Stories of a Place and Itsone Peoples Don D. Fowler and Catherine S. Fowler This book is about a place, the Great Basin of west- and difficult to interpret from the few and fragile ern North America, and about the lifeways of Native remains left behind for archaeologists to discover. American people who lived there during the past Every researcher soon feels the adventure of learn- 13,000 years. We do not attempt to tell a single ing about this place and its people through time. story or to convey a complete view of the region Anthropologists (including archaeologists), over this long time span. Rather, we offer a set of ecologists, hydrologists, and geologists define vari- smaller stories or vignettes about how people lived ous Great Basins. One is the hydrographic Great in this intriguing place, written by archaeologists Basin, an area of about 200,000 square miles that who know it well. drains internally, with no outlets to the sea. On the By emphasizing the changing nature of the map of his 1843–44 reconnaissance across the West, Great Basin, we highlight the ingenious solutions published by the US Congress in 1844, Captain people devised over time to sustain themselves in a John Charles Frémont placed a legend that read, difficult environment. They did so largely by hunt- “The Great Basin; diameter 11° of latitude, 10° of ing and collecting the animals, fish, birds, and longitude: elevation above the sea 4 and 5,000 feet: plants of the region rather than by depending on surrounded by lofty mountains: contents almost domesticated species, as some of their neighbors to unknown but believed to be filled with rivers and the south did. Only for about the last 2,000 years, lakes which have no communication with the sea.” and only intermittently in what is now Utah and The geological Great Basin is part of the larger parts of southern Nevada, have some Great Basin North American Basin and Range physiographic Native groups lived as part-time farmers. No matter how people made a living in the Great Basin, they and the place have always been deeply influenced by changing environments and climates. The Great Basin is, after all, a semiarid and often harsh land, but one with life-giving oases. As the weather fluctuated from year to year, and the climate from decade to decade or even from one millennium to the next, the availability of water, plants, and animals also fluctuated. Even in the best of times in such a place, only people who learned the land intimately and could read the many signs of its changing moods were successful. The evi- dence of their success is there, but it is often subtle COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL The Great Basin 1 province—the hundreds of generally north-south- between “history” and “prehistory,” and we have trending mountain ranges separated by long, broad adopted their view. It is a view of an ever-unfolding valleys extending from northern Mexico into central continuum from the time of the ancestors to the Oregon. Some 120 of these smaller basins and their current-day people, all of whom shared parts of this intervening mountain ranges make up the Great one place. The story over that long span is a multi- Basin. The great nineteenth-century geologist faceted one, many parts of which are incompletely Clarence Dutton said that a map of the many moun- known, especially when researchers have to rely on tain ranges reminded him of a great army of cater- the subtle clues uncovered through archaeology. pillars marching to Mexico. Many of the interpretations our authors make come The biogeographic Great Basin is for some from combining those clues with knowledge of life- ecologists larger and for others smaller than the ways in this place that Indian people have shared hydrographic basin. In this book we consider the with others over time. It is this information that is hydrographic and biogeographic basins to be identi- so helpful in fleshing out the uses and meanings of cal. As Donald Grayson explains in chapter 2, plant artifacts and understanding environmental clues. To life corresponds to elevation throughout the Great use only this knowledge to interpret the past would Basin, from the low-growing shrubs of the valley be to deny that present-day Indian people profited floors to the conifer forests of the high mountain- from the ancestors’ experiences and changed over sides. time, but their contemporary wisdom and counsel There is also the cultural Great Basin, defined are nonetheless invaluable. by anthropologists in the twentieth century. It is Because we emphasize the archaeological past, based on the distribution of present-day American readers may wonder who the Native Americans of Indian language families and material culture. This the Great Basin are today. They include roughly Great Basin encompasses the hydrographic Great 10,000 residents in some 40 federally recognized Basin, parts of the Colorado Plateau, and the central tribes with land bases ranging from a few dozen Rocky Mountains. acres to half a million. In addition, several thousand Finally, for the purposes of this book, there is people live independently in urban settings rather the archaeological Great Basin, which comprises the than in reservation communities. Traditionally, hydrographic Great Basin and a section of the west- anthropologists have grouped the tribes according ern Colorado Plateau. As several of our authors tell to their indigenous languages. The Washoe people, the story, related peoples during what are called centered on Lake Tahoe and several large valleys Archaic and Fremont times lived not only in the immediately east of it, speak a language affiliated Great Basin proper but in a portion of the canyon with several languages in California, all part of the country of the western Colorado Plateau. In its large, diverse Hokan language stock. Groups whose landforms, plant life, and patterns of water flow, indigenous languages are affiliated with the so- this plateau area is somewhat different from the called Numic branch of the widespread Uto-Aztecan Great Basin. But the peoples who flourished there language family cover most of the region. Linguists over thousands of years had relationships both with divide Numic into three pairs of languages: Mono people to the west, in the Great Basin, and, after and Northern Paiute in the western Great Basin, about 400 CE, with the farming-based, settled village Panamint and Shoshone in the central Great Basin, cultures in the US Southwest. To properly tell our and Kawaiisu and Ute in the southern and eastern story of people’s lives in ancient times, the western Great Basin (see fig. 6.9). Different federally recog- Colorado Plateau needs to be linked to the Great nized tribes and cultural groups are included in Basin proper. each of these language divisions. In telling the archaeological stories of the Great Today this way of dividing peoples is less use- Basin, our contributors generally look more at the ful, because everyone speaks mainly English. The deep past than at the immediate past or the present. groups maintain some differences in traditional cul- Great Basin Indian people today do not distinguish ture, but they are more homogeneous than differ- 2 COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL sarpress.sarweb.org ent. Some tribes and reservation communities are that’s what we Indian people come from. That’s the reasonably well-off economically, with viable tribal way Indian people were. And one of the most impor- businesses, including casinos. Others, especially in tant abilities and skills to have is to be out on the rural settings, struggle to make ends meet and pro- ground and be able to reconnect with that wisdom vide services for their members. Throughout the and from that place to our land. That comes from region, communities and individuals retain varying the history of our people, and the land’s well-being degrees of knowledge of older lifeways and skill in rests and resides in that.” their indigenous languages. Native interpretations of the past do not always Many Great Basin Natives are deeply concerned coincide with those of non-Native anthropologists, about their land, whether present-day reserved land archaeologists, historians, and ecologists who carry or former larger territories. They feel a custodial out research in their regions—but Indian people are relationship to the land that extends to its resources usually interested in others’ results. More and more, —animals, plants, and archaeological evidence of Great Basin indigenous people are reviewing archae- the ancestors. People still visit sacred sites, collect ological projects and requesting a say in decisions important food and medicinal plants, and pray to that affect their land and the region in general. the many spirits who inhabit the land. Some take They are especially interested in the designation care of the land and its plants and animals in the and protection of sacred sites, whether specific old way, by selectively harvesting plant foods, clean- places or larger districts, and they speak eloquently ing and clearing springs, pruning, and burning for their protection. The Washoe Tribe, for example, overgrown areas. has partnered with the US Forest Service in a long Most tribes today have environmental and cul- battle to prevent climbing at Cave Rock, a site on tural preservation departments or committees and the western shore of Lake Tahoe with important are seriously involved in consulting with land man- spiritual meaning for both Native persons of power aging agencies both in their former territories and and tribal members in general. Western Shoshone on reserved land. They routinely monitor archaeo- people, especially the Battle Mountain Shoshone logical and environmental activities, especially on Tribe, have similarly made their opinions known to federal and reserved land.