Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All USU Press Publications USU Press 2006 Beneath These Red Cliffs Ronald L. Holt Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs Part of the Indigenous Studies Commons Recommended Citation Holt, Ronald L. (2006). Beneath These Red Cliffs: An Ethnohistory of the Utah Paiutes. Utah State University Press. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the USU Press at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All USU Press Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Beneath These Red Cliffs RONALD L. HOLT Forewords by Floyd O’Neil and Lora Tom Utah State University Press Logan, UT Beneath reprint.indd ii 6/13/06 9.49.10 AM BENEATH THE SE RED CLIFFS AN ETHNOHISTORY OF THE UTAH PAIUTES Copyright © 2006 Utah State University Press All rights reserved Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322–7800 www.usu.edu/usupress/ Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Holt, Ronald L., 1949- Beneath these red cliffs : an ethnohistory of the Utah Paiutes / Ronald L. Holt ; forewords by Floyd O’Neil and Lora Tom. -- New ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-87421-637-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-87421-637-0 (pbk.) 1. Paiute Indians--History--Sources. 2. Paiute Indians--Government relations. 3. Paiute Indians--Social conditions. 4. Mormons--History--Sources. 5. Mormons--Social conditions. I. Title. E99.P2.H65 2006 979.2004’974576--dc22 2006015245 Beneath reprint.indd iv 6/13/06 9.49.12 AM CONTENTS Illustrations vi Tables vii Foreword ix Foreword to the New Edition xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv Update, 2005 xix 1 Occupation and Dependency 3 2 From Neglect to Lethargy: The Trust Betrayed 32 3 The Agony of Termination 61 4 The Forgotten Tribe 98 5 Restoration and Reservation 125 6 Beyond the BIA: The Paiute Future 148 Appendix: Methods and Sources 155 Notes 159 References Cited 165 Index 187 Beneath reprint.indd v 6/13/06 9.49.12 AM ILLUSTRATIONS Figures I . The Southern Paiute Homeland 2 2. Early Trails and the Slave Trade 2 I 3. Southern Paiute Reservations and Population Centers 4 2 4. Sites Selected for the Final Reservation Plan 142 Photographs follow p. 87 TABLES I. Southern Paiute Composite Seasonal Round 6 2. Utah Paiute "Tribes" in the 1870S 8 3. Paiute Bands according to Palmer and Kelly 9 4. Paiute Groups at the Time ofMormon Colonialization 10 5. The Legislative Foundation ofTermination 64 6. Paiute Income, Fiscal Year 1953 7I 7. BIA Withdrawal Implementation Meetings 82 8. Per Capita Value ofPaiute Lands 83 9. Funds Budgeted for Walker Bank as Trustee 86 10. 1963 Paiute Survey Findings 106 II. Sources ofPaiute Income 121 12. Southern Paiute Claim Awards 123 FOREWORD IN THE HISTORY of the American Indians, a number of tribal groups have consistently been neglected by the scholarly community; among them are the Paiutes, and particularly the Paiutes who have dwelt in Utah. Theirs has been neither a happy history nor an experience of heroic conflict, but rather a chronicle of enervation and hopelessness, a story ofthe descent from a viable tribal life to one ofeconomic dependency and despair. In this volume Professor Ronald Holt makes a major contribution to the field of American Indian history and ethnography, by charac­ terizing the Paiute experience with remarkable clarity. The work is meticulously well researched. Professor Holt has moved with great care and accuracy into the field ofMormon-Indian relations, but he has done so without dividing the intellectual landscape into Mormon and non-Mormon spheres. Better than any previous study, his work allows the evidence ofhistory to dictate the conclusions. There is, perhaps, no better place in the United States to examine the effects ofpaternalism than in Utah; that is even more true when one considers the nature of the Mormon-Indian relationship. The Paiutes were forced into "shantytowns" around southwestern Utah communi­ ties, where their level of life was marginal at best; but, astoundingly, they were among the tribes terminated from federal jurisdiction in the 1950s, in an act of utter irresponsibility by the federal government. This study treats that series of events in an objective manner, tracing the long process of the reabsorption of the group back into federal protection. IX X FOREWORD An interesting irony of this work is Professor Holt's description of the Paiutes' search for a scrap of land in the vast domain that was once their own. The dynamic of restoring a tribe as a ward of the federal government was not as simple as the passage ofan act ofCongress. The account of this attempt to recreate an operable tribal unit lays bare for the reader the power structure and the political forces in the modern rural West. Professor Holt has accomplished the difficult feat ofjoining narrative and analysis; the result is a readable and engaging work. Floyd A. O'Neil DIRECTOR American west Center University ofUtah FOREWORD to the NEW EDITION THERE HAS BEEN very little published on the history of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. Most historical publications sim- ply refer to Utah Paiutes in a footnote or, occasionally, a sparse chapter. Reference volumes on American Indian tribes provide very little detail on the history of Paiute Indian bands in Utah. The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah is composed of fi ve constituent bands: Cedar City, Indian Peaks, Kanosh, Koosharem, and Shivwits. Though the tribe itself was created by an act of Congress in 1980, the history of Paiute Indian com- munities in Utah spans hundreds of years. This book, by Professor Ronald Holt, is the only text currently available that focuses specifi cally on the history of the Paiute people in Utah. The history of Paiute Indian communities in southwestern Utah is that of a people struggling to survive under great hardship. The landscape of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau, which is the Paiute homeland, is scenically beautiful, with mountain vistas and desert horizons. However, water, tillable land, and other natural resources in this area are scarce. The climate ranges from winter blizzards to summer heat waves. In spite of this, the Paiute people survived and even thrived in this natural en- vironment. The real challenges to their existence have been man-made. Through the centuries, successive waves of invaders brought slavery, dis- ease, and destruction to the Paiute people. The last, and most destruc- tive, of these invasions occurred after Utah became a U.S. Territory in the mid-1800s. William Palmer documented the existence of sixteen Paiute band communities in Utah in 1850. Today, there are but fi ve. The vast Paiute homelands that nurtured a peaceful, migratory people in touch xi Beneath reprint.indd xi 6/13/06 9.49.12 AM xii foreword to the new edition with nature now hold cities and towns, ranches and farms, federal lands and national parks. Efforts to remedy this great injustice have simply been too little, too late. Much of Paiute culture, and nearly all of Paiute lands, are lost forever. What has not been lost is the dignity of the Paiute people. Today, the tribe continues to struggle to recover and preserve its customs and traditions and build a healthy tribal community. Professor Holt refers to paternalism and dependency as major themes in the history of the Paiute people in Utah. Today, the trend in the Paiute community is toward empowerment. The chief agent of paternalism, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, has been forced by Congress to contract the administration of many federal programs to tribal governments. This process provides funding to a tribe’s government to manage programs for the tribal community following the tribe’s priorities, instead of bowing to the dictates of bureaucratic interests. The tribe’s dependency on federal funding is still a major problem. However, that also is waning. Utah’s Paiute communities are tentatively entering the private sector. You will not fi nd casinos or oil wells on a Paiute Tribe reservation. No such wind- fall is available to the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. However, you will fi nd the beginning steps of business development in leasing agreements and natural resources development. Though this growth is slow, it is irrevers- ible and essential to achieve true sovereignty and self-determination for the Paiute people. The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah is pleased to see the publication of the second edition of Beneath These Red Cliffs: An Ethnohistory of the Utah Paiutes. It is particularly fi tting that this publication follows the tribe’s twenty-fi fth anniversary celebration. The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah is grateful to Professor Holt for his work in publishing this text and helping us to honor our heritage. Lora E. Tom TRIBAL CHAIRWOMAN Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah Beneath reprint.indd xii 6/13/06 9.49.13 AM ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I WOULD LIKE to acknowledge the help of numerous individ- uals, without whom this book would never have been completed. Dr. Floyd O’Neil, of the American West Center at the University of Utah, was always free with his time and his immense knowledge of Native American history. Dr. O’Neil also took time away from his busy schedule to write the foreword to this volume. Dr. Patricia Albers spent long hours reading the original manuscript that became my Ph.D. disser- tation. Her comments, criticism, and support were invaluable. Attorney Mary Ellen Sloan and Dee Wilcox, of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), allowed me to dig through their fi les and were generous with their time and expertise.