Idaho
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The Shoshonean peoples began their journey to Idaho in the southwestern United States, just north of Mexico. Their journey began perhaps as early as 8,000 years ago base on new archaeological research which traces their toolmaking and technology.

The Shoshoni and Bannock had lived comfortably in what is now New Mexico and Arizona until the climatic changes brought on at the end of the Pleistocene changed the region into desert which would no longer support the population. As the climate became ever more dry some of the people traveled deeper into Mexico and eventually were known as the Aztec and built a great civilization.

The remainder of the people, by about 6,000 years ago, had traveled west into the Lake Mohave desert of southern California where hunting and gathering would provide food and clothing for their families. Eventually, available resources in the desert country of southern California were insufficient, forcing the nomadic Shoshoni to scatter into small bands and travel over expanses of desert in constant search of food.

The nomadic lifeway utilized by families and small bands slowly expanded around 5,000 years ago to encompass most of the territory now known as Nevada and western Utah. Investigation of the technological archaeology suggests that by 4,000 years ago the Shoshoni were moving into southern Idaho, as the last of Pleistocene big game hunters followed what remained of the large animals north. Sometime later the Shoshoni entered Wyoming, and by the 1700's Shoshonean people called Comanche were living in Oklahoma. In Idaho the population density of people before Lewis & Clark was perhaps only 1-2 persons per 100 square miles.

However, The Shoshoni did not have political characteristics ascribed to tribal organizations. The Shoshoni were primarily extended families related, through intermarriage, as a Band. The Shoshoni people, having already learned how to live in desert regions, understood very well how to efficiently exploit the meager resources of the far flung Great Basin region. The Shoshoni, in fact, found southern Idaho to be an under used cornucopia of food resources. However, the needed resources were spread out upon the land at great distances, and were harvestable at different elevations during different seasons of the year. In general, the Shoshoni and Bannock lived in the valleys during the winter and traveled into the mountains throughout the spring and summer, returning to the valleys as winter set in.

This meant that the families and bands usually camped and lived removed from each other by great distances. During certain times of the year however, the bands and families would gather in order to harvest pinon nuts, hunt rabbit and pronghorn, spear salmon and live in winter camps. It was at these larger gatherings that the Shoshoni strengthened their bonds between the bands and families.
Hunting was an important aspect of life for the Shoshoni. The men hunted large and small game with dead falls, traps and spears (after 1500 years ago with bows and arrows). Among the large game animals hunted were deer, pronghorn, bison and big horn sheep. Small game animals were often available and plentiful. Small game which were hunted include groundhog, jack rabbits, prairie dogs, rodents and porcupine. Insects were not heavily utilized, but some such as grasshoppers would occasionally be used for food. Fish, such as salmon, were also hunted by the men with spears.

Birds, such as ducks, geese and several varieties of grouse were hunted by the men and boys. Eggs, when found, were also included in their diet.

Gathering was the food providing activity of the women. Many different kinds of plants would be dug and picked including wild onion, bitterroot, arrow-leaf, balsam-root, and the tobacco root plants which were all harvested and gathered in by the women and children. The camas bulb, Camassia quamash, was harvested and stored as a staple source of food. However, Zigadenus venenosus, the Death Camas would poison and kill any animal which ate it. It was very important for everyone gathering food to know which plants were edible and which were poisonous.

Many plants supplied seeds which were gathered by the women in the late summer and fall. The seeds of junegrass, blue bunch wheat grass, thick spike wheat grass and Nevada bluegrass would be ground and stored for winter food.

No diet would be complete without fruits. In southeastern Idaho the Shoshoni and Bannock women would gather serviceberry, chokecherries and currants. The berries would be dried and stored for winter use. Berries could also be found and used in puddings, soups, stews and pemmican.

During the fall pine nuts would be gathered in by the bands. These nuts would store over many months and could be used in many dishes.

Women would also gather trout in weirs, a fishing trap set into the stream. Freshwater mussels would be gathered and eaten whenever the people camped near streams. Evidence for this is found at Wahmuza, an archaeological site of the Fort Hall bottoms.

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