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Snake Indians is a collective name given to the Northern Paiute, Bannock, and Shoshone Native American tribes.
The term was used as early as 1739 by French trader and explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye when he described hearing of the Gens du Serpent ("Snake people") from the Mandans. This is probably the first written mention of the Shoshone people. The term "Snakes" is also used to refer to the Shoshone by British explorers David Thompson and Anthony Henday.
The term was also used by Plains Tribes to refer to the Shoshone. They called the Shoshone "snake" referring to the Shoshone sign in Plains Indian Sign Language for the Shoshone people. The sign was used for salmon but the fish was unknown on the Great Plains.
This term was widely used by American immigrants on the Oregon Trail in the Snake River and Owyhee River valleys of southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon.Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Oregon, Volume II, 1848-1888. The History Company, San Francisco, 1888, p.462 note 4. The term "Snake Indian" later included the Northern Paiute tribes found in the basins between the Cascade Range and these valleys in Oregon and northern Nevada and northeastern California. These people were the opponents of the California, Oregon, and Washington Volunteers and US Army, in the Snake War.
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