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VI. The Las Vegas Paiutes Ten Kate saw the first members of the Las Vegas Paiute division when his boat stopped at Cottonwood Island to take on firewood. The fuel was delivered by the few Paiutes who lived on the island, and by that time they had virtually stripped it of its cottonwood and mesquite trees. On the Nevada shore rose Mount X. The Indians considered this as the place where their former paradise was situated. According to tribal oral tradition as told to Ten Kate, when they killed a good headman, the Great Spirit punished them by expelling the band to the hot river valley. After their arrival at Eldorado Canyon, General Howard let it be known that he wanted a meeting with the local Paiutes. Ten Kate estimated an Indian population of about a hundred Southern Paiutes on Cottonwood Island and at Eldorado Canyon. The meeting was unsuccessful since no interpreter was available. The brother of the temporarily absent headman, although able to speak some English, declined to answer Howard's questions. He only declared that the Paiute loved the area, and that they had been born and raised there, apparently fearing government plans to remove them to a reservation. However, Ten Kate at last managed to find an informant willing to assist him in filling out the vocabulary list requested by the Bureau of American Ethnology. It is probable that this person also gave him some information about the Southern Paiute way of life. Comparing his vocabularies, Ten Kate concluded that Chemehuevi and Paiute were almost identical. When he undertook fieldwork among the Southern Utes in Colorado and the Comanches in Indian Territory some time later, he was convinced that these tribal languages were related to Chemehuevi and Paiute.
The Paiutes called themselves "Nu", meaning "the people". Ten Kate noted their small to medium stature, lean but muscular build and wiry appearance. He distinguished two physical types, the first with a flat nose, receding forehead, and prognatism (protruding lower jaw), the second with a curved nose and high cheekbones, similar to the classic "Red Indian" type of the Plains. The men also shaved away the middle of their moustaches, leaving only the ends, like the Chemehuevis. Ten Kate's Las Vegas Paiute informant(s) told him that they still hunted mountain sheep (Ovis montana), and that grass seeds and mesquite beans were their main wild food resources. Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) was chewed, producing a state of delirium. Their dwellings were very simple, consisting only of branches. The only crafts produced at that time were willow baskets, several of which he purchased. The Southern Paiutes cremated their dead. They were frequently at war with the Mohaves, taking scalps from their enemies, although the last battle had taken place more than ten years previously. The Indians considered the mountains along their stretch of the Colorado River to be the abodes of evil spirits.
Almost all Southern Paiutes wore "citizen dress" (western dress) and only a few still wore the traditional headcloth and white deerskin moccasins, the latter being exactly like those of the Chemehuevis. Paiute women had entered into unions with white men which resulted in mixed-blood offspring. A number of Paiute men were employed at the smelter in Eldorado Canyon, where silver was extracted from excavated rocks. Other Paiutes earned their living by gathering firewood and selling it to the smelter and the steamboat captains. Excessive consumption of alcohol was a serious problem, but the white American traders profited from this trade, a situation criticized by Ten Kate.
On May 18 Ten Kate departed down river to continue his fieldwork, which would take him to the Pimas, Apaches, Pueblos, Navajos, Hopis, Zunis, Utes, Cheyennes and Comanches and the deported Southeastern tribes in Indian Territory. [23] | |
