Goshute

Goshute

Milton Hooper (left), Environmental Specialist at the Goshute Indian Reservation reviews plans for the reservation
Total population
(673)
Regions with significant populations
United States ( Nevada and  Utah)
Languages
Shoshoni language,English
Religion
Native American Church, Mormonism,
Related ethnic groups
other Western Shoshone peoples, Ute people

The Goshutes are a tribe of Western Shoshone Native Americans. There are two federally recognized Goshute tribes today:

The name Goshute derived either from a leader named Goship or from Gutsipupiutsi, a Shoshone word for Desert People.

The Goshute lived in the most desolate part of what is now the western portion of Utah and eastern portion of Nevada. In aboriginal times they lived at a minimum subsistence level with no economic surplus on which a more elaborate social structure could be built. Organized primarily in nuclear families, the Goshutes hunted and gathered in family groups and would often cooperate with other family groups that usually made up a village. Most Goshutes gathered with other families only two or three times a year, typically for pine nut harvests, communal hunts for no more than two to six weeks, and winter lodging which was for a longer period. These gatherings often lasted no more than two to six weeks, although winter gatherings were longer, with families organizing under a dagwani, or village headman.

The Goshutes hunted lizards, snakes, small fish, birds, gophers, rabbits, rats, skunks, squirrels, and, when available, pronghorn, bear, coyote, deer, elk, and Bighorn sheep.. Hunting of large game was usually done by men, the hunters sharing large game with other members of the village. Women and children gathered harvesting nearly 100 species of wild vegetables and seeds, the most important being the pine nut. They also gathered insects the most important being red ants, crickets and grasshoppers. However a family was able to provide for most of its needs without assistance. Their traditional arts include beadwork and basketry.

Their language is a dialect of the Shoshoni language.

The Goshute are an indigenous peoples of the Great Basin, and their traditional territory extends from the Great Salt Lake to the Steptoe Range in Nevada, and south to Simpson Springs. Within this area, the Goshutes were concentrated in three areas: Deep Creek Valley near Ibapah on the Utah-Nevada border, Simpson’s Springs farther southeast, and the Skull and Tooele Valleys.