All of the groups discussed in this chapter except the Bannock speak the Shoshone-Comanche, or Shoshone, language. While there were only minor differences of dialect between Shoshone speakers, the Bannock language was almost identical with Northern Paiute. Informants found an especially close affinity between Bannock and the language of the Oregon Paiute, who were frequently referred to as "Bannock" also and were sometimes distinguished from the Fort Hall Bannock only by the statement that "they live in Burns" (a town in Oregon). While some informants referred to the Oregon speakers of Mono-Bannock as "Paiute," this term was generally reserved for the population of west-central Nevada, and "Pyramid Lake" was the locale in which the Idaho Shoshone generally placed the "Paiute." The inhabitants of Duck Valley Indian Reservation were not so vague; they readily distinguished between Shoshone and "Paiute" on linguistic and other grounds. This is understandable because the Shoshone had lived a long time on the same reservation as the Oregon speakers of Mono-Bannock, who were officially designated as Paiute. While no vocabularies were collected on the Fort Hall Reservation among either the Shoshone or Bannock populations, data from informants on the similarity of Paiute and Bannock more than confirm Steward's statement (1938, p. 198):
The linguistic similarity of the Bannock and Northern Paiute (see vocabularies, pp. 274-275) leaves no doubt that they once formed a single group, though within historic times they have been separated by 200 miles.
The vocabularies to which Steward refers were taken from Northern Paiute at Mill City, a town southwest of Winnemucca, Nevada, and at George's Creek, in Owens Valley, California. It is probable that correspondences would have been even closer if vocabularies had been taken among the Northern Paiute of Oregon, for Fort Hall Bannock informants specifically stated that their language was more akin to that of the Oregon Paiute; the Pyramid Lake people were said to "talk fast" or "talk funny." The frequent designation of the Oregon Paiute as "Bannock" by both Bannock and Shoshone at Fort Hall Reservation bespeaks the linguistic similarity or virtual identity of the languages of the respective groups.
As for Shoshone and Bannock, the two languages were not sufficiently similar to be mutually intelligible, although there are a great many cognate words. However, they were not so far removed from one another as to make bilingualism difficult. There was considerable bilingualism among the population of the Fort Hall plains.
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION
The following division of the Shoshone-Bannock population of Idaho into six main groups is admittedly arbitrary, although to a certain extent the sectors conform to actual sociopolitical groups or to populations designated by certain characteristics recognized by the Indians themselves. Proceeding from west to east, these are: (1) the population of the Boise and Weiser River valleys; (2) the Shoshone Indians of the middle course of the Snake River between Glenn's Ferry and Shoshone Falls and in the interior on both sides of the river; (3) the Shoshone of the Sawtooth Mountains, west of the Lemhi River, Idaho; (4) the population of Bannock Creek, Idaho, and south therefrom to Bear River; (5) the Shoshone and Bannock of the Fort Hall plains on the upper Snake River; and (6) the Shoshone Indians of the Lemhi River.
It will be seen that the Shoshone population of Idaho was by no means a unitary one, either socially or culturally. The people of these six areas were not politically interrelated, nor were the populations of each area integrated social or political units, although the Fort Hall and Lemhi River people were more highly organized than those of other areas. On the contrary, the Indians subsumed under each of the six divisions primarily consist of people who lived under similar ecological conditions and dwelt in geographical contiguity. Some shared roughly the same nomadic pattern and united upon occasion for diverse reasons. The populations represented by our sixfold division interacted more frequently for economic, social, and religious purposes with people within the area than they did with those from other areas.
Although strong patterns of leadership and a tightly nucleated society were alien to the Shoshone in general, the Shoshone gave verbal recognition to the more frequent interaction that existed between neighboring families or camp groups, especially when such neighborhoods were geographically discontinuous with other neighborhoods. Also, differences in food resources and habits of peoples of certain demarcated ecological provinces apparently impressed other Shoshone as significant criteria by which the people of these neighborhoods could be named. This is the only logical explanation for the common pattern among Northern Paiute and Shoshone of the Great Basin of food names applied to the people of certain neighborhoods. Thus we have "Wada Seed Eaters," "Salmon Eaters," etc. In fact, it was quite common for the populations so designated to call themselves by these names, although this was not always so. In any event, it would be erroneous to say that such appellations implied membership in any social group, whether defined by united political leadership or by kinship. That individual families subsumed under some name, usually derived from food habits, tended to act more frequently together than with more distant neighbors cannot be denied, nor can we ignore the fact that common environment tended to induce a common subsistence pattern. That such groups were organized, territory-holding units cannot be simply assumed without supporting evidence, and this evidence is lacking. This view is shared by Steward, who summarizes the political significance of the food names in the following passage (Steward, 1939, p. 262):
The emphasis, I think, is clearly upon the territory rather than upon any unified group of people occupying it. The extent of the people so designated depended upon the extent of the geographical feature or food in question. A name might apply to a single village, a valley, or a number of valleys. Some Snake River Shoshone vaguely called all Nevada Shoshone Pine Nut Eaters, the pinyon nut not occurring in Idaho. Furthermore, several names might be used for the same people. This system of nomenclature served in a crude way to identify people by their habitat. Upon moving to new localities, they acquired new names.
In general, the remarks above apply to our Boise-Weiser, Bannock Creek, middle Snake River, and Sawtooth Mountains populations and to the Shoshone of Nevada. The Indians of the Fort Hall plains and the Lemhi River were somewhat different. Both had horses at a relatively early period, were involved in frequent wars, and pursued the buffalo. These factors tended to promote a somewhat different sociopolitical organization than we find farther west. Band organization, however fluid and shifting, did exist in the Fort Hall and Lemhi areas.