Evening star., 1937-07-08
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

An intensive study OF what was prob
ably the New Worlds lowest human cul-
ture-that Of the nomadic Shoshoni In
dians-is being brought to completion by
DR.. Julian H. Steward, Smithsonian In
stitution anthropologist.
Until relatively recent times these In
the approximately 125.OO0 square miles
of barren lava plains in Southern Idaho,
Western Utah and Nevada, and Eastern
California Seldom has people been
set down in poorer environment. Nat
urally. DR.. Steward points out, the desert
Shoshoni were desperately poor people
with a culture simple relative to most
other Indian tribes.
But there were interesting variations.
The Shoshoni were forced to make many
adaptations to live at all in such an en-
vironment. With most Of their physical
and mental energies required for merely
keeping alive they had very little left
over for development Of the more cul-
tural aspects of life.
Up to the present. DR.. Steward points
out, the whole area has been largely an
chronological blank. Within the region
IL, u,
tions. The lowest level Of all was reached
with the little-known Gosiutes. Now
they reside on two small reservations,
but formerly they clung to few small
oases in the huge semi-deserts and the
Great Salt Desert that extend forbid
dingly from Skull Valley, Utah, to East
ern Nevada. This way Of life cut them
of almost completely from cultural con-
facts with other peoples.
The Gosiutes struggle to survive was
aided by few material devices. The scar
city of large game and Of wild seeds
forced the tribe to subsist to an extraor-
dinary degree on mice. gophers, crickets,
ants, lizards and other reptiles which
ordinarily are disdained by the lowest
savages.
In Winter the Gosiute was hardly as
we'll of as the Eskimo. Winter cold is
intense in the mountain deserts. For
shelter the tribe had only brush wind
breaks, or lived in caves. They had few
utensils and tools, although baskets pots
and bows and arrows were part of the
equipment of every family. Large game
was so difficult to procure that the man
who was able to provide himself with a
shirt and leggings was virtually a mil
lionAire. Often the people were vir-
tually naked, or wrapped themselves In
Winter in capes woven of strips of rabbit
fur.
From the Gosiutes, Dr. Steward found,
there Is q graduation in culture to those
groups of Shoshoni who provided them
selves with horses, went on long hunts
into richer country, and even made war
on neighboring tribes. In this environ
ment DR.. Steward found an interesting
sidelight on human psychology. Among
the American Indians rs q whole the
military virtues were highly esteemed.
The great men were those who were most
successful against the enemy. But among
the poorer Shoshoni groups there was
little evidence of this. The vast desert
was q place Of peace. Only with those
more advanced groups to whom war was
an economic asset did the valiant fighter
receive any special honors. They bor-
rowed many cultural features from their
enemies, so that their lives took on much
the same pattern as those Of the great
tribes of bison hunting plains Indians.
The requirements of war proved spur
to invention. Skin-covered tipis re-
placed brush and trass shelters. The
horse-drawn trAvoi4 took the heavy
burdens from the shoulders Of the wom-