The Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation Tribal Library Digital Collection is the product of a twenty-year effort to collect and digitize materials found in archives across the state. Much of the collection is physically housed at the tribal offices, but through a collaboration between the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, USU’s Merrill-Cazier Library, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church History Library, thousands of materials have been made digitally accessible to the tribe and its members and to those interested in their history.

The Shoshone call themselves Newe or Neme, meaning “the People.” There were several Shoshone bands living in northern Utah, including groups led by Sanpitch, Sagwitch, Pocatello, Taviwunshear, Bear Hunter, and Pine. Chief Little Soldier, often referred to as a Weber Ute, was actually a Gosiute from Nevada’s northeastern boundary. He moved to the Ogden Valley, where he led a sizable band. Little Soldier was peaceably inclined, as were chieftains Sagwitch and Sanpitch, while Pocatello, Pine, and Bear Hunter favored direct conflict over negotiation and compromise. Federal agents soon began to refer to these groups as northwestern bands.

The lives of the Northwestern Shoshone were completely transformed by the impacts of Mormon settlement and farming and ranching activities in their homeland and by the efforts of federal officials to remove native peoples to reservations starting in 1869. In 1863, The U.S. Army’s Third California Volunteers under the command of Colonel Patrick E. Connor engaged in an unprovoked attack on the winter encampment of the Northwestern Shoshone bands north of current-day Preston, Idaho. Between 350 and 400 Shoshone were massacred. The magnitude of casualties makes this event the largest single-day slaughter of American Indians in the history of the United States.

After the massacre, many of the surviving Northwestern Shoshone moved to the Fort Hall reservation in Idaho or to the Fort Washakie reservation in Wyoming. Others, including bands led by Sagwitch and Sanpitch, chose to remain unaffiliated and to continue their hunting and gathering activities as much as possible. Many accepted affiliation and membership with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) starting in 1873. With the support of their new religion, they were able to benefit from an 1875 amendment to the 1862 Homestead Act, and soon many became land-owning farmers in northern Utah. In 1880, some of the land they had settled upon was incorporated as the town of Washakie, Utah, and functioned as a homeland for the tribe until the townsite was sold in the 1970s. The Northwestern Shoshone descending from these bands have their tribal offices in Ogden, Utah. Although welcome at Fort Hall, most live throughout Utah, Idaho, and beyond.

This collection consists of photographs, manuscripts, correspondence, genealogies, audio-visual files, maps, and other artifacts collected by members of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation Tribal Library. A large collection of albums contains photographs of Washakie residents and their relatives. Artifacts span the years 1860 to the present day, representing over 150 years of Shoshone history.

Utah State University has partnered with The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone to create this digital collection so that Shoshone community members will have greater access to the history of the tribe, its family connections, its language, and its customs, and so that the contemporary historical record will have a Shoshone voice.

The materials included in this digital collection have been selected by the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation Tribal Library for public access. Some records may contain content that reflects outdated or biased views but represent historical perspectives and experiences.