🏹 c. 1840 | Shoshone Bison Hunters (Teton Range, modern Wyoming) What you’re seeing: Two Eastern Shoshone riders track a bison herd across sagebrush plains with the Tetons behind them, echoing seasonal movement between open valleys and high country in western Wyoming. How they hunted: As horses spread through the region, bison hunting shifted from foot hunts and communal drives to mounted pursuit, riding in close and shooting arrows at short range. Why bison mattered: Bison sustained life. Meat for food, hides for shelter and clothing, sinew for thread and bowstrings, bones for tools, fat for cooking. Hunts tied into season, trade, and ceremony, and wasting a kill carried serious weight in many communities. Where they lived: In the 1800s, Eastern Shoshone homelands centered on the Wind River region (Wyoming), with wide seasonal travel tied to game and weather. What changed: In the 1860s, U.S. treaties pushed the Eastern Shoshone toward permanent settlement at what became the Wind...