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Our valley in northwest
Wyoming
was only settled by white men a little over a century ago, hardly a blip
in history compared to at least 9,000 years of habitation by
Native
Americans. One cannot live long in this land of spectacular
natural beauty without becoming aware of a previous culture which had
carved out a unique life style. They lived very much in harmony with
nature.
We
often find stone tools like arrowheads, hatchets, scrapers, awls and
chippings which give silent testimony to great activity over the
millennia. There is a spot near the ranch just below some awe
inspiring pillars of rock on a high point which reminds me of the
Acropolis with a superb view of the Wind River Valley and the snowcapped
mountains beyond. Heaps of chippings lie there in great profusion
attesting to the fact that craftsmen worked here for years to make their
stone tools.
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Shoshone National Forest,
courtesy
Global Travel Writers
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 The
Sheep
Eaters (named after their staple diet), or Tukudeka, lived high in
mountain fastnesses favored also by the bighorn sheep they ate. They were a branch of the Shoshone. Both
Indians and sheep found a precarious niche in rugged mountain
country at higher altitudes. Even in winter, like many of the
sheep, they sought the windswept slopes at high altitudes where there
was little snow and travel was easier, especially on the southern
exposures. Their dwellings were in caves and wickiups in
sheltered canyons high in the mountains. They used the mountain
ridges as routes for travel rather than river valleys like the tribes
frequenting lower levels. They were expert craftsmen, especially
famous for their tremendously powerful compound bows made mainly from
laminated bighorn sheep horns. These bows were highly sought
after trade items with other tribes. They are said to have been
capable of driving an arrow straight through a
buffalo.
Tucked away in the
mountains behind the ranch traces can still be found of the sheep
traps the
Indians used to catch the wild sheep. They built wooden
fences as wings to drive them into narrow corrals where they could be
killed. We have also found a wickiup in a remote, narrow canyon
an hour’s walk from the main lodge. The sticks are still
standing in this sheltered place after at least 140 years.
Tony Taylor has written a hauntingly
beautiful little book about these people called Alpine Sentinels
published by Brushhog Books. He describes how in the mid 1700s
the Plains
Indian Tribes acquired the horse and the gun. This caused a
technological revolution which totally transformed their way of living
by making the
buffalo much easier to hunt and facilitating travel, transport and
warfare. |
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In Taylor’s words the
Plains
Indian culture turned toward abundance, speed, power, and mobility,
forsaking most of the old ways. The
Sheep Eaters
on the other hand clung to their ancient culture and still depended on
reverence, cunning, simplicity and finesse.
Sadly, the advent of the white man and his
diseases like small pox decimated the
Sheep Eaters. At about the same time diseases brought in by domestic sheep nearly wiped
out the bighorn sheep herds and the surviving
Indians
had to move to the Wind River
Indian
Reservation where they sought refuge with their Shoshone cousins.
August, 2005
About the Author:
Bayard Fox is a Yale graduate who is widely traveled and
speaks several languages. Fox established the Bitterroot Dude Ranch
in Dubois,
Wyoming
in 1971. Operated by Bayard, his wife Mel, and their son Richard,
the ranch creates an outstanding horseback riding vacation opportunity
which is unique among dude ranches. Visit the
Bitterroot Dude
Ranch website at
http://www.bitterrootranch.com/
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