During the expedition of 1870, the United States Geological Survey of the Territories came across the above village of Shoshones, numbering nearly one hundred lodges, encamped among the southern foot-hills of the Wind River Mountains, where the above and some of the following views were secured. They were under the well-known chief Washakie, and were on their way to the Wind River Valley to hunt buffalo for the winter's supply of food and clothing. Although the village had all the appearance of being a permanent abiding-place, yet the following morning, before the sun was an hour high, there was not a tent in sight, and the last pack-pony with trailing lodge-poles had passed out of sight over the hills to the eastward.
The war chief is generally a man of more importance in the village, especially when in the neighborhood of enemies, than the chief himself. In this instance his tent, situated in the centre of the encampment, is adorned with broad bands of black, yellow, and white, rendering it quite conspicuous. The war chief, or his lieutenant, issues forth frequently to announce, in the far-reaching voice peculiar to Indians, the orders which are to govern their actions, while within is an almost uninterrupted thumping on drums.
A group in front of the tent of the head chief Washakie. About him are gathered all the chief men of the encampment.
This well-known chief is a man of more than ordinary ability, and his record as a steadfast friend of the white people has come down to the present time without a blemish. He is now well advanced in years, but still retains his vigor, and his influence over the tribe. One of the above portraits was made in the South Pass encampment, and the other is a copy of one made in Salt Lake City.
667-676. GROUPS of in-door and out-door subjects, copied from small card views made in Salt Lake City, and which formed a part of the first Blackmore collection.
The Utahs, Yutas, or Utes, as the name is variously written, are a large tribe belonging to the great Shoshone family, and who occupy the mountainous portion of Colorado, with portions of Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada. Those living in the mountains where game abounds have a fine physical development, are brave and hardy, and comparatively well to do; while those who inhabit the sterile plains of the Salt Lake Basin are miserably poor, and spiritless. We derive our first knowledge of the Utahs from the early Spanish explorers, who came in contact with them on the upper waters of the Rio Grande del Norte, and who gave them the reputation of being a brave and warlike tribe. Their country bordered that of the Navajos on the south (the Rio San Juan now dividing them), who formerly ranged as far north as the waters of the Grand, but were crowded back by the Utahs. A continuous warfare was kept up between the tribes, in which the Navajos were worsted. The Utahs were employed against them by the Government at the time of their expulsion from their country in 1863. The tribe is divided into many bands, which are continually changing, but as now recognized are as follows: Capotes, Weeminuches, Tabeguaches, Muaches, Grand River, Yampas, Uintahs, Peahs, Goships, and Mouaches. The tribe now numbers in the aggregate 5,260. The Pi-Utes, Pi-Edes, Timpanagos, San-pitches, and others in Utah are kindred tribes.