Goshute

The Goshute (Gosiute) refer to themselves as the Newe [nɨwɨ] or Newenee [nɨwɨnɨɨ] ('Person' or 'People'), though at times have used the term Kutsipiuti (Gutsipiuti) or Kuttuhsippeh, meaning "People of the dry earth" or "People of the Desert" (literally: "dust, dry ashes People"). Neighboring Numic-speaking peoples used variants including Kusiutta / Kusiyuttah, Kusiyuttah, Newenee, Gusiyuta, or Kusiyutah when referring to the Goshute People. English variants included: Goshutes, Go-sha-utes, Goship-Utes, Goshoots, Gos-ta-Utes, Gishiss, Goshen Utes, Kucyut, and Gosiutsi. These names suggest a closer affinity among the Goshute and Ute Peoples than other Numic-speaking groups, such as the Shoshone and Paiute. However, Ute, Uin-tah or Utah Indian were often used as catch-all terms by Anglo-American settlers. The Goshute occupied much of what is now the western Utah and eastern Nevada. In aboriginal times, they practiced subsistence hunting and gathering and exhibited a fairly simple social structure. Organized primarily in nuclear families, the Goshutes hunted and gathered in family groups and often cooperated 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. 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. Prior to contact with the Mormons, the Goshutes wintered in the Deep Creek Valley in dug out houses built of willow poles and earth known as wiki-ups. In the spring and summer they gathered wild onions, carrots and potatoes, and hunted small game in the mountains. Ethnobotany The Goshute use the root of Carex as medicine. ==Language==

Gosiute is one main regional dialect of Shoshoni, a Central Numic language. ==History==

The Goshute are an indigenous peoples of the Great Basin, and their traditional territory extends from the Great Salt Lake (Goshute: ''Tĭ'tsa-pa - "Fish Water" or Pi'a-pa - "Great Water") to the Steptoe Range in Nevada, and south to Simpson Springs (Goshute term: Pi'a-pa or Toi'ba). Within this area, the Goshutes were concentrated in three areas: Deep Creek Valley near Ibapah (Ai-bim-pa / Ai'bĭm-pa'' - "White Clay Water" referring to Deep Creek) on the Utah-Nevada border, Simpson's Springs farther southeast, and the Skull (Goshute: ''Pa'ho-no-pi / Pa'o-no-pi'') and Tooele Valleys. The first written description of the Goshute was made in the journal of Jedediah Smith while returning from a trip to California on his way to Bear Lake (Goshute: ''Pa'ga-di-da-ma / Pa'ga-dĭt'') in 1827. For the next two decades European contact with the Goshutes remained sporadic and insignificant. There were five divisions or subtribes: • Pagayuats, formerly on Otter Creek (Goshute term for otter: ''Pan'tsuk / Pan'tsuk'')., s. w. Utah • Pierruiats (perhaps after the Goshute term for the Deep Creek Range), living at Deep Creek, s. w. Utah, in 1873 • Torountogoats, formerly in Egan Canyon and Egan Range, e. Nevada • Tuwurints, formerly living on Snake Creek, s. w., Utah • Unkagarits, formerly in Skull Valley, s. w. Utah Other sources are listing following Kusiutta / Goshute (Gosiute) divisions or regional groupings: • Cedar Valley Goshute (inhabited the Sevier Desert northwest of Sevier River, identical with the above-mentioned "Pagayuats band".) • Deep Creek Valley Goshute or Aipimpaa Newe ("Deep Creek Valley People", lived in Deep Creek Valley and Deep Creek Range (Goshute: Pi’a-roi-ya-bi), identical with the above-mentioned "Pierruiats band") • Rush Valley Goshute (lived in Rush Valley) • Skull Valley Goshute or Wepayuttax ("Skull Valley People", lived in Skull Valley (Goshute: ''Pa'ho-no-pi / Pa'o-no-pi''), identical with the "Unkagarits band", easternmost of the Goshute bands, and nearest to the [sometimes with them associated] "Wipayutta" or "Weber Utes", a mixed band of Northwestern Shoshone and Cumumba Band of Utes) • Tooele Valley Goshute (lived in the vicinity of today's Tooele (Goshute: ''Si'o-gwût / Si'o-gwa'') and the valley of the same name) • Trout Creek Goshute (lived in along Trout Creek (Goshute: ''O'mo-ti-o-gai-pi'') in the northern part of Snake Valley; identical with the "Tuwurints band".) The Western Shoshoni speaking Ely Shoshone Tribe of Nevada called all Goshute after one of their important bands Aibibaa Newe ("White chalky clay Water People"), the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe (Tsaidüka) know them as Egwibaanɨwɨ (literally "Smell Water People") - maybey referring to their desert culture survival techniques. Conflict with Mormons In 1847, pioneers with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) settled in the neighboring Salt Lake Valley, and shortly afterwards began to impinge Goshute territory. Tooele valley soon became a major grazing ground for LDS cattle owners from Salt Lake to the north and Utah Valley to the south. In 1849, the pioneers started building permanent structures in Goshute territory, beginning with a grist mill commissioned by Ezra T. Benson. Other pioneer families followed and by 1850 Tooele County was established. ==Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah==

The Skull Valley Indian Reservation is located in Tooele County, Utah, of whom 31 live on an reservation located at in Tooele County. The Dugway Proving Grounds lies just south of Skull Valley. To the east is a nerve gas storage facility and to the north is the Magnesium Corporation plant which has had severe environmental problems. The reservation was a proposed location for an dry cask storage facility for the storage of 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. Only are for the actual facility, and the rest of the land is a buffer area. 8½ years after application, this facility was licensed by the NRC. The office of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute is located at 407 Skull Valley Road, Skull Valley, Utah. Tribal membership at the end of 2020 is 148. ==References==