Austere Landscape, Abundant Life

Austere Landscape, Abundant Life. Owens Valley Paiute. , "Like the dust and wind, the Paiute are an eternal feature of this deep mountain valley." , -Richard Stewart, Owens Valley Paiute , , The Owens Valley horizon before you appears as it may have several hundred years ago when ancestors of today's Paiutes lived in permanent villages and seasonal camps along the valley's waterways, including Shepherd Creek to the north and George Creek south of here. Paiutes utilized this valley's natural resources. They built conical shelters called novi from birch branches covered with tule grass and willow stems. They fashioned bows of juniper to hunt deer and mountain sheep in the Sierra Nevada and Inyo Mountains. They caught fish and freshwater mussels from the creeks and developed a flood-irrigation system to enhance the growth of native plants. Paiute women harvested tuva (pine nuts) from the mountains and prepared them using suhava (willow) baskets. , , After 1861, miners, ranchers, and farmers settled in this area, bringing an economy that clashed with Paiute culture: cattle destroyed native crops, fences divided the valley, and homesteads encroached on villages. After two years of warfare, the US Army forced over one thousand Paiutes from this valley in 1863, but many returned.