ethnolinguistic group of Western Shoshone Indians formerly living west of the Great Salt Lake in the arid region of the North American Great Basin. They were often reported in the 19th century to have lived wretched lives, subsisting with difficulty in the desert wasteland; the reports were probably exaggerated, however, and some later reports told of their cultivation of crops and employment by settlers. Gosiute descendants numbered more than 300 in the early 21st century.