The Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin are Native Americans of the northern Great Basin , Snake River Plain , and upper Colorado River basin. The "Great Basin" is a cultural classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas and a cultural region located between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada , in what is now Nevada , and parts of Oregon , California , Idaho , Wyoming , and Utah . The Great Basin region at the time of European contact was ~400,000 sq mi (1,000,000 km ). There is very little precipitation in the Great Basin area which affects the lifestyles and cultures of the inhabitants.
30-459: The Washoe or Wašišiw ("people from here", or transliterated in older literature as Wa She Shu ) are a Great Basin tribe of Native Americans , living near Lake Tahoe at the border between California and Nevada . The name "Washoe" or "Washo" (as preferred by themselves) is derived from the autonym Waashiw ( wa·šiw or wá:šiw ) in the Washo language or from Wašišiw ( waší:šiw ),
60-515: A language isolate , However, it is sometimes tentatively regarded as part of the controversial Hokan language family . The language is written in the Latin script . The Wašiw language is now considered a moribund language as only a handful of fluent elder speakers use the language. There has been a recent revival of the language and culture within the Tribe. "Wašiw Wagayay Maŋal" (the "house where Wašiw
90-457: Is spoken") was the first attempt by the Wašiw people to renew their language for the future generations. The tribe currently relies on the tribal Cultural Resource Department to provide language classes to the community. However, there has recently been a pedagogical shift within the tribe, and the youth have become the focal point of language and culture programs. The Washoe people are considered to be
120-557: The Domínguez–Escalante expedition , which set off 11 years later in 1776 and passed far from present day Delta, Utah . Great Basin settlement was relatively free of non-Native settlers until the first Mormon settlers arrived in 1847. Within ten years, the first Indian reservation was established, in order to assimilate the native population. The Goshute Reservation was created in 1863. The attempted acculturation process included sending children to Indian schools and limiting
150-513: The Washoe traditionally speak Numic languages , and tribal groups, who historically lived peacefully and often shared common territories, have intermingled considerably. Prior to the 20th century, Great Basin peoples were predominantly hunters and gatherers . "Desert Archaic" or more simply "The Desert Culture" refers to the culture of the Great Basin tribes. This culture is characterized by
180-801: The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California over the land around the Lake Tahoe area for cultural purposes. Under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the colonies in the Carson Valley area of Nevada and California gained federal recognition as the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. The colony in Reno, Nevada , which also has a substantial Paiute, Washoe and Shoshoni population, gained separate recognition as
210-587: The nuclear family due to the low density of food supplies. In the early historical period the Great Basin tribes were actively expanding to the north and east, where they developed a horse -riding bison -hunting culture. These people, including the Bannock and Eastern Shoshone share traits with Plains Indians . Today, the Great Basin Native Artists, which was cofounded by Melissa Melero-Moose represents Indigenous visual artists from
240-699: The 1930s, while activism and legal victories in the 1970s have improved conditions significantly. Nevertheless, the communities continue to struggle against chronic poverty and all of the resulting problems: unemployment ; substance abuse ; and high suicide rates. Today self-determination , beginning with the 1975 passage of the Indian Self-determination and Education Assistance Act , has enabled Great Basin tribes to develop economic opportunities for their members. Different ethnic groups of Great Basin tribes share certain common cultural elements that distinguish them from surrounding groups. All but
270-675: The Great Basin was Juan María Antonio de Rivera's expedition in 1765. Rivera led two expeditions from Santa Fe that year, the first departing sometime in June. Rivera's party camped with Paiutes on the Dolores River in July, and returned to Santa Fe for supplies. His second expedition departed Santa Fe in late September and went considerably farther, crossing the Colorado just south of present day Moab, Utah . Rivera's diaries greatly influenced
300-700: The Great Basin. The Sun Dance and Peyote religion flourished in the Great Basin, as well. In 1930, the Ely Shoshone Reservation was established, followed by the Duckwater Indian Reservation in 1940. Conditions for the Native American population of the Great Basin were erratic throughout the 20th century. Economic improvement emerged as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt 's Indian New Deal in
330-521: The Kings Beach culture, and Martis pit houses gave way to conical bark slab houses of historic Washoe culture. Washoe people may have made contact with Spanish explorers in the early 19th century, but the Washoe did not sustain contact with people of European culture until the 1848 California Gold Rush . Washoe resistance to incursions on their lands proved futile, and the last armed conflict with
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#1732780442704360-664: The Reno–Sparks Indian Colony. There is evidence that some Washoe settled in the southwest region of Montana . The Susanville Rancheria includes Washoe members, as well as Northern Paiute , Northeastern Maidu , Achomawi , and Atsugewi members. Great Basin tribe The oldest known petroglyphs in North America are in the Great Basin. Near the banks of Winnemucca Lake in Nevada, this rock art dates between 10,500 and 14,800 years ago. Archaeologists called
390-543: The Washo territory was in the mountains and subject to heavy snows, few people wintered there so very few were organized into the western group. Washoe people are the only Great Basin tribe whose language is not Numic , so they are believed to have inhabited the region prior to neighboring tribes. The Kings Beach Complex that emerged about 500 CE around Lake Tahoe and the northern Sierra Nevada are regarded as early Washoe culture. The Martis complex may have overlapped with
420-666: The Washoes and non-Indians was the Potato War of 1857, when starving Washoes were killed for gathering potatoes from a European-American farm near Honey Lake in California . Loss of the valley hunting grounds to farms and the piñon pine groves to feed Virginia City 's demand for lumber and charcoal drove most Washoe to dependency on jobs on white ranches and farms and in cities. The areas where they settled became known as Indian colonies . Piñon pine nuts gathered in
450-485: The Western world. Washoe culture was based mostly on the legends that carried the explanation of different areas of life. The legends were handed over from one generation to another by storytelling and were told to younger generations to teach them basic things about Washoe's way of living. Children could get to know about gathering techniques, medicine preparation, and the legends were meant to teach them how to appreciate
480-454: The balance as each way of obtaining food was equally crucial for these people to survive. Anthropologist Ernestine Friedl has noted that men and women's cooperation in gathering food lead to "no individual distributions of food and relatively little difference in male and female rights," contributing to gender equality amongst the pre-colonial Washoe. The Washoe / Wašiw language or Wá:šiw ʔítlu (today: Wašiw Wagayay ) has been regarded as
510-608: The east as well the Sierra Valley (a site of extensive freshwater marshes filled with cattails, bulrushes and alkaline flats that drain into the Middle Fork Feather River ) to the north. The Washoe would generally spend the summer in the Sierra Nevada, especially at Lake Tahoe; the fall in the ranges to the east; and the winter and spring in the valleys between them. Washoe Lake ( c'óʔyaʔ dáʔaw )
540-426: The fall provided much of the food eaten in the winter. Roots, seeds, berries and game provided much of the food eaten during the rest of the year. The Washoe people were also deeply knowledgeable about their land and where resources were plentiful. This included an understanding of the seasonal cycles of both plants and animals. Wašiw people were also dependent on fishing at Lake Tahoe and the surrounding streams. Fishing
570-549: The indigenous inhabitants of Lake Tahoe area, occupying the lake and surround lands for thousands of years. As the native inhabitants, they believe that they have the best knowledge of how the land should be maintained, and consider themselves to be the proper caretakers of the Lake Tahoe area, which has been a center Washoe tribes yearly cultural gatherings, where most traditional events took place. In 2002, The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources officially granted custody to
600-653: The lake") and was roughly bounded by the southern shore of Honey Lake in the north, the West Walker River , Topaz Lake , and Sonora Pass in the south, the Sierra Nevada crest in the west, and the Pine Nut Mountains and Virginia Range in the east. Beside Lake Tahoe the Washoe utilized the upper ranges of the Carson ( dá:bal k'iláʔam ), Truckee ( dabayóduweʔ ), and West Walker rivers to
630-758: The land they were living in and give them a better understanding of Washoe's lifestyle. Children were raised in the environment which recognized family as the most valued thing. The whole Washoe life was concentrated on cooperation and unity, and older tribe members needed to convey their knowledge to the younger so the tribe culture would survive. Everyone in the family had his own role in everyday activities like fishing, gathering or hunting which helped Washoe people with doing everyday life tasks more efficiently. The area of residence of Washoe people let them obtain food from three different ways: fishing, gathering, and hunting. Since each way required having special skills and knowledge people were usually trained in one field to reduce
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#1732780442704660-559: The landbases and resources of the reservations. Because their contact with European-Americans and African-Americans occurred comparatively late, Great Basin tribes maintain their religion and culture and were leading proponents of 19th century cultural and religious renewals. Two Paiute prophets , Wodziwob and Wovoka , introduced the Ghost Dance in a ceremony to commune with departed loved ones and bring renewal of buffalo herds and precontact lifeways. The Ute Bear Dance emerged on
690-577: The local period 9,000 BCE to 400 CE the Great Basin Desert Archaic Period. This was followed by the time of the Fremont culture , who were hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists . Numic language -speakers, ancestors of today's Western Shoshone and both Northern Paiute people and Southern Paiute people entered the region around the 14th century CE. The first Europeans to document their encounters with Native groups in
720-413: The need for mobility to take advantage of seasonally available food supplies. The use of pottery was rare due to its weight, but intricate baskets were woven for containing water, cooking food, winnowing grass seeds and storage—including the storage of pine nuts, a Paiute-Shoshone staple. Heavy items such as metates would be cached rather than carried from foraging area to foraging area. Agriculture
750-466: The plural form of wašiw. Washoe people have lived in the Great Basin and the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains for at least the last 6,000 years, some say up to 9,000 years or more. Prior to contact with Europeans, the territory of the Washoe people centered around Lake Tahoe ( / ˈ t ɑː h oʊ / ; Washo : dáʔaw / daʔaw / Da ow – "the lake"; or dewʔá:gaʔa /dawʔa:gaʔa / Da ow aga – "edge of
780-399: The possibility of failing the tasks they were responsible for. Therefore, the Washoe tribe's life was dependent on the actual environment possibilities. Also, scarcity of sources would not let the tribe perform every way at once, therefore the Washoe lifestyle was divided into three periods: "the fishing year", "the gathering year" and "the hunting year". Fall was the richest in food season of
810-400: The year as all ways of obtaining the food could have been performed. The winter period was the time of starvation as the stocks of food run out quickly and almost no food could have been obtained over the coldest months of the year. However, Washoe people learned how to survive the hardest time of the year by learning how to use the resources the land had given them. They knew they needed to keep
840-458: Was a huge part of Wašiw life; and each family had its own fishing grounds, until contact with Western civilization led to commercial fishing in the area, destroying another important resource for the Wašiw. The Pine Nut Dance and girls' puberty rites remain very important ceremonies. The Wašiw people once relied on medicine men and their knowledge of medicinal plants and ceremonies. Much of this knowledge and activity has been lost due to contact with
870-405: Was named after them. The Washoe/Washo were loosely organized into three (in some sources four) regional groups speaking slightly different dialects , which in turn were divided in groups (cooperating extending families for the seasonal hunt and living together in winter camps) and in nuclear families. The regional group was determined by where people had a winter camp: Since the western part of
900-407: Was not practiced within the Great Basin itself, although it was practiced in adjacent areas (modern agriculture in the Great Basin requires either large mountain reservoirs or deep artesian wells). Likewise, the Great Basin tribes had no permanent settlements, although winter villages might be revisited winter after winter by the same group of families. In the summer, the largest group was usually
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