While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Paiute. A term
involved in great confusion. In common usage it has been applied at one
time or another to most of the Shoshonean tribes of west Utah, northern
Arizona, southern Idaho, eastern Oregon, Nevada, and eastern and southern
California. The generally accepted idea is that the term originated from
the word pah, 'water,' and Ute, hence 'water Ute' ; or from
pai, 'true,' and Ute—'true Ute'; but neither of these
interpretations is satisfactory. Powell states that the name properly
belongs exclusively to the Corn Creek tribe of south west Utah, but has
been extended to include many other tribes. In the present ease the term
is employed as a convenient divisional name for the tribes occupying south
west Utah from about the locality of Beaver, the south west part of
Nevada, and the north west part of Arizona, excluding the Chemehuevi.
With regard to the Indians of Walker River and Pyramid
Lake reservations, who constitute the main body of those commonly known as
Paiute, Powell claims that they are not Paiute at all, but another tribe
which he calls Paviotso. He says: "The names by which the tribes are known
to white men and the department give no clue to the relationship of the
Indians. For example, the Indians in the vicinity of the reservation on
the Muddy and the Indians on the Walker River and Pyramid Lake
reservations are called Pai or Pair Utes, but the Indians know only those
on the Muddy by that name, while those on the other two reservations are
known as Paviotsoes, and speak a very different language, but closely
allied to, if not identical with, that of the Bannocks"
(Powell and Ingalls in Ind. Alf. Rep. 1873). The Indians of Walker
River and Pyramid lake claim the Bannock as their cousins, and say that
they speak the same language. The different small bands have little
political coherence, and there is no recognized head-chief. The most
influential chiefs among them in modern times have been Winnemucca, who
died a few years ago, and Natchez. As a rule they have been peaceable and
friendly toward the whites, although in the early sixties they several
times came into collision with miners and
emigrants, hostility being frequently provoked by the whites themselves.
The northern Paiute were more warlike than those of the
south, and a considerable number of them took part with the Bannock in the
war of 1878. Owing to the fact that the great majority of the Paiute
(including the Paviotso) are not on reservations, many of them being
attached to the ranches of white men, it is impossible to determine their
population, but they may be safely estimated at from 6,500 to 7,000. In
1906 those on reservations all Nevada were reported to number, at Walker
River res., 486; at Moapa reservation, 129; at Pyramid Lake reservation,
554; at Duck Valley (Western Shoshoni agency), 267; not under an agency
(1900), 3,700. In Utah there were 76 Kaibab, 154 Shivwits, and 370 Paiute
not under an agency; in Arizona, 350 Paiute under the Western Nevada
School Superintendent.
As a people the Paiute are peaceable, moral, and
industrious, and are highly commended for their good qualities by those
who have had the best opportunities for judging. While apparently not as
bright in intellect as the prairie tribes, they appear to possess more
solidity of character. By their willingness and efficiency as workers they
have made themselves necessary to the white farmers and have been enabled
to supply thenselves with good clothing and many of the comforts of life,
while on the other hand they have steadily resisted the vices of
civilization, so that they are spoken of by one agent as presenting the
"singular anomaly" of improvement by contact with the whites. Another
authority says: "To these habits and excellence of character may be
attributed the fact that they are annually increasing in numbers, and that
they are strong, healthy, active people. Many of them are employed as
laborers on the farms of white men in all seasons, but they are especially
serviceable during the time of harvesting and haymaking." Aside from their
earnings among the whites, they derive subsistence from the fish of the
lakes, jackrabbits and small game of the sage plains and mountains, and
from piñon nuts and other seeds, which
they grind into flour for bread. Their ordinary dwelling is the wikiup, or
small rounded hut, of tule rushes over a framework of poles, with the
ground for a floor and the fire in the center, and almost entirely open at
the top. Strangely enough, although appreciating the advantages of
civilization so far as relates to good clothing and to such food as they
can buy at the stores, they manifest no desire to live in permanent houses
or to procure the furniture of civilization, and their wikiups are almost
bare of everything excepting a few wicker or grass baskets of their own
weaving.
Following are the Paiute bands so far as known:
