Research Article

Teacher's Packet Oral Histories Articles Historic Research Students	Petroglyph on East side of Promontory Mountain range about 3 miles west of Golden Spike National Historic Site on Thiokol Propulsion property.
Summit held at Golden Spike reveals history Kerry Brinkerhoff Staff Writer Bruce Parry, Executive Director of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, was invited by Bruce Powell, Superintendent of Golden Spike National Historic Site, to come and tell the staff of the Bands history. Superintendent Powell would like to establish a relationship between the park and the local tribe. A study recently written on the pre-railroad history of Golden Spike stated that the Shoshone were the occupants of that era. Having the staff knowledgeable of the pre-railroad history of the native people will be a big start in that relationship. Parry told the staff much about the pre-history, leading them right up to modern tribal government, challenges and future. One of the interesting comments he made about the Promontory area was that it had religious significance to their Shoshone beliefs. He said that the people believed in “little people” that gave them Shaman powers and whose footprints could be seen after a death. He said that the local Shoshone believed these little people lived around Little Mountain and in the Promontory area. It is fitting that the place that became so special in American history, because of the meeting of two rails that would connect a nation, would also be a sacred place to the Shoshone.