The Shoshonean Migration Problem

Abstract

The Shoshone were resident in northwestern Wyoming at the time of historic contact, the early mneteenth century. Two hypptheses to explain their presence and time depth there have been proposed. The migration hypothesis brings them from the southern Sierra Nevadas across the Great Basin beginning no earlier than A.D. 1000. The in situ hypothesis argues for a residency of 5000 to 7000 year. The hypotheses are tested by drawing predictions from them. Using ceramics, rock art, strat1graph1c sequences, and adaptive data the in situ hypothesis may be falsified. The migration hypothesis then best explains the archaeological evidence. It is thus suggested that Shoshonean speakers did not reach southern Wyoming until the fifteenth century A.D. at the earliest. It is also suggested that the higher mountainous areas of Jackson Hole and Yellowstone Park were not occupied by the Shoshonean speakers until after they were driven from the northwestern Plains around A.D. 1800. Finally, it 1s proposed, but not tested, that Athapaskan speakers may have occupied the region of western Wyoming from the Altithermal until the time of the Shoshonean and Crow migrations of the fifteenth century. At this time Apacheans were displaced southward and eastward.

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