#paiutes

Last month I wrote about Winema Riddle, a Native American woman who pursued justice for her people in 19th century Oregon. Sarah Winnemucca was another prominent Native American woman in Oregon at the time who also advocated for her people. Sarah Winnemucca was born into an influential Northern Paiute family in what is now Nevada. Her Paiute name as a child was Thocmetony, meaning Shell Flower,…

The Paiutes, a Native-American tribe indigenous to parts of Nevada, have an oral tradition that they told to early white settlers of the area about a race of red-haired, white giants or ‘barbarians’ that their ancestors referred to as the “Si-Te-Cah.”  The story was written down in 1882 by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of a Paiute Indian chief in her book Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs…

Native American/First Nations Woman Writer of the Week

Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins

Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins (ca.1844 – 1891) was a Paiute author, activist and educator. The daughter of an influential Paiute family, Winnemucca was romanticized by some, reviled by others as an educated savage, and criticized by both Native and non-Native peoples as siding too closely with either group. Nevertheless, she captured the attention of the American public with her 1883 autobiography, Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, considered the first known autobiography written by a Native American woman.

Educated at a Catholic school and fully integrated into European-American society, Winnemucca was in a unique position to assertively advocate for the rights or Native Americans. She lectured widely across the United States, and her lecture notes were prepared for publication as Life Among the Piutes with the assistance of her friends and promoters Mary Peabody Mann, the wife of the noted educator Horace Mann, and Elizabeth Peabody, an educator noted for founding the first English-language kindergarten in the U.S. This memoir narrates the story of her family and the unjust treatment her people received after contact with and conquest by the United States government.

Both images of Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins are in the public domain and were randomly picked off the interwebs. 

"It felt like I was waking up from a nightmare. I wasn't really sure what was true or false. I was confused. My heart was racing. I was excited. Maybe, I thought, this nightmare is over."

This is what Vickie Simmons remembers feeling when she first heard that the Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant might be closing. Simmons is a leading member of the Moapa Band of Paiutes Health and Environmental Committee, and for years she and the rest of the Paiute tribe have lived in the shadow of Reid Gardner’s smokestacks and waste pits. They have paid incredible health costs and reaped little economic benefits.

But Simmons is right - the nightmare is ending.

  (Photo of Vickie Simmons by Chris Jordan-Bloch)

In a vote last night, the Nevada Assembly approved SB123, a landmark bill that shifts the state away from coal-fired power. The bill closes Reid Gardner, directs NV Energy to eliminate 800 megawatts of coal-fired power generation from its portfolio, and mandates 350 megawatts of renewable energy development.

“When we first started to call for the closure of Reid Gardner, we were told it couldn’t be done,” said Simmons. “Now, with this legislation, we are close to our goal. The coal plant that has for years poisoned our reservation will finally close and be cleaned up.”

Reid Gardner sits 50 miles north of Las Vegas and less than one mile from the homes of Simmons and the other tribal members. For years the plant has rained pollution on the community. High asthma, cancer, heart and thyroid disease rates plague the reservation.

Years ago, Simmons lost her brother due to pollution she blames on the plant. Last week, she lost a friend. Former tribal chairman Calvin Meyers died at age 57.

“Sometimes when the wind blows wrong, I can taste it,” Meyers, who lived closest to the plant, said. “So you can’t get out. You’re essentially imprisoned in your own home.”

(Photo of former Tribal Chairman Calvin Meyers by Chris Jordan-Bloch)

Meyers was an environmental champion who died much too young. If he were alive today though, he would be smiling as comments that echoed his own made it from Moapa to the floor of the capitol.

“Coal-fired power plants have long polluted our state, threatening the health of thousands of Nevadans,” said Assemblyman David Bobzien, D-Reno, said on the Assembly floor. “Nevada has a bright future with clean energy.”

The Moapa Band of Paiutes agree with Bobzien. For the past several years they have been creating the largest solar plant on a native reservation in America. The plant will provide jobs and more than 250 megawatts of power.

“Our goal is not to be part of the problem, but to be part of the solution,” Tribal Chairman William Anderson said.

(Photo of Tribal Chairmain Willian Anderson by Chris Jordan-Bloch)

Earthjustice has been honored to fight alongside the Moapa Band of Paiutes in their search for the solution as they move from coal to renewables.

We have represented them in court cases about coal ash and air pollution. We have brought their members and their message to Washington, D.C. I even had the pleasure of creating a film and traveling to film festivals with members of the tribe to spread the word about their fight for health and clean energy.

We still have a long way to go to make sure that the law is implemented and that Reid Gardner is properly cleaned up and put away.

But let’s worry about that tomorrow. Today is a day to celebrate. The nightmare is ending. So open your eyes and smile, clean energy is not the future. It is now.

"Several Ioway-Otoe legends speak of red-haired giants that were the foes of our ancestors. We called them Waruska, and sometimes they lived along the rivers. They used a hook, perhaps something like a grappling hook, attached to a rope as a weapon. Some of our ancient heroes like the Holy Twins fought and killed them. There may be something to these legends." -Lance Foster, introducing the following article:

Nevada’s Mysterious Cave of The Red-Haired Giants by Terrence Aym (source)

.... The Paiutes, a Native-American tribe indigenous to parts of Nevada, Utah and Arizona, told early white settlers about their ancestors’ battles with a ferocious race of white, red-haired giants. According to the Paiutes, the giants were already living in the area.

The Paiutes named the giants “Si-Te-Cah” that literally means “tule-eaters.” The tule is a fibrous water plant the giants wove into rafts to escape the Paiutes continuous attacks. They used the rafts to navigate across what remained of Lake Lahontan.

According to the Paiutes, the red-haired giants stood as tall as 12-feet and were a vicious, unapproachable people that killed and ate captured Paiutes as food. [Overestimation is to be expected.]

The Paiutes told the early settlers that after many years of warfare, all the tribes in the area finally joined together to rid themselves of the giants.

One day as they chased down the few remaining red-haired enemy, the fleeing giants took refuge in a cave. The tribal warriors demanded their enemy come out and fight, but the giants steadfastly refused to leave their sanctuary.

Frustrated at not defeating their enemy with honor [underestimation is to be expected], the tribal chiefs had warriors fill the entrance to the cavern with brush and then set it on fire in a bid to force the giants out of the cave.

The few that did emerge were instantly slain with volleys of arrows. The giants that remained inside the cavern were asphyxiated. [--"Honorably," I presume]

Later, an earthquake rocked the region and the cave entrance collapsed leaving only enough room for bats to enter it and make it their home.

The Excavation Thousands of years later the cave was rediscovered and found to be loaded with bat guano almost 6-feet deep. Decaying bat guano becomes saltpeter, the chief ingredient of gunpowder, and was very valuable.

Therefore, in 1911 a company was created specifically to mine the guano. As the mining operation progressed, skeletons and fossils were found.

The guano was mined for almost 13 years before archaeologists were notified about the findings. Unfortunately, by then many of the artifacts had been accidentally destroyed or simply discarded.

Nevertheless, what the scientific researchers did recover was staggering: over 10,000 artifacts were unearthed including the mummified remains of two red-haired giants—one, a female 6.5-feet tall, the other male, over 8-feet tall.

Many of the artifacts (but not the giants) can be viewed at the small natural history museum located in Winnemucca, Nevada.

Confirmation of the Myth As the excavation of the cave progressed, the archaeologists came to the inescapable conclusion that the Paiutes myth was no myth; it was true.

What led them to this realization was the discovery of many broken arrows that had been shot into the cave and a dark layer of burned material under sections of the overlaying guano.

Among the thousands of artifacts recovered from this site of an unknown people is what some scientists are convinced is a calendar: a donut-shaped stone with exactly 365 notches carved along its outside rim and 52 corresponding notches along the inside.

But that was not to be the final chapter of red-haired giants in Nevada.

In February and June of 1931, two very large skeletons were found in the Humboldt dry lake bed near Lovelock, Nevada.