Northern Paiute

• CATEGORY: Tribe
• CULTURE AREA: Great Basin
• LANGUAGE GROUP: Uto-Aztecan
• PRIMARY LOCATION: Nevada, California
• POPULATION SIZE: 439 Paiute Reservation (2017-2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates); 7,883 Paiute (2021 American Community Survey)

The Northern Paiute, or Paviotso, a branch of the Shoshonean division of the Uto-Aztecan language family, originally occupied the far western region of Nevada, the southeastern part of Oregon, and the far eastern fringes of central California. “Paviotso” is actually a derogatory Shoshone word meaning “root digger,” so members of the Indigenous group prefer to be called Paiute, which means “pure water.” The Southern Paiute spoke the same language but inhabited the deserts of northern Arizona and western Utah and had little contact with their northern brothers.

Traditional Lifeways

The Northern Paiute fished, hunted deer, antelope, and bighorn sheep, and gathered piñon nuts. During harsh winters, the women dug plant roots to eat (the derivation of the name Paviotso). In winter, the Paiute lived in grass-covered, cone-shaped structures that had a smoke hole at the top. In summer, they moved outside and lived in areas surrounded by trees to protect them from the hot winds. Usually, no more than fifty persons, or three or four families, lived in each campsite, with the winter homes widely scattered. In the summer, women wore aprons of rabbit skins but changed to buckskin dresses in the winter. Men wore rabbit skin shirts in the hot months and buckskin leggings when it started to get cold.

The eldest males usually made key decisions, though each village had a “headman” who enforced law and order. Paiute religion stressed belief in a world inhabited by many spirits. These spirits could be found almost everywhere in nature: in animals, plants, stones, water, the sun, moon, thunder, and stars. Individuals prayed to these spirits for help in hunting and food gathering. These supernatural powers gave orders that had to be followed, such as how to divide the remains of a hunted animal or who to marry. Failure to follow these instructions could be punished by sickness, misfortune, or death. Contact with the spirits could be sought by anyone. Usually, a seeker had to visit a dark and dangerous cave or spend the night on a remote mountaintop to get the spirit’s attention, but if contact was made, the seeker would receive great powers to heal sicknesses or become a successful hunter. If a Paiute obeyed the spirits, upon death, his soul would be rewarded by being taken to another world filled with dancing, food, and gambling.

Post-contact Life

The Paiute acquired horses sometime in the early 1700s, although they did not make contact with White settlers until 1804 when a few Paiute hunters came upon the Lewis and Clark expedition exploring the Louisiana Purchase. In 1827, an expedition led by the famous explorer Jedediah Smith began trading furs for guns in western Nevada. In the 1830s and 1840s, thousands of White settlers poured through the region on their way to gold strikes in California and farms in Oregon. They brought chaos with them as their wagons, horses, and cattle destroyed meager food supplies in the Great Basin. In response, Paiute bands attacked the wagon trains and killed dozens of migrants. Not until after the Civil War did US Army forces “pacify” the territory by killing hundreds of Indigenous Americans.

Government officials established a reservation in Oregon in 1874, but thousands of Paiutes refused to go. They did not want to become farmers, especially on land that was almost desert. Many Paiutes became ranch hands, cowboys, and sheepherders for area White settlers. Paiute women worked as housekeepers or servants. In 1887, a Paiute holy man named Wovoka (“the Cutter”) had a vision that he described to Indigenous Americans throughout the Great Basin and beyond: If Indigenous Americans could dance for five nights and listen to the drums, the fish and wildlife would return, dead Indigenous people would rise from their graves, and White people would disappear from the earth. This “Ghost Dance” movement had spread all the way to Wounded Knee, South Dakota, by the winter of 1890. It led to the last great massacre in Indigenous Americans history, known as the Wounded Knee massacre, when army troops killed more than two hundred men, women, and children who were trying to dance White people out of the world.

In the 1930s, cattle ranching became the most important economic activity on the reservation. Paiutes either leased their land to White individuals or tried to raise their own herds. Paiute cowboys have a reputation for being excellent equestrians and dedicated workers. Most Paiutes do not live on the reservations in Nevada and Oregon, preferring to find jobs for themselves on the cattle and sheep ranches in the area. In the twenty-first century, most descendants of Northern Paiute live in Nevada, Oregon, and California. They work to further their economic prospects and preserve their cultural traditions through education.

Bibliography

Euler, Robert C. The Paiute People. Indian Tribal Series, 1972.

Fowler, Catherine S. Culture Summary: Northern Paiute. Human Relations Area Files, 2012, ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nr13-000. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.

"Northern Paiute." California Language Archive. cla.berkeley.edu/languages/northern-paiute.html. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.

“Numu: The Northern Paiute.” Nevada's Indian Territory, nevadasindianterritory.com/nevada-tribes/numu. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.

Wewa, Wilson. Legends of the Northern Paiute. Oregon State University Press, 2017.