bannock and Paiute warriors in Idaho and northeastern Oregon from June to August 1878. The Bannock totaled about 600 to 800 in 1870 because of other Shoshone peoples be ...
* Klamath Tribes
*Paiute War
Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Paiu ...
* Sheepeater Indian War
*Snake War
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...
Notes
External links
Native Languages: Snake Indian Tribe
Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin
Bannock people
Paiute
Shoshone
Native American history of Idaho
Native American history of Nevada
Native American history of Oregon
Snake River
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