The Western Shoshone , or "Newe," now live on the Duck Valley reservation, along the Nevada-Idaho border. Originally the western Shoshone were made up of small bands that took their names from their most important foods. Those included sage hens, pine nuts, rabbits, prairie dog, deer and antelope.
As the west became developed, the U.S. government found it more difficult to negotiate with bands than with larger tribes. Created by presidential order in 1877, the Bureau of Indian Affairs had planned to move all the Great Basin Shoshones there. But most refused. By the turn of the century, only one-third had settled in Duck Valley. The government then encouraged the Northern Pauites from Oregon and Nevada to move to Duck Valley. The two tribes organized the Shoshone-Pauite business Council in 1936.