Spirits were not all equal: the strongest—those of the toyawo, or mountain medicine—lived ‘in the wooded mountain areas of the Yellowstone National Park, the Absarokas, the Wind Rivers, and possibly the Big Horn Mountains.’ Shoshone bands living at lower elevations also believed that the strongest puha (power) existed in the mountains. Consistent with this spiritual hierarchy, the Sheep Eaters were recognized as “living among the powerful spirits” and absorbing some of their power. When, in the 1870s, Sheep Eater groups were moved to reservations, they were regarded as particularly powerful medicine people.

–Lawrence Loendorf and Nancy Stone