The Wa Sui or Washo occupied the area of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range that borders Nevada and California. According to some authorities the Washo, who are well known for their basketry, have lived in their homeland for 4,000 years.  Their dialect is quite different from that of any other Nevada Indians, and they have no affinity, so far as known, with any other Indians.

(The following was taken from a report of 1913)   
       "They occupy the mountain region of Nevada, around lake Washo and Tahoe, and the towns of Carson and Virginia City and Reno.  They once extended farther east and south, but were driven back by the Paiute, who conquered them, reducing them to complete subjection, forbidding them the use of horses, a prohibition which was rigidly enforced until within a few years ago.  Broken in spirit, they became mere hangers-on of the white settlements on the opening up of the mines.  They have been utterly neglected by the government and have never been included in any treaty." (End report).
        The Paiute and Shoshone dominated the Nevada territory and contributed ideas and people who have influenced Indian culture nationally. Sacajawea, who served as a guide and interpreter for Lewis and Clark, was Shoshone.  She was honored and remembered in the year 2000 with the gold "One Dollar" coin which was issued in the U. S. 
        Sacajawea was born about 1790 in what is now the state of Idaho. She was one of the "Snake People," otherwise known as the Shoshone. Her name in Hidatsa was Tsi-ki-ka-wi-as, "Bird Woman. In Shoshone, her name means "Boat Pusher.  Although she is not remembered for having contributed directly to Nevada's history, she is remembered for having served American history, and for having been a Shoshone, a native of the Nevada territory area.

Famous Native Americans
 of Nevada

Chief  Winnemucca    Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins
Captain Truckee    Numaga    Johnson Sides   
Helen Joaquin    Natchez

Wovoka - "The Ghost Dance Prophet"

Wovoka, one of the most important Native American figures in Nevada history, the son of a Paiute prophet, was a Northern Paiute Indian born near Yerington, Nev. about 1856. He is better known in Nevada history as Jack Wilson because he took the name of the white family who had befriended him. His father, who had trained him in the ways of a medicine man or Shaman, died when the boy was 14 years of age. The orphaned boy lived and worked on the David Wilson land on the Walker River near Yerington.

Jack, a handsome Paiute, was a good worker. He became a fast friend and "blood brother" to the oldest Wilson son, Bill. Thus, Jack was welcomed at meals and family prayers. He became very interested with the Christian religion and tried to use its teachings in a new religion which he hoped would offer hope to the Indian people.

Wovoka wanted to give his people a feeling of faith in themselves. He urged them to follow the ways of peace. One of the ways he worked for this was by the Ghost Dance. Saying that the dance had come to him in his dream, he taught it to his people in the Nevada region. Wovoka's spiritual vision and leadership inspired the 1890 Ghost Dance in Nevada. In a short time this new Ghost Dance religion spread across the nation sparking a spiritual and cultural revival in many Native American Tribes.

In Wovoka and the Ghost Dance: A Sourcebook, biographer Dr. Michael Hittman, professor of anthropology at Long Island University writes, "He was a weather prophet, rainmaker and medicine man...Wovoka gained his greatest renown as the messiah or prophet of the 1890 Ghost Dance."  Drawing upon extensive sources, Hittman describes how Wovoka, from his home in Yerington, became the religious savior for literally thousands of Native Americans from the Pacific coast, across the Mountain States and the Dakotas and into Oklahoma.

The Dance religion began with Wovoka's Great Revelation. On New Year's Day 1889, Wovoka had a religious revelation wherein he "died" and went to heaven. God gave him a dance and a message of peace to share with all people. He was to stress brotherhood among all Indian people, and between the Indian and White. Wovoka proclaimed his stirring message and taught his people the Ghost Dance, a round dance that lasted for five nights. Men and women, their fingers intertwined, shuffled sideways around a fire, dancing to the songs that Wovoka led.

Wovoka's teachings spread like prairie fire first among the Bannocks, the Shoshones and then to the Great Plains Indians and many other tribes. By 1890 delegations from tribes of the Arapahoe and the Cheyenne on the east, and from as far as the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, were visiting him in Mason Valley, all seeking to learn about the new religion. The Ghost Dance was eagerly accepted by Indian tribes as a hope to bring back the old ways before they had been dispossessed of their lands and forced onto reservations. Right up to his death on Sept. 29, 1932 at his home in the Yerington Indian Colony, Wovoka received letters from Indians all around the country addressing him as "Father." Today, his legacy lives on with the Ghost Dance tradition still practiced by some native American tribes.

The Federal Government, alarmed at the popularity of his Ghost Dance, stamped out this new faith. As he grew older, Wovoka withdrew from both whites and his Indian friends. He felt his mission failed, and he became disillusioned.

At the time of his death, the newspapers failed to mention it. Thus, departed a great Indian leader of North America.

(The above was taken in part from: This Was Nevada,  Wovoka -  "The Ghost Dance Prophet" By Marta Gonzalez-Collins and Lee Brumbaugh - Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs Web page.)

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Chief  Winnemucca

Accounts tell that Chief Winnemucca was born at the Sink of the Humboldt River. Accounts vary as to his age to the number of wives he had, and just what real relationship he bore to others of the Northern Paiute. Even disagreement exists concerning the meaning of his name. One source says it means "chief." Another says it means "charitable main" Another version says its translation says "one moccasin" and still another "man with a hole in his nose." The later comes from the fact that some pictures show him with a pierced nasal septum in which he wore a stick or a bone about four inches long.

Winnemucca, whose name is mentioned with the Battles of the Truckee and with the land around Pyramid Lake, had traits of leadership and made many efforts (often overruled by younger leaders) to prevent open conflict with the whites. He and his family were given passes for free rides on the Central Pacific Railroad (now the Southern Pacific), with the use of the coach. The railroad officials found him to be a help, rather than a hindrance, in construction work. In return for his cooperation, he was given gifts and respect. The latter included the name of Winnemucca (which had been called Frenchman's ford) in his honor. He was honored by soldiers of the United States Army by the presentation to him of a uniform. Pictures of him show him wearing this uniform with a feeling of pride, honor, and respect Other pictures of Winnemucca show him wearing a feather headdress. Study shows that it was a ceremonial piece associated with Indians of Central California. It is, therefore, presumed he obtained this piece of finery from across the Sierras.

The illness and death of Winnemucca, because of his prominence, rated notice in the "San Francisco Call" of October15 and October21, 1882. The story told that the end came to him at Coppersmith Station, with his death attributed to his being bewitched by his young wife. The story further tells that soon after his death his young wife and three-year old child were stoned to death as punishment for causing Winnemucca's death.

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Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins

The northern Paiute name Thocmetony (Shell-Flower) was bestowed on this valiant daughter of Chief Winnemucca and whose mother was the daughter of Captain Truckee. She and her father saw that the only hope for the Indians survival was in cooperation and submission rather than war. Sarah sought understanding between her people and whites when the latter trekked across and settled on Indian homelands.  She saw, too, that an informed public could help the Indians' situation by bringing pressure upon the Department of Interior to appoint honest Indian agents.

Sarah's life is an interesting one and her book, (presumably the first in English by an Indian woman) "Life Among the Paiutes," gives some of the details of information. In it, she indicates that she was born in 1844, although in information she gave the Virginia City "Enterprise," she stated that her birth was 1848.

Further study of Sarah's life include the fact that she attended school in San Jose, California, as did two of her sisters (Mary and Emma). It is said she married at least three times, each time her husband being a white man. These, it is said, were a Mr. Snyder who died while enroute to Germany for a visit; Lt. Bartlett of the United States Army (with whom she lived only a short time); and a man named Hopkins whose name she still used when she had her book, Life Among the Paiutes, published in 1883.

The meaning of her name varies according to the different historians, but, in her book she gives it as Thocmetony or "shell flower."

Sometime in the late 1870's, Sarah began to give public lectures on Indian life and on the outrageous treatment of the Nevada Indians by the Federal Government She visited San Francisco several times for this purpose and had summaries of her talks printed in the 1880's in the newspapers of the day--the "Call," "Alta," and "Union." Gaining fame, she went to the East where she met with such literary figures as Mrs. Horace Mann who helped her get her book printed by a Boston Publisher.

It appears that Sarah, through her book, was able to stir up public opinion and interest. In 1878, the Secretary of the Department of the Interior asked her, her father (Old Winnemucca) and her brother (Natchez) to come to Washington at government expense for an interview. The Washington official, Secretary Schurz, told her to go home and tell her people they would be given canvas for tents and food. This she did, but, according to her book, the government did not fulfill its promise and her people continued in misery and suffering.

Her selfless motives, tremendous energy, and high purpose in behalf of her people made her a person admired in the history of the Far West. In history books, she is often pictured in her lecture costume. The description from the "San Francisco Call" of October 18, 1883, says "Her apparel was of dressed deerskin buff-colored and heavily fringed with beads, reaching a little below her knees and displaying her legs encased in red leather leggings and a pair of moccasins trimmed to match her dress. The pendant at her side was a handsomely embroidered pouch. Her black hair, which reached below her waist, was brushed smoothly back from her forehead."

The date and place of Sarah's death are not known (perhaps files of the Territorial Enterprise would make them available). One of the last pieces of information concerning her appeared in the Virginia City paper of January 14, 1879. In it, it told of a son of hers who was attending a school in Silver City.

Although she was commonly looked down on as "a low, dirty, common Indian," a Major (unknown) of the U.S. Army and Superintendent of Indian Affairs wrote this opinion of Sarah:  "Sarah Winnemucca is an educated woman of good sense and evinces what I believe to be an accurate appreciation of the condition of her people."
          Dated at Carson, Nevada, April 6, 1870 and September 20, 1870.

This exceptional Indian woman, a leader of her race, believed in the brotherhood of mankind. 

(The above was taken in part from the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs Web page.)

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Captain Truckee

Captain Truckee is claimed to have been the father of Chief Winnemucca. Other sources disclaim this statement. At any rate, Captain Truckee was a famous guide. He first became known in Nevada history in October, 1844, at the site of the Humboldt Sink. Here he became attached to the Stevens-Townshend Murphy emigrant party. One of the party members gave him his name after a French-Canadian scout whom he knew. This name was also applied to the river they followed. Here again is a point of contradiction. Most authorities of history give the credit of the naming of the flyer to the famous scout, John C. Fremont. (Incidentally, the first name of the river was the Salmon Trout River.)

Truckee, who was a chief of the Northern Paiute (Paviotso) Tribe, with a parry of twelve men went with Fremont to California and took pan in the fighting against the Mexicans. It is further written that he and his brother joined emigrants and accompanied the California Battalion on its march from Monterey to Los Angeles. Later, he returned to the Nevada area where he lived in the Humboldt River region.

His death at Como, which occurred in October, 1860, was attributed to a tarantula bite. He was buried on a mountain ridge of this Lyon County region beneath a pinon tree. In his grave was placed a small Bible given to him by Fremont.

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Other Indian Notables

Notice must be made of some other Indians mentioned in the history of Nevada. While information on their life's story is somewhat limited, these facts might prove of interest.

Numaga, better known as Young Winnemucca, was a great leader and attempted to keep peace with the whites. It is to be remembered that, despite the name, he was not son of the old chief.

Johnson Sides had been taken in by the Sides family, thus his name. He lived on their ranch and, in addition to his work, studied and learned to speak English and French. He also spoke several Indian dialects. He was employed by the United States Army as a peacemaker. As an adult he was frequently called upon to negotiate between Native American groups and the encroaching settlers. His skill in this endeavor is attested by the fact that he was held in high regard by both Native Americans and the U.S. government.   In his duties, he wore an army uniform and an army field hat. For his work, he was given a medal of which he was very proud.

Helen Joaquin who through an interpreter gave much needed information concerning the Paiutes of the Honey Lake Region.

Natchez was the brother of Sarah Winnemucca and like his sister he worked for a better life for his people.

Taken in part from an original source: Dunn, Helen. Indians of Nevada. Published by the Nevada Department of Education, 1973.  And in part from the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs Web Page.

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America's Last Indian Battle

The last Indian battle fought in America was fought at Little High Rock Canyon, on Northwestern Washoe County Nevada, March 1st, 1911.
        Four white men of Washoe County, including a rich cattle man - Harry Cambron; a sheepherder - Dominic Bertrand "Bert" Indiano, and two wealthy French Basque sheepmen - Peter Erramouspe and John B. Laxague were murdered by a band of renegade Modoc Indians.  Harry Combron had been shot four times in the chest, hips, elbow and head.  Peter Erramouspe had been shot four times in the head, chest and left and right thigh.  His  upper lip/moustache had been slashed off.   He was survived by a wife and two children.  J.B. Laxague had been shot once through the chest and his eye was blackened.  He also was survived by a wife and two children.  Bert Indiano was shot three times in the shoulder, twice through the head, his left eye was gouged out, his upper lip and eyelids were gone, his cheek had been shot away and there was a gaping hole in the back of his head two inches long and one inch wide.  He was survived by a wife.
        The band of renegades included an old man of 65-70 (Indian Mike); four young bucks Catch-en and Charlie, a very fat Indian about 27; Eat-up-Jim, about 27 years old; and another about 25 years of age,  a boy of seven years,  two squaws, a girl of fifteen, two small children and a baby in a papoose.
        As described by a 15 year old squaw, a Snake, (Shoshone) after her capture (the only survivor, along with three children), she confessed that the band had murdered the four stockman, as well as a Chinaman, and had shot Frank Dopp, a 16 year old boy who was killed at Cow Creek, Elko County, a year prior.
        She described the brutal killing in grim detail.  She told that one of the stockmen had caught them stealing their cattle.  When the stockman joined the others to discuss the matter, the Indians crept up behind them and shot them.   Even after the four men were dead the shots continued.  One squaw crushed the face and head of the man who had discovered the theft, beating his features beyond recognition.  The four victims were then stripped of their clothing and the bodies dragged into some willows where they were found 23 days later.
        On the bodies of the dead Indians were found personal effects of the stockmen, including a watch, pistol, and checkbooks. Their clothes had been cut down to fit the Indian children.  Also found were three horses, a saddle and a bridle bit.
        While enroute from Eagleville, Surprise Valley, Modoc County, California to check on their stock-camps along the borders of the Black Rock desert, the four stockmen were slain by a band of Shoshone-Piute Indians near the entrance to Little High Rock Canyon.
        The following morning the posse picked up the trail again near they camp they had visited the night before and followed it over the mountains into Clover Valley, catching up with the Indians about seven hours later.
Before the posse caught up with Indian Mike Daggett, eight of his band of renegade Indians were killed and four were captured.  Mike fell fatally wounded early in the fight, shot at 150 yards by Ed Hogle, the only white victim of the bloody battle.  Ed ran up to Indian Mike shouting, "I've killed Mike!"  Within 30 feet of him however, Indian Mike raised on his elbow and shot Ed above the heart with a .44 caliber pistol.  The battle was unequaled as the posse was well armed with rifles and pistols while the band of renegades had only two rifles.    Two squaws and the children fought with bow and arrows and tomahawks.  After the Indians had fallen the posse rushed the  young squaw and three children, not wanting to kill them.  The remaining Indians stood their ground to the last, wounding another member of the posse with an arrow, and fighting with sticks and stones until they were overpowered.  The eight Indians who were killed in this battle were buried where they fell.
        The posse at the battle consisted of Captain Donnelly and Charles Stone of the state police, the Sheriff of Modoc County, CA, Joe Reeder, George Holmes, Henry Huges, Otto Van Orman, Williams Parsons, Warren Prutt, Matt West, Ben Cambron, Ed Hogle (killed), Frank Perry, Charles Byrne, Merrill Pressea, Jack Fergreson and Skinny Pascal, and another Indian tracker.
        Many stories surfaced after the massacre, but 57 years later Effie M. Mack researched for the truth and details surrounding the last Indian battle in this country. After many years of numerous interviews with members of the posse and those of authority offering official evidence, as well as information from relatives and friends of the slain men, she was able to put together all the information.
        Indians who knew Shoshone Mike and assisted in tracking him and his band, gave their versions of the story to Effie Mack. Her book The Indian Massacre of 1911, was published in 1968 as a limited addition of 1000 copies. Personal accounts and manuscripts were kept by some including Frank Perry, a member of a second posse. One of the cowboys, David Mortenses "Mort" West, in the first posse kept a written account from the beginning to end, including his part in the battle.
     Taken in part from Nevada - Official Bicentennial Book and History of NV, Vol. I

James Shown

       More than 175 years ago the Great Basin was an unyielding opposition to the white men that dared to cross the forbidden territory. Even now, though modern technology makes the crossing seem insignificant by comparison, much of the land still remains unfit for habitation by man or beast.
        Yet within this unfriendly rugged waste, a generation prior to the white man’s invasion, some 10,000 Indians struggled with nature and in their own way prospered.
        They accomplished this without agriculture; without irrigation; without tools, other than the crude implements they fashioned out of sticks and stones. They did this without horses; without cattle; without even adequate clothing or shelter from the harsh cold of winter or the blazing heat of summer.
        Nowhere in the history of mankind can there be found a more impressive example of man’s adapting himself to an inhospitable environment than that provided by the tribes of the Great Basin.
        The aborigines living between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast, were in general the most primitive within the boundaries of the U. S. for that time period.
        Of all the tribes in the west, those of the Great Basin were most backward. The tribes in the region drained by the Columbia River had better sources of food and thereby reached a slightly higher level of living.
        In the Pacific coast region, between the Sierra Nevada-Cascade Range and the ocean, abundant natural resources and a gentler climate made living conditions more hospitable.
        The west is a land of great topographic diversity. A good example is found in the corner of the Great Basin which extends into Southern California, Mount Whitney and Death Valley, where the highest and lowest points in the U. S. are within sight of one another. The Native Americans of the far west were as diversified as the topography.
        Without the agriculture, irrigation or livestock, the Indians lived chiefly on nuts, wild seeds and roots. There were no buffalo to lead them far away on a hunt as the eastern tribes had. The rugged terrain restricted their movements.
        Nuts from the pinon pine were the most important food source for the Indians of the Great Basin. Abundance of this fall crop determined whether they would pass the winter comfortably or in semistarvation. The entire family participated in the gathering of pine nuts during a period ranging from 10 to 20 days. If the crop was plentiful, an adult could gather as much as 50 pounds a day.
        In the southern part of the Basin where the elevation was lower and the climate warmer, the mesquite bean and the agave or century plant were valuable foods. Seeds of many grasses, such as wild rye were also eaten.
        The mesquite beans were gathered in the summer. The seeds were taken from the pods and ground into a flour on crude stone mortars.
        The agave was prepared in the south by roasting in stone lined pits. When cooked, the stringy flesh of the plant is almost molasses sweet.
        Big game animals were relatively scarce and hard to obtain and therefore couldn’t be dependant upon as a food source.
        Great Basin Indians belong almost exclusively to one linguistic stock – the Shoshonean. The primary tribes being the northern Paiute of western Nevada and southeastern Oregon; the Shoshone of central and eastern Nevada and Utah; the southern Paiute of southern Nevada and neighboring Utah; and the Ute of eastern Utah and western Colorado.
        It wasn’t until about 1840 when the white immigration into the far west began. The caravans following the Oregon trail and the Mormon settlements around Great Salt Lake gave way to the peak of the white invasion with the California Gold Rush. The most direct routes took travelers through the heart of the Great Basin.
        Tens of thousands of gold seekers crossed the desert during the rush years, but their passing effected the Indians very little as the white travelers stuck to the main trails, their only concern was the gold which lay beyond the Sierras.
        However, all this changed a few years later with the discovery of rich mines in western Nevada. Then prospectors began to penetrate into every corner of the Basin, and behind them came the settlers who occupied the limited water sources.
        The settlers grazing livestock reduced the edible plants, and the white man began cutting down the pinon pines for fuel, thereby reducing one of the Indians most important food sources.
        With newly acquired horses and guns (brought to you by the white men) the Indians began to put up a strong resistance for a while. But with the completion of the transcontinental railroad across Utah and Nevada in 1869, the aboriginal way of life was doomed.