Chelsie Thompson
December 16, 2002
Annotated Bibliography: Paiute
Dutton, Bertha P.
1975. The Rancheria, Ute, and Southern Paiute people. Prentice-Hall Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
The Paiute live in Northwestern Arizona and Southwestern Utah. They replaced the Pueblo Indians in their area a little over1000 years ago. The ceramic remains of the ancient Paiute are in direct association with the Pueblo ceramics around 1150. Dr. Dutton believes that an argument between the Southern Paiute and the Pueblo caused the Pueblo to leave.
There are about 1200 Southern Paiute today. The center of their territory is Cedar City, Utah. They were cut off from government benefits in 1956. The article then talks about the different groups of Paiute. The Kaibab Paiute live north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The Kaibab Reservation was established in 1907. The Shivwits Paiute live in the Southwestern corner of Utah. Between 150 to 200 people live here, on The Santa Clara River. The Chemehuevi Tribe were once a part of the true Paiute and live in the Eastern half of the Mohave Desert.
Houses of Power: Rock art, Shamanism, and Substistence in the Coso Mountains of California. http://www.axoplasm.com/etc/research/rockart
This website centers around the style of rock art of different tribes which are found in the Coso Mountain Range. One of these tribes is the Paiute. It briefly describes how the rock art was made, how it is dated, and how to interpret the images. It also describes the curvilinear abstract style, which is used in the Coso Mountain Range.
Kelly, Isabel T.
1937. Southern Paiute Shamanism. Anthropological Records Vol.2 No. 4. University of California Press. Berkeley, California.
This article reports on seven of the original fifteen bands of Southern Paiute. It discusses the different styles and techniques that the Shaman use in the Kaibab, Shivwits, Saint George, Gunlock, Paranigat, Moapa, and Las Vegas. Kelly found that the Shamanism in the Chemehuevi and the Las Vegas tribes was noticeable different than the other groups. These two tribes were the two most western groups.
Pryamid Lake Paiute Tribal Website. Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. 2002. December 2, 2002. http://plpt.nsn.us/
This a resource that is helpful for learning about the whole tribe of the Pyramid Lake Paiute in modern times. There are announcements for the tribe, including when the fishing season begins, surveys, and forum chats. These chats are mostly about the environment and the interests of their surrounding land. There are 110 registered users, but you do not need to be a Paiute person to register. I became a member myself and was able to access more information on the website. I especially liked the place for forum topics and to submit news. This would have been helpful to find more information and sources if I would have had more time to continue this research after finding this website.
Riddell, Francis A.
1960. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers No. 4 Honey Lake Paiute Ethnography. Nevada State Museum. Carson City, Nevada.
Kitty Joaquin and female members of her family provided most of the information for this paper. She was a young girl who grew up on the Paiute Reservation. She says that they referred to petroglyphs as tumada meaning “magic” or “trick”. The common name for petroglyphs is numutubon meaning “Indain writings”. They were told that the snake elements are made by those who had an understanding of snakes. That was all that the elders told Kitty, her sisters and cousin. They were never told more because more was only told to those who made rock art. This information leads us to believe that the shaman made petroglyphs and did not tell their purpose. From this article there is no evidence to associate petroglyphs with girls’ puberty ceremonies.
Side Canyon Rock Art. Side Canyon. 2002. December 2, 2002. http://www.sidecanyon.com/features/ranews.htm
This a relatively recent news article that is applicable to the current state of rock art on the Paiute Reservation. The Paiute Indians think that Quitchupah Canyon is a sacred area. The Southern Utah Fuel Co. wants to put a road by the canyon so that they do not have to drive 50 miles around and can lower gas prices. The Paiute tribes are against it saying that it is sacred and contains an ancient area. The tribes think that it would threaten the current rock art that is located there.
Starkey, Douglas. Pia Paxa Uipi Paiute. University of Arizona. December 2, 2002. http://www.library.arizona.edu/users/jlcox/class/slides/piapaxa.pia3.html
This website was put up by a University of Arizona profesor for his class. He talks about the links between the Southern Paiute and the water of the Colorado River. The rock art represents the connection that the Southern Paiute have with the spirit world. This website also includes pictures of Paiute rock art.
Stoffle, Richard W., Maria Nieves Zedeno, and David B. Halmo.
2001. American Indians and the Nevada Test Site A model of research and consultation. U.S., Government printing office. Washington, D.C.
There is a chapter of this book dedicated to rock art on the Nevada Test Site. About 72% of the people that they interviewed on this test site were Paiute people. They determined that rock art sites have many different purposes. The main ones are ceremonies, communication, power, healing, teaching, and paying respects. Included in this chapter are summaries of the archaeological sites that are on the Nevada Test Site. This chapter also talks about how sites that are on the border between tribes do not always cause disputes over the site. The chapter shows examples like Forty Mile Canyon which have made a better relationship for the Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute through the mutual use of the site for social and spiritual activities.
Underhill, Ruth.
1941. The Northern Paiute Indians of California and Nevada. , U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Education Division Washington.
This book is a government publication designed to make the 1940’s crowd feel comfortable about what they are doing. It explains that the Paiute God is all of nature. It talks about what men do when they have visions. According to this book, if they saw visions and wanted to keep this power, then they kept the visions to themselves. If they did not want this power than they shared the vision with other tribal members, and they would stop. The end of this book is basically pre-World War II governmental jargon about the lives of the Paiute being helped by expansion and new government programs.