History of Goshute Indians of Utah

*The Goshute Indians are part of the larger Shoshonean-speaking Native American groups that live in the Intermountain West. Although no one knows how long the Goshutes had occupied the area where they lived when first contacted by Europeans, a date of 1,000 years ago is most probable as the time when Shoshonean speakers entered the Great Basin from the Death Valley region of California.

At the time the Mormons arrived in Salt Lake Valley, the Goshute Indians lived in the desert regions to the southwest of the Great Salt Lake. Although exact boundaries are hard to determine because of the nature of the land and the proximity of other peoples, the *Goshutes lived in the area between the Oquirrh Mountains on the east and the Steptoe Mountains in eastern Nevada, and from the south end of the Great Salt Lake to an area almost parallel with the south end of Utah Lake. This area is located entirely within the Great Basin, which is an area with some of the most arid conditions on the continent, as well as one of the most varied regions in terms of climate, topography, flora, and fauna.

Like the other related Shoshonean groups and Paiute peoples who lived in the Great Basin, the Goshutes had an effective understanding of growing cycles, variations in climate, and animal distribution patterns. They lived in the most desolate part of what is now the western portion of Utah and eastern portion of Nevada, and because of this their culture has long been recognized as the simplest of any to be found in the Great Basin. In aboriginal times they lived at a minimum subsistence level with no economic surplus on which a more elaborate sociopolitical structure could be built.