To protect gold sources in the West in order to prosecute the American Civil War, the US started to negotiate treaties with the Shoshone and other peoples of the Great Basin. On 1 October 1863 Governor James W. Nye of Nevada Territory and Governor James Duane Doty of the Utah Territory signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley. Twelve chiefs signed for the "Western Bands of the Shoshonee Nation of Indians". All but one made a mark in place of a signature. The document was witnessed by J. B. Moore, lieutenant-colonel Third Infantry California Volunteers; Jacob T. Lockhart, Indian agent, Nevada Territory; and Henry Butterfield, interpreter. White men present at the treaty of 1863 were the first to refer to these several native bands by the name of "Western Shoshone." The peoples speak the Shoshone language, also known as "Shoshoni," and are similar culturally, while operating independently.