A Short Resource History of Pyramid Lake, Nevada

Abstract

This paper relates events surrounding the establishment of the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation in western Nevada and its subsequent nineteenth century history. Discussion will focus on natural resources associated with the reserved lands. Federal Indian policy, national popular attitudes, and the development of Nevada itself, are all important to understanding the pressures placed on those resources during the early reservation period. The type of interethnic relations established during this time stabilized and strongly influenced the later history of Northern Paiutes in this area. The westward expansion of the United States was deeply rooted in the need for raw materials, a need which affected much of American domestic and Indian policy during the nineteenth century. This paper narrates the early history of the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation in Nevada, focusing on the utilization of resources. However, this particular history is only a small fragment of larger regional and national events and policies. A broad view is therefore necessary in order to understand the interethnic relationships which developed in western Nevada.' In aboriginal times the Northern Paiute Indians occupied a wedgeshaped range extending from the Blue Mountains of Oregon south along the Sierra Nevada crest. Their territory did not include the valleys where Reno and Carson City are now located, but did extend south again to Owens Lake in California, and from there northeast passing just west of Battle Mountain and Owyhee to the vicinity of Boise. Theirs was a region of deserts split by mountain ranges and crosscut by a few perennial streams, which emptied into salt pans. The Paiutes lived in the major river drainages, including the Truckee and the Walker, utilizing the sinks of both of these rivers, Pyramid and Walker Lakes, as well as the surrounding dry lands. These small bands had a diverse diet, based on the vegetable staples of rice grass seed and pinon nuts, but they ETHNOHISTORY 24/1 (Winter 1977) 47 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.185 on Thu, 26 May 2016 04:43:16 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms