Northern Paiute
The Northern Paiutes of the Great Basin lived primarily in the western half of Nevada, an area consisting primarily of the mountains and valleys of the Sierra Nevadas. The people did not form a coherent tribe, but rather are associated with each other because they speak the same language. Families joined together to form bands in districts, the highest level of formal organization of the Northern Paiutes (Powers, 1970).
Fall subsistence practices were centered around the pinyon nuts found in the mountain highlands. Groups gathered together in districts to harvest the nuts in large numbers. Each district owned territory in which to harvest pinyon nuts, and trespassing into another district’s land during this season was heavily frowned upon, though permission was commonly granted if requested. When the fall pinyon nut harvest was over, groups splintered to form smaller settlements for the winter. During years when some pinyon nuts remained after the fall harvest, winter living was usually in the mountains. If pinyon nuts were scarce, settlements were moved to the valleys where groups relied on hunting and other seed resources. During the spring, groups were small and lived in the valleys, relying on remaining pinyon nuts, seeds stored from the previous year, as well as hunting and some fishing. Summer settlements were also small, as resources were found in low densities and could not be exploited efficiently by large groups (Steward and Wheeler-Voeglin, 1974).
The Northern Paiute material culture was based primarily on subsistence. Weapons, pottery, basketry, and other items were all designed for a task related to hunting, gathering, or food preparation. All meat was cooked before eating, and vegetable and seed items made up a majority of the diet since game animals were scarce in the Great Basin. Districts had ownership of hunting territories as well as pinyon nut territories, and group hunting across boundaries was forbidden, though individuals could hunt anywhere. The primary weapon for individual hunting was the bow and arrow. As travelers, they usually wore some form of shoe or sandal to protect the soles of their feet, and valued personal adornment of clothing or the body (in the form of tattoos or painting) (Steward, 1933).
Social organization was based on the nuclear family. Winter camps consisted of pit houses built out of available material, while summer houses were more temporary. Fall and winter camps also contained a sweat house for rituals involving the larger group of people who gathered there. Rituals often consisted of dances and other ceremonies, and were very important to the Northern Paiutes, especially in the fall when people came together in a time of plenty. Shamanism was also prevalent within the Northern Paiute, and shamans were valued as healers and leaders of ritual practices. Games were common and a form of education for younger members of the family, as many skills were gained through observation and practice rather than formal teaching (Underhill, 1941), (Heizer, 1970).
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References Cited
Powers, Stephen
1970 The Life and Culture of the Washo and Paiutes. Ethnohistory 17(3/4):117-149. Don D. Fowler and Catherine S. Fowler, eds.
Steward, Julian H. and Erminie Wheeler-Voeglin
1974 Paiute Indians, vol III: The Northern Paiute Indians. Garland American Indian Ethnohistory Series. New York: Garland Publishing.
Steward, Julian H.
1933 University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 33, no. 3: Ethnography of the Owens Valley Paiute. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Underhill, Ruth
1941 The Northern Paiute Indians of California and Nevada. Kansas: Branch of Education, Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Heizer, Robert F.
1970 Ethnographic Notes on the Northern Paiute of Humboldt Sink, West Central Nevada. In Languages and Cultures of Western North America. Earl H. Swanson, Jr., eds. Pp. 232-245. Idaho: The Idaho State University Press.
