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  • Laura. D. Neal

Research Into the Shoshone Tribe - Native American Research (21/02/2020)

All physical work on this subject can be found on page 14 of the black sketchbook. As I mentioned before, I needed to replace my sheriff character after they were turned into a game mechanic. My teammate and I decided on making the new character a Native American, since they are yet another stock character of the Old West. However, making a character of this nature is easier said than done, since there were and still are many different tribes of Native Americans, and some would be reluctant to trade with the white man, or simply not trade with them at all.

After a long discussion, we decided on making the Native American in question a member of the Shoshone tribe: a versatile tribe whose members of which traded with pretty much anyone. I also needed a tribe whose trade path crossed Montana, where the game is set.

Whenever I design a character, be it something elaborate and fantastical such as a Minotaur or something as simple as an office worker, I always conduct extensive and thorough research in order for my designs to be authentic and true to the character in question. It doesn't matter whether the character is an animal or a human, or of a different culture or race. For my Native American character 'Sidewinder', this was no different.

Underneath is all the research I conducted into the Shoshone tribe in order to inform both my character design decisions and the backstory for the new character. The research needed to be lengthy in order for me to write a viable backstory.


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Research into the Shoshone Tribe


Coming up with a replacement character for Sheriff Damien Goldstein



Shoshone is also called snake. They occupied southeastern California across central and eastern Nevada and northwestern Utah into southern Idaho and western Wyoming.


They were organised into four groups:


  • Western, unmounted - Nevada

  • Northern, horseback - Utah and Idaho

  • Western Wyoming - Wind River

  • Comanche - Western Texas


Western Shoshone were organised into tenuous family brands that subsisted on wild plants, small mammals, fish and insects. They were also independently nomadic and joined other family briefly for activities such as rabbit drives, antelope hunts or dancing.

They were sometimes called the derogatory term 'diggers'.


They formed loosely organised bands of mounted buffalo hunters and warriors and adopted many plains Indian cultural traits such as the use of tepees.

Sacagawea was part of the Shoshone tribe.


They, like many other Native American tribes, had tension with European-American settlers, and wars occurred. They raided farms and ranches for food and attacked immigrants.


The Bear River Massacre (1863) culminated in the U. S. forces killing 410 northwestern Shoshone. However, most of the deceased were civilians and were killed deliberately.

This was the highest number of deaths which the Shoshone tribe suffered at the hands of the U. S. forces.


They fought many battles against the U. S. army from 1864 to 1876, where they fought alongside the U. S. army against their rivals, the Cheyenne and Lakota.

They were nomadic hunter-gatherers who could weave the tightest of baskets to hold the finest seeds.



21/02/2020

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