User:Mnelson25/Great Basin National Park

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This section is adding on to the Great Basin National Park website. It talks about the Indigenous populations that lived there.

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From about 12,000 to 9,000 years ago, the Paleo-Indians were the first group living in the Great Basin area. The Paleo-Indians mainly were hunters, and they hunted bison, the extinct mammoth, and extinct ground sloth. For housing, since they followed the animals they were hunting, they didn’t have permeant villages. The next group to live in the area where the Great Basin Desert Archaic from approximately 9,000 to 1,500 years ago. The Great Basin Desert Archaic hunted animals like Mule deer and antelope and gathered onions, wild rye, and pinyon pine nuts. Then from 1,500 to 700 years ago, the Fremont lived in the area. Unlike the Paleo-Indians who moved around to follow bison herds, the Fremont built small villages and grew crops like corn and squash. After 700 years ago, the Shoshone inhabited the area after the Fremont. They were hunter-gathers and lived in temporary homes to be able to follow animal herds and collect plants. Now, Shoshone decedents live in nearby areas. Great Basin peoples usually set up their winter villages along the valley floors that were near water and firewood. Then in the summer, they would frequently move so that the resources there wouldn’t be overused. Most of the food supply was vegetarian, with 200 species of mostly seed and root plants. Walking groups, usually women, gathered foods like nuts, plants, and berries. While horse-using groups, usually men, hunted bison, deer, elk, and mountain sheep.

The Shoshone, the last tribe to live in the area, was forced to move to a reservation. President Grant established a reservation for "the exclusive use of the mixed tribes of Shoshone, Bannock, and Sheapeater Indians" in 1875. Therefore, soon after, in 1905 and 1907, the Shoshone were forced to leave the Great Basin area and settle at the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. The transition was hard, and the tribe didn't thrive in the unfamiliar area. Life on the reservation was nothing like their home. It also wasn't until 1980 that the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Indians received recognition from the government.

To learn more check out Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin.