Paiute

Mattie, the Daughter of Chief Shenkah

Chief Shenka was a Paiute Indian like the first Chief Winnemucca, whom the white men, who early traveled over the Rocky Mountains, met on the broad prairie land of Nevada. He was one of Winnemucca’s young followers. Of noble appearance and always brave and trustworthy, Shenkah became the chief of a small tribe of the Paiute, after Winnemucca’s death. When the Piute were at peace with other Indians and with the white people, Shenkah was very friendly indeed, especially to the soldiers, and our officers were much pleased when they could, on marches in search of lakes and rivers round … Read more

Winnemucca, Chief of the Paiute

Like the great Montezuma of old Mexico, Chief Winnemucca, who was born and lived the most of his life beside Pyramid Lake, Nevada, had a thinking mind and a large, warm heart. He was chief of an Indian nation called the Paiute and before any white men came over the Rocky Mountains to disturb them, there were several thousand Indians, to whom he was like a father. He saw to it that they had plenty of good food to eat, nice furs and skins to wear, and handsome tepees (or wigwams) for their families to live in. He had a … Read more

Toc-me-to-ne, an Indian Princess

We called her Sarah Winnemucca, but her real name was Toe-me-to-ne, which means shell-flower. Have you ever seen these flowers growing in an old garden among their many cousins of the Mint family? Well, Toe-me-to-ne loved them of all flowers best, for was she not herself a shell-flower. Her people were Paiute Indians, and they lived in every part of what is now the great State of Nevada. Toc-me-to-ne had a flower name, so she was allowed to take part in the children’s flower festival, when. all the little girls dance and sing, holding hands and making believe that they … Read more

Chief Egan of the Malheurs

The Indians pronounced the name of Egan, Ehegante; but the soldiers and the white men living near the Indians’ reservation, situated in eastern Oregon, called him Egan. Egan was born a Umatilla. His father and mother were both from the Cayuse tribe who lived in the valley of the beautiful Umatilla River. That river flows from the springs and creeks of the lofty Blue Hills of Oregon, and with a length of about forty miles coursing westward, enters the Columbia River, not far south of the old Fort Walla Walla, where is now the little village of Wallula. When very … Read more

Northern Paiute Indians

Northern Paiute. The Northern Paiute were not properly a tribe, the name being used for a dialectic division as indicated above. They covered western Nevada, southeastern Oregon, and a strip of California east of the Sierra Nevada as far south as Owens Lake except for territory occupied by the Washo. According to the students of the area, they were pushed out of Powder River Valley and the upper course of John Day River in the nineteenth century by Shahaptian tribes and the Cayuse.

Southern Paiute Indians

Southern Paiute. In western Utah, northwestern Arizona, southeastern Nevada, and parts of southeastern California. The Southern Paiute belonged to the Ute-Chemehuevi group of the Shoshonean branch of the Ute-Aztecan stock.

Digger Indians

Digger Tribe. Said by Powell to be the English translation of Nuanuints, the name of a small tribe near St George, southwest Utah. It was the only Paiute tribe practicing agriculture, hence the original signification of the name, ‘digger.” In time the name was applied to every tribe known to use roots extensively for food and hence to be “diggers.” It thus included very many of the tribes of California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, tribes speaking widely different languages and embracing perhaps a dozen distinct linguistic stocks. As the root-eaters were supposed to represent a low type of … Read more

Chemehuevi Tribe

Chemehuevi Indians. A Shoshonean tribe, apparently an offshoot of the Paiute, formerly inhabiting the east bank of the Rio Colorado from Bill Williams fork to the Needles and extending westward as far as Providence Mountains, California, their chief seat being Chemehuevi valley, which stretches for 5 miles along the Colorado and nearly as far on either side. When or how they acquired possession of what appears to have been Yuman territory is not known. They may possibly have been seen by Alarcon, who navigated the Rio Colorado in 1540; but if so, they are not mentioned by name. Probably the … Read more

Paiute Tribe

Paiute Indians. 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 … Read more

Condition of the Idaho Indians in 1890

U.S. Indian Agent and Party on Fort Hall Reservation

Early the summer of 1877 troubles arose in regard to the occupancy of the Wallowa valley by white settlers, it having been withdrawn in 1875 as a reservation under treaty of 1873, because of the failure, of the Indians to permanently occupy it. An Indian belonging to a band of non-treaty Indians under Chief Joseph was killed by some settlers; then the Indians insisted upon the removal of the settlers and the restitution of the valley to them. Upon the refusal of the government to do this, and after further efforts to compel all the non-treaty Indians to come into … Read more