Snake River & The Rise of Ancient Idaho

Inhabitants of Ancient Idaho

In the southern most area of the Plateau resided the people called the Nez Perce. The Nez Perce also resided in central Idaho, eastern Oregon, and Washington. The Northern Shoshoni lived in the territory of the Payette headwaters and the Long Valley. South of the Nez Perce and west of the Northern Shoshoni resided the Western Shoshoni. These people although considered apart of the Plateau culture varied widely in cultural norms, rituals, and practices. The reasoning for the widely varying cultures came to light when it was discovered that the mainstream Plateau culture that we know of now did not develop until around 1300 BCE (Before Common Era).

Before the 1300’s the Plateau culture consisted of forest-hunting people whom began to change as trade between the Great Basin Culture and other cultures expanded. Common characteristics of the Plateau culture includes; winter villages possessing semi subterranean earth lodges, most villages centered around the main rivers, netting, fishing being a main source of found gathering, and the people shifting away from the main valleys during the summer.

Shoshoni (also spelled Shoshone) skin tepees, ca. 1880.
[Wikimedia Commons, PD: US]

The Role of the Snake River

Archaeological evidence found in 1958 suggested that the Snake River, located in southwestern Idaho was used as a rough outline of the boundary between the Great Basin and prehistoric Plateau culture areas. This was supported by the number of Plateau lie villages along the Snake River and the river also served as a rough boundary of the diffusion of petrogylphs and pictographs of the different cultures. There were exceptions to this theory, but it allowed a general boundary area. According to scientists though, the variance between the pictographs and petrogylphs may be of little significance. Still the hypothesis that the Snake River served as an approximate boundary between the Plateau and the Great Basin cultures is widely accepted.

Snake River - Shoshone Falls, Idaho
[ID-B-0092, Cliff Day/WaterArchives, CC BY-SA 2.0]

For Further Reading

Swanson (Jr.), E. H. (1965). Archaeological Explorations in Southwestern Idaho. American Antiquity, 31 (1), 24-37. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2694019