Burns Paiute Tribe

The Burns Paiute Tribe in Harney County Oregon is among our foundational tribes for Oklevueha Native American Church of Kautantowit's Mecautea as it is the tribe of our Chief Medicine Man, Bruce Sam. It is a tribe whom won our sachem and president's hearts almost two decades ago, we have and expect much honor and respects be shown Burns Paiute Tribe among the Seminole, Narragansett and of course the Sioux Nations as our tribal bloodlines of First Nations.Burns is known as "The Grandmother tribe of the Paiute bands/nations".

It is said that 9,000 years ago within the northern Great Basin, now desert land, there were a series of very large lakes. The ancestors of the Burns Paiute people lived in caves near their shores during these times. Horses, camels, mammoths, bison, elk, saber-tooth cats and deer all roamed the hills of the land freely.

The people used the fibers of the tule plant, willow, Indian hemp, and sagebrush bark primarily, to make such things as woven sandals, baskets that were coiled and or twined, and rope. They also made duck decoys, fish nets, and traps for small game with the fibers of these sacred plants. A beautiful soft blanket woven from the furs of rabbits and child's sandals made from sagebrush fibers were found preserved for close to 10,000 years in a cool, dry cave. Archeologists also found clothing made from deer, animal and bird hides. Their diet included a wide variety of items, such as fish (including a great deal of salmon), birds, deer, small animals, plants and seeds.

During the next one to 2,000 years, the climate slowly became drier and warmer than the land is known to be today, it was more artic then. The lakes began drying up and food sources were less readily available. By 7,500 years ago, large mammals such as horses, camels and mammoth were extinct. People began seasonal migrations to take advantage of plants and animals in certain areas. Small family groups would travel separately collecting seeds, berries, roots, hunting small animals, deer, mountain sheep, elk and fish.

These smaller groups came together to harvest, socialize and intermarry with other Paiutes, as well as other Indian tribes. Spring offered roots to be gathered on the sunny hillsides and meadows, and fishing for salmon during the salmon runs. During the summer, berries and fruit were collected as food and stored for winter use. By late summer and early fall, seeds were the main resource to be gathered. Families also came together during this time of the year for communal antelope and rabbit drives. Late fall was the time to collect plant material to make items such as sandals, baskets, and clothing during the long winter months. By November, the families had gathered the cached goods they had put away during the months of harvesting. Materials were then gathered from the area (sagebrush in the desert or tules near the lakes) and they built houses near springs in which to live out the winter. The Paiutes lived in this manner for thousands of years.

The Paiute people believe that the Paiutes have lived in this area since before the Cascade Mountains were formed as they have learned from their stories and legends. Recent researchers, on the other hand, believe that about 1,000 years ago an influx of Paiute-speaking people came from the south and migrated throughout the Great Basin. They brought with them not only their language but also certain types of atlatl and spear points, and brownware pottery. Pottery was not found in the Great Basin before this time. However, the people of the Burns Paiute Tribe were basket makers and did not make pottery either - The Paiute's lifestyle encompassed Grasses, Fibers and barks - Remember!

According to the researchers, the language spoken here before the arrival of the Paiute is unknown. This, however, contradicts the Paiute stories and legends that are handed down from generation to generation which tell of the Paiute people living in the Great Basin for thousands and thousands of years.

The Burns Paiute Tribe descended from the Wadatika band, named after the wada seeds they collected near the shores of Malheur Lake to use as food. Bands were usually named after an important food source in their area. The Wadatika's territory included approximately 52,500 square miles between the Cascade Mountain Range in central Oregon and the Payette Valley north of Boise, Idaho, and from southern parts of the Blue Mountains near the headwaters of the Powder River north of John Day, to the desert south of Steens Mountain.

The Burns Paiutes traditionally spoke the Northern Paiute language, which is part of the Western Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The Wadatika (literally waada-eaters) band of Paiute Indians that lived in southern and central Oregon were the ancestors of the Burns Paiute, whose reservation is in Harney County, north of Burns. The area is part of the arid Great Basin region shared by several states. Their language was the northernmost member of the Uto-Aztecan family.

Following the seasons, the Wadatika hunted, fished and gathered edible plants, harvesting their diet from lakes, marshes, streams and uplands. Root gathering and fishing took place in the spring. The roots and fish were dried and placed in storage in anticipation of winter.

The Wadatika roamed throughout their lands in the summer, tracking game and collecting seeds. Those activities continued into the fall when they harvested the lakeshore waada plant for its nutritious black seeds. Autumn also was a time for hunting waterfowl. With the advent of winter, out came the stored supplies of dried food. To augment their diet, the Wadatika constructed bulrush mat dwellings near ice-free wetlands in order to harvest water birds, plants and other wildlife.

The first white people the Wadatika encountered were beaver trappers, beginning in the the 1820s. In the '30s and '40s, such European diseases as cholera and smallpox — to which the Indians had no immunity — were introduced by white contact. The withering effect left grossly reduced Indian populations. By the late '40s, numerous whites were streaming through the region, bound west on the Oregon Trail, and conflict with indigenous people frequently flared up.

The 1860s ushered in a flood of aggressive, land-hungry settlers in the area, backed by U.S. soldiers, and conflict increased. The situation eventually induced the Paiutes to negotiate with the federal government for a reserved area free of white encroachment, where they could keep to their old ways unmolested.

Accordingly, on September 12, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed off on the 1.8 million-acre Malheur Reservation, whose size was quickly diminished because of pressure by settlers — then prospecters who had discovered gold.

There has been more than one "Trail of Tears" in Native American history.

Numerous Paiutes were fatally caught in the middle of an 1878 war between the government and the Bannock tribe, even though the majority of Paiutes did not get involved in the fighting.

By war's end, the remaining Paiutes were forced onto their trail of tears when they were moved off the reservation and relocated to Fort Simcoe in Washington.

In the 1880s, the empty Malheur Reservation was thrown open to cattlemen and homesteaders. The federal government's policy toward Indians slowly began to evolve.

In accordance with the Dawes Act of 1887, the Paiute were invited to return to their former reservation, or onto reservations in other western states. Those who returned to their former reservation were given 160-acre parcels of marginal land that was resistant to cultivation. Just 115 parcels were handed out, so many Paiutes received no land at all.

Father Heuel, a Catholic priest, arrived in the area in 1927, the first Christian personage to live with the band. He sought to improve their lives, which had reached new lows.

In 1928, the Egan Land Company donated the old Burns city dump, amounting to 10 acres, to the Burns Paiute. The Indians restored the land for houses. Twenty houses, a community center and school were constructed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs(BIA). A Catholic church also was built in 1932.

In 1935, a 771-acre parcel was purchased by the tribe through a loan by the federal government. In addition, Father Heuel urged the band to seek recompense for the original Malheur Reservation they were deprived of so many years ago. For the following three and a half decades, the Burns Paiute pressed their case. They were ultimately compensated at the 1890 value of the land, which meant a payment of less than $800 per person.

In 1968, the Burns Paiute were finally legally recognized by the BIA, and in 1972, the 771 acres acquired back in 1934, as well as the 10 original acres, were combined to become the Burns Paiute Reservation. Title to the land was received from Congress.

The Northern Paiutes were made up of small peaceful bands who roamed extensively in central eastern Oregon. The Wadatika were root gatherers and hunters. They lived on a coarse diet of seeds, bulbs, plant fibers, berries, roots, and wild animals. They had leaders but they didn’t have a formalized governmental structure or permanent chiefs. The Reservation covers 930 acres of trust land, and 320 acres of fee-patent land. Another 11,000 plus acres of allotted lands is held in trust for individual Indians.

The Burns Paiute Reservation was formally recognized on October 13, 1973. In 1988, a newly revised Constitution and By-Laws was adopted by the general membership, and approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Burns Paiute Tribe is a federally recognized tribe located north of Burns, Oregon in Harney County. The current tribal members are primarily the descendants of the "Wadatika" band of Northern Paiute Indians that roamed in central and southern Oregon.

There are 286 enrolled Tribal members, less than 37% reside permanently on the Burns Paiute Reservation.

Paite Wadatika Ma-Ni-Pu-Neen - The Burns Paiute Tribe descended from the Wadatika band, named after the wada seeds they collected near the shores of Malheur Lake.The Paiutes also call themselves Numu, meaning "the People" or "original people."

Paiute is generally accepted to mean "true Ute" or "water Ute."

Formerly known as the Burns Paiute Tribe of the Burns Paiute Indian Colony of Oregon.

Paiute peoples were also historically called Snakes and Bannocks by whites and were even confused with Northern Shoshone who shared many cultural and linguistic traits, as well as overlapping traditional territories.

Early Euro-American settlers often called Paiute people "Diggers" (presumably due to their practice of digging for roots), although that term is now considered derogatory.

The Wadatika's territory included approximately 52,500 square miles between the Cascade Mountain Range in central Oregon and the Payette Valley north of Boise, Idaho, and from southern parts of the Blue Mountains near the headwaters of the Powder River north of John Day, to the desert south of Steens Mountain.

Nine thousand years ago the northern Great Basin, which is now semi-arid desert, was probably a series of very large lakes. The ancestors of the Burns Paiute people lived in caves near their shores.

First European contact with northern Paiute tribes occurred in the early 1820s but there wasn't sustained contact until about 1840. Catherine S. Fowler and Sven Liljeblad put the total Northern Paiute population in 1859 at about 6,000.

The Paiute people believe that the Paiutes have lived in this area since before the Cascade Mountain Range was formed, because they have oral stories that tell of their formation.

Anthropologists think that about 1,000 years ago an influx of Paiute-speaking people came from the south and migrated throughout the Great Basin.This is when certain types of atlatl and spear points, and brownware pottery began to appear. Pottery was not found in the Great Basin before this time. However, the people of the Burns Paiute Tribe were basket makers and did not make pottery.

According to language researchers, the language spoken here before the arrival of the Paiute people is unknown.

According to Paiute oral teaching, this is because the Paiute people have been living in the Great Basin for thousands and thousands of years. Some discoveries of anthropologists have been dated to at least 10,000 years ago.

Relations with the Washoe people, who were culturally and linguistically very different, were not so peaceful, and occasional skirmishes happened. However, since these were all nomadic people for most of the year, they didn't often come in contact with other tribes.The Pah Ute War, also known as the Paiute War, was a minor series of raids and ambushes initiated by the Paiute, which also had an adverse effect on the development of the Pony Express. The incident started when some traders at a Pony Express station captured and raped two Paiute women. A raiding party was sent to liberate them, and five whites were killed in the process. This escalated into a series of both sides seeking retaliation for acts of the other side. It took place from May through June of 1860, though sporadic violence continued for a period afterwards.As Euro-American settlement of the area progressed, several other violent incidents occurred, including the Pyramid Lake War of 1860 and the Bannock War of 1878. These incidents took the general pattern of a settler steals from, rapes or murders a Paiute, a group of Paiutes retaliate, and a group of settlers or the US Army counter-retaliates. Many more Paiutes died from introduced diseases such as smallpox than from warfare.

Popular Paiute songs are associated with hand games, Round Dances, and doctor's curing. Variations on the Round, or Circle Dance were traditionally the most common dance form and the oldest.

The Northern Paiute Hump Dance represented one variation. In a Round Dance, the participants form a circle and dance in a clockwise direction to music made by a singer situated in the center.

A Round Dance is commonly held three times a year, during the Spring fishing season, just before fall pine-nut harvest, and during the November rabbit drives. Round Dances are a social dance.

Reservation Day is a special holiday celebrated on the Burns Reservation. It originally was celebrated by the Burns Paiute Tribe every June 13 in honor of the date the tribe received reservation lands. Today the celebration is held in October and includes a pow wow with traditional dancing and drumming, dance contests, a raffle, and crafts and food booths.

The ancestors of the Burns Paiute Tribe used the fibers of the tule plant, willow, Indian hemp, and sagebrush bark to make woven sandals, coiled and twined baskets, and rope.

They also made duck decoys, fish nets, and traps for small game with these fibrous plants.Paiute men and women traditionally wore a skin breechcloth or double-apron of skin or vegetable fiber such as sagebrush bark or rushes. The cloth was suspended from a belt made from cliffrose bark or antelope skin.

They also typically wore ankle high animal-skin moccasins or woven yucca or sagebrush bark sandals on their feet. Young children often went naked, except in winter.In the winter, all family members used robes of rabbit fur strips or skin capes.

Paiute men wore simple buckskin shirts. Throughout Paiute country men wore tanned hide hats. Members of some Paiute bands wore hats decorated with bird, often quail, feathers. The Paiute women in Oregon did not wear the basketry hats that were traditional for most other Paiute tribes.

By the mid-nineteenth century men's shirts and leggings and women's full-length dresses were made from fringed hide, which was most likely adopted from the Ute.Archeologists have found a beautiful soft blanket woven from the furs of rabbits and child's sandals made from sagebrush fibers which had been preserved for close to 10,000 years in a cool, dry cave.

They also found clothing made from deer and other animal and bird hides.

Face paint was used for special occasions and rituals. Both men and women pierced their ears to wear feathered quail bones. Some men and women wore tattoos on their face. Both men and women wore necklaces made of sea shells.

Except for during the winter, the Paiute did not build permanent housing structures. They sometimes built a two or three sided temporary leanto to shelter them from the prevailing winds, but these temporary structures usually did not have a roof.

During winter they lived in caves or built small conical or rounded brush structures with a willow frame covered in brush or tule rushes called wickiups. The same wicikiup was used for about three years before a new one was constructed.

The Paiute were a hunter/gatherer culture who moved with the seasonal migration of game and with the plant harvest seasons of their food substances. Their diet included a wide variety of items, such as fish (including a great deal of salmon), birds, deer, small animals, plants and seeds.

Pine nuts and acorns were the most important staple foods, which were ground into a flour or made into a mush. While pinenuts are produced every year, there is a heavy harvest available only about every six years. During those years with abundant pinenut production, many families would come together for the harvest and remain together for several weeks. This was the only time they camped in large groups for such an extended time.

Small family groups would travel separately collecting seeds, berries, and roots, and hunting small animals, deer, mountain sheep, elk and fishing. In drier areas they hunted for lizards, grubs and insects.

These smaller family groups came together several times each year to harvest seasonal food crops, join communal hunts, and to socialize and intermarry. However, these larger gatherings only lasted for a few days or at most for a couple weeks. Any longer would overtax their ecosystem resources. This is why they mostly stayed in small extended family groups.

In the Spring, the Paiute gathered roots and fished for salmon during the salmon runs. Camas roots were one of their staples during this season. Camas root is a little like a potato. They also gathered wild carrot, onions, turnips and other roots.

During the summer, berries and fruit were collected and dried for winter use. In late summer and early fall many different seeds were gathered. Rice grass was another staple gathered this time of the year. In early fall, individual family groups joined with many other bands for the communal antelope and rabbit drives.

Late fall was the time to collect plant material to make sandals, baskets, and clothing during the winter months. By November, each family gathered the cached goods they had put away during the spring and summer. Sagebrush was then gathered from the desert, or tules near lake shores, to build winter shelters near springs in which to spend the winter months.

Since they were living mostly on stored food sources in winter, if water was plentiful, a few families may have camped together for the winter, but groups were still generally small compared to the camps of many other indian tribes who lived in less harsh environments.

Tribal members continue to hunt and gather traditional foods. Roots such as camas, bitterroot, and biscuitroot are dug in the spring. In late summer chokecherries and berries are gathered. Elk, deer, quail and groundhog are also still hunted. People also gather willow and tule for making baskets and cradleboards.

According to the original ancient Paiute religion, the earth was created by the sun, “Thuwimpu Unimpugnant,” and Coyote, one of their supernatural gods, and his wife, populated the earth. All of their supernatural beings were totemic animals and natural objects.

They would pray for rain or for a good hunt and prayed daily to the Sun for a good day.

Some Paiute medicine people were thought to delve into witchcraft, which was considered bad medicine that eventually had many consequences.

Two different Paiute prophets tried to start a pan religion that came to be called the Ghost Dance Religon.

Around 1870, a northern Paiute named Tavibo had prophezied that while all whites would be swallowed up by the Earth, all dead Indians would emerge to enjoy a world free of their conquerors if they would dance a special dance that had been given to him in a dream.

He urged his followers to dance in circles, already a tradition in the Great Basin area, while singing religious songs. They were instructed to dance for five days and four nights, then go home. Tavibo's movement spread to parts of Nevada, California, and Oregon, but did not gain many followers and eventually all but died out.

Then on January 1, 1889, his son, Wovoka, began to make similar prophecies, which he said came to him during a dream during the eclipse of the Sun on that day. Wovoka began to weave together various cultural strains into the Ghost Dance religion.

He had a rich tradition of Paiute religious mysticism upon which to draw, and also combined Christian elements into his teachings. Many of his prophesies closely follow those in the Book of Revalations in the Holy Bible, with slight changes to fit the indian understanding and perspective on life.

Wovoka's invocation of a "Supreme Being," immortality, pacifism and explicit mentions of Jesus (often referred to with such phrases as "the messiah who came once to live on Earth with the white man but was killed by them") all speak of an infusion of Christian beliefs into Paiute mysticism.

Wovoka's Ghost Dance spread throughout much of the West, especially among the more recently defeated Indians of the Great Plains. Local bands would adopt the core of the message to their own circumstances, writing their their own songs and dancing their own dances.

In 1889 the Lakota sent a delegation to visit Wovoka. This group brought the Ghost Dance back to their reservations, where believers made sacred shirts -- said to be bullet-proof -- especially for the Dance. As we now know from the Wounded Knee Massacre, this proved not to be true.

Wovoka gained a reputation as a powerful shaman. He was adept at magic tricks. One trick he often performed was being shot with a shotgun, which may have been similar to the bullet catch trick. Reports of this trick may have convinced the Lakota that their "ghost shirts" could stop bullets. Wovoka is also reported to have performed a levitation trick.

Burial Customs:

Generally, Northern Paiutes buried their dead with all their possessions. Usually the body was buried with the head facing west where the spirit would travel until reaching the land of the dead. Singing and dancing was thought to help the dead leave their family and friends to head to the next life.

However, if the person was suspected of witchcraft, the corpse was burned, along with their shelter and posessions, and then that location was abandoned. The Northern Paiutes believed in ghosts and feared the deceased's ghost would haunt them if they stayed in the area where the death occurred.

Wedding Customs

Though marriage traditionally had no important associated rituals, the Paiutes did observe two related rituals. One was for young women at the time of their first menstrual period, and the other for young couples expecting their first child.

In the menarche ritual, the young woman was isolated for four days. During this time, she observed taboos against touching her face or hair with her hands, eating animal-based foods, and drinking cold liquids. She also ran east at sunrise and west at sunset, and sat with older women of the tribe to learn about her responsibilities as a woman.

After the four days of isolation, a series of rituals were performed to bring the menarche ceremony to a close. The young woman was bathed in cold water, her face was painted, the ends of her hair were singed or cut, and she had to eat animal foods and bitter herbs and to spit into a fire.

The ritual for couples expecting their first child was very similar, but traditionally lasted 30 days. The pregnant woman observed the same taboos and received advice from older women, while the expectant father ran east at sunrise and west at sunset.

Wovoka (1856-1932),also known as Jack Wilson, was a Northern Paiute religious leader and founder of the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language.

Author and Paiute historian Soucie started off by explaining the importance of preserving tribal and family history. She then proceeded to talk about when white settlers came to this area in the 1860s. There was tension between the white settlers and the Paiutes. As a result the government appointed General George Crook to take charge of the situation. “He was not a kind man,” Soucie said. Crook wanted to round up all the Native Americans and take them to the Siletz area.

In 1868, Crook met with the Paiutes and gave them the ultimatum, “peace or death.” At that time their population had been decimated by starvation, freezing and fighting, so the tribal leaders agreed to sign a treaty guaranteeing them a reservation in their homeland in exchange for a cease in hostilities toward the white settlers. However, the treaty was not ratified by Congress because of a missed deadline.

In the 1870s, the Malheur Reservation was signed into law and encompassed much of Oregon’s southeastern corner, about 1,778,560 acres that included Castle Rock, Strawberry Butte, the Silvies River, Malheur Lake and the North, Mainstem and South Forks of the Malheur River.

In 1873, Samuel Parrish was appointed Special Indian Agent. The Paiutes liked him as he was fairminded and made sure the Native Americans received food and supplies.

Parrish was replaced for a short time with a man named Harrison Linville who sold off rations and allowed grazing on the reservation lands.

Eventually, Parrish was reinstated and the Indian population grew to 800. Parrish appealed to the government for more funds to feed the growing population, but the request fell on deaf ears.

Meanwhile, white settlers were pressuring the U.S. government to turn reservation lands over to them for settlement and grazing.

In 1876, President Ulysses Grant ordered the northern shores of Malheur Lake open for settlement. This angered the Indians as it was a place of importance for them because it was where they collected wada seeds. Another unfortunate event came in the form of Parrish being replaced with William Rinehart, a man who had no sympathy for the Paiute plight.

He allowed settlers to take over reservation land. Dismayed by a lack of supplies and rations and worsening conditions, many Indians started to flee the reservation. Others were convinced that the only way to take back their land was to fight, which led to the Bannock Indian War.

While the Bannocks and Paiutes banded together for support, the Umatilla Indians sided with the U.S. government, and concocted a scheme to kill the Paiute leader, Chief Egan. Believing the Umatilla Indians to be friendly, the Paiutes walked into an ambush and Chief Egan was decapitated. “Those are the kinds of things they don’t teach you growing up in schools,” Soucie said. With their leader dead, the Paiutes had no choice but to surrender.

In January 1879, about 500 Paiutes were rounded up and marched in knee deep snow to Fort Simcoe on the Yakima Reservation and Fort Vancouver in Washington state. In the dead of winter, many froze along the way. Only 400 made it to the destination.

They were kept there for about five years before they were allowed to return to Eastern Oregon, and at that point, many didn’t want to come back. Only about 115 returned to Harney Valley.

While they were held in Washington state, the government turned all the Paiute land into public domain so that white settlers could homestead. The Paiutes who returned were forced to live on the outskirts of Burns. The men found seasonal work on the ranches and became cowboys, while the women washed clothes and made buckskin gloves to trade occasionally for flour, sugar and coffee.

The tribe was not federally recognized and did not have a “home.” However, in 1928, the tribe did receive some help. Egan Land Company gave the Burns Paiute 10 acres of land just outside the city of Burns. Homes were built as well as a school and community center thanks to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 1932, a small church was built by the local Catholic Church. Father Heuel, a Catholic priest, tried to help the tribe and provide spiritual leadership.

Medical services for the Indians were provided twice per year in the basement of the courthouse because the Paiutes were not allowed in the hospital.

Formation of the reservation

It wasn’t until the 1960s that a group of Paiutes determined to be formally recognized by the U.S. Government organized and drew up a bill to create a reservation. On Oct. 13, 1972, they made it happen. “We’re fairly young compared to other bigger tribes,” Soucie said during her presentation.

These tribal leaders were determined to provide something more for their children and their grandchildren.

“These people had such heart,” Roderque said. Many didn’t have more than an eighth-grade education, yet they wanted something more for future generations.

Today the tribe has a seven-member Tribal Council. According to the Paiute Tribe’s website, “Each member of the Tribal Council is nominated and elected to a three-year term by the General Council. The Tribal Council meets several times a month, overseeing the tribal government and carrying out the decisions of the General Council.

The tribal government includes nine departments and various committees. The departments provide essential services to the community and uphold tribal interests when working with state and federal agencies. For example, the tribal administration takes care of day to day management and accounting of the tribal government.” Other tribe departments deal with environmental and energy issues, lease compliance for all the allotments and tribal lands, mitigation for fish and wildlife, cultural preservation and enhancement, law enforcement and maintenance.

Today, the Burns Paiute Tribe owns or controls about 40,000 acres of land, which includes the reservation as well as property in Logan Valley and near Juntura.

Wrapping up their presentation, Soucie and Roderque acknowledged the importance of remembering where they came from. “We’re all from different families, but we have the same ancestors,” Soucie said. “That’s what Reservation Day is all about — recognizing and appreciating where we came from.”

Myra Peck Says: July 10th, 2013 at 9:20 am

"I come from a rich ancestrial background. My great-grandfather was Captain Louie, my grandfather Chief Jimmy louie, my grandmother was Marion Louie and my mother Myrtle (louie) Peck who contributed one way or another to perserving our heritage, by history, story telling, songs and language. Our tribe has endured and come along way. There are so many who contributed and continue on the endeavor of perserving our rich heritage. I am proud to be a Malheur Paiute, and will continue to perserve our history of a rich and proud people. RICH in history and PROUD in spirit!"

Prior to substantial contact with non-Native peoples, the Paiutes led a highly mobile nomadic lifestyle. They ranged from the forested highlands of the Rocky Mountains westward to the Sierra Nevada Range, including the desert lowlands in between. The lifestyles of the various bands across this expansive region were largely determined by the particular foods available in the area where they predominantly lived. Most subsisted by hunting small game and gathering roots, seeds, and berries. Some Southern and Owens Valley Paiute bands used irrigation techniques and grew corn, while some Northern Paiute bands were fishermen. The extended family was the main traditional unit of social organization. Bands were composed of loose affiliations of families led by a headman selected for his abilities.

According to Bertha P. Dutton in American Indians of the Southwest, the Southern Paiutes moved into the Southwestern region of what is now the United States around the year 1000 A.D. The Paiutes lived for many years near the ancient Pueblo peoples already settled in the area and adopted their techniques for raising corn. Eventually the Pueblo began to leave the area. Though their early contact with European hunters and trappers in the 1820s was friendly, hostilities between the Paiutes and non-Indian intruders grew over time. Epidemics of smallpox, cholera, and other diseases swept through Paiute communities in the 1830s and 1840s.

The limited contact with Euro-American explorers, fur trappers, and settlers changed abruptly when large-scale migration over the Oregon Trail began in the mid-1840s. Conflicts increased as more and more of the Paiute territory was claimed by whites. To the south, Mormons arriving from northern Utah began settling the best lands of the Southern Paiutes, including the Las Vegas Valley. Also by the 1840s the Paiutes to the north and south had acquired horses and guns and began raiding white camps and settlements. The majority of conflicts with whites took place after 1848, when the discovery of gold in California brought a flood of settlers through the center of the tribe's territory.

In 1859 a major silver strike occurred at Virginia City in western Nevada. The rapid influx of miners and ranchers into the region led to hostilities with Northern Paiutes, which escalated to the Pyramid Lake War. Relatively large reservations for the Northern Paiutes were established at Pyramid Lake and Walker River in an attempt to maintain distance and peace between the Paiutes and the newcomers. However, in 1860 traders at a Pony Express station on the California Trail kidnapped and raped two Paiute girls. Tribal members responded by attacking the Pony Express station, killing five whites in the process of rescuing the girls. The Paiutes then killed 43 volunteers sent to avenge the killings.

After several minor battles involving an 800-man volunteer army from California led by Colonel Jack Hays, peace with the Paiutes was restored. Most Paiutes returned to the Pyramid Lake Reservation while others withdrew further north to southeast Oregon. The military established Fort Churchill in 1860 in western Nevada to maintain peace.

During the U.S. Civil War years, when government troops were busy fighting in the East, the Paiutes continued numerous raids on ranches, farms, mining camps, and wagon trains. Following the Civil War, U.S. Army troops returned in force to the West. In Oregon, the United States established military posts in 1864 at Camp Alvord and in 1867 at Fort Harney. By 1866 the military took the offensive to end the Paiute resistance to white incursions.

The escalating conflict became known as the Snake Indian War, since Northern Paiutes were often called Snake Indians by some settlers. Two war leaders, Paulina and Old Weawa, led the Paiutes in 40 skirmishes with the federal forces over a two year period before finally being forced to surrender in 1868. A treaty promising a reservation in Oregon was signed at Fort Harney with three Paiute bands, but it was never ratified by Congress. The Paiutes were forced to relocate to other reservations located elsewhere in the region. To the south, the United States and Southern Paiutes signed the 1865 Treaty of Spanish Forks.

Also never ratified by Congress, the treaty was designed to the place six Southern Paiute bands on the Uintah Reservation in northern Utah. The first reservation for Southern Paiutes, the Moapa Reservation, was finally created in 1872. That same year, the almost two million acre Malheur Reservation was established in central Oregon by presidential executive order for the "free-roaming" Northern Paiutes of southeastern Oregon. However, the Malheur Reservation was returned to public ownership in its entirety following renewed, but brief, hostilities called the Bannock War in 1878. The Northern Paiute population scattered to other reservations or small communities. Many Paiute bands refused to move to the reservations already occupied by other bands. Instead, they established settlements on the outskirts of towns, where they worked as wage laborers. Two Paiute communities grew on military posts abandoned in the 1890s, Fort Bidwell and Fort McDermitt, in Oregon.

Though several large reservations (Moapa, Pyramid Lake, Walker River, Duck Valley, and Malheur) were established for the Paiutes in Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho between 1859 and 1891, by the turn of the century tribal lands had been reduced to less than 5 percent of their original territory. The government between 1910 and 1930 extended formal federal recognition and set aside modest acreage, usually 10 to 40 acres, for many of the non-reservation Paiute bands. Typical of many reservations throughout the nation, the General Allotment Act of 1887 carved up tribal lands on the larger Paiute reservations into small allotments allocated to individual tribal members and then sold the "excess" to non-Indians.

The Walker River Reservation alone lost almost 290,000 acres of its best land in 1906. Around the turn of the century, many of the Owens Valley Paiutes were restricted to areas far too small to support their former way of life as the city of Los Angeles acquired former tribal lands to control water rights to the Owens River.

The Paiute population is broadly scattered, living in numerous small communities and a few large reservations. The Northern Paiutes live in at least 14 communities including: Pyramid Lake, Walker River, Fort McDermott, Fallon, Reno-Sparks area, Yerington, Lovelock, Summit Lake, and Winnemucca in Nevada; Burns and Warm Springs in Oregon; and, Bridgeport, Cedarville, and Fort Bidwell in California. Tribal memberships ranged from less than 20 individuals with the Winnemucca in 1992 to almost 2,000 with the Pyramid Lake tribe. The Owens Valley Paiute communities include Bishop, Big Pine, Lone Pine, Fort Independence, and Benton in eastern California. Their memberships in 1991 ranged from 84 at Benton to 1,350 at Bishop. Ten Southern Paiute communities include the Shivwits, Indian Peaks, Cedar, Koosharem, Kanosh, Kaibab, Moapa, Las Vegas, and San Juan. Their memberships are also small and ranged from 71 at Las Vegas to almost 300 at Moapa in 1992.

In 1889 Wovoka, a Southern Paiute, founded the Ghost Dance religion. In a vision, he saw the earth reborn in a natural state and returned to the Indians and their ancestors, free from white man's control.

Wovoka taught his followers that they could achieve this vision by dancing, chanting, and eliminating all traces of white influence from their lives. The Ghost Dance incorporated the earlier Round Dance elements, including the lack of a percussion accompaniment.

Until the 1930s, the Paiutes were healed by Native doctors known as puagants, believed to possess supernatural powers. The puagants each formed a magical relationship with one or more animal spirits, often using the fur or feathers of the animal to call upon the spirits to assist them in their work.

By the late twentieth century, health care facilities were available to some Paiutes, often through the federal Indian Health Services (IHS). Examples of such facilities include the McDermitt Tribal Health Center in northern Nevada, the Fallon and Schurz Indian health centers in western Nevada, the Pyramid Lake Health Department in northwestern Nevada and the Owyhee Indian Health Service Hospital in southeastern Oregon.

In addition to economic development programs, projects addressing health care were a top priority among the bands. Compounded by poverty, the Paiutes suffered high rates of certain diseases, dysfunctional family relations, and substance abuse.

Health screening programs were instituted where feasible. Care programs for the elderly were also implemented including regular monitoring of their well-being, in-home care, hot lunches, crafts, firewood supplies, and special housing.

slave raids on the Paiutes, trading abducted Paiute slaves to Spanish colonists in the Southwest. The Paiutes were also closely related to the Shoshone peoples of the Northwest. Though the Owens Valley Paiutes were culturally similar to the Northern Paiutes, they spoke the language of the Mono (or Monache) peoples that lived west of the Sierra Nevada. The San Juan Paiutes, though living in fear of the Navajo to the east, actually adopted some Navajo customs regarding dress, housing, and some linguistic traits. Though generally considered Southern Paiutes, the Chemehuevi who lived along the lower Colorado River south of the Las Vegas Valley on the Arizona and California border actually shared more traits with Southern California tribes than with other Paiutes, such as floodplain farming and earthen house construction of the Mohave culture, than other Paiute cultural practices.

A fundamental aspect of Paiute religion is acquisition of "power," or buha among Northern Paiutes. The Paiutes believed in many supernatural beings that manifested themselves in elements of the natural world, such as water, thunder, and animals. Buha could be acquired in dreams or at cave or grave sites. Aside from healing, buha was sought to help control weather, sexual prowess, vulnerability in warfare, and gambling success. One powerful spirit was Thuwipu Unipugant, or "the One Who Made the Earth," who was represented by the sun. The Paiutes prayed to the spirits in order to influence them and show their respect. For example, they might pray for rain or a successful hunt.

According to Bertha Dutton in American Indians of the Southwest, early efforts to convert the Paiutes to Christianity were relatively successful, particularly those Paiutes who lived among the Mormons in Utah. As Catherine Fowler noted in Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia, most Paiutes attend religious services in some Christian denomination, though some also participate in Indian religious movements such as the Native American Church, the Sweat Lodge movement, and the Sun Dance.

The Paiutes made a direct contribution to one of the major nineteenth century Native American religious movements. In 1889, when most Paiutes had been pushed off of their ancestral lands and forced to live on reservations, a Southern Paiute named Wovoka founded the Ghost Dance religion, which prophesied an end to white domination. The son of Tavibo, a mystic of the Walker River Paiute band, Wovoka experienced a powerful vision during a solar eclipse. In his vision, the earth was returned to a natural state, with unfenced plains full of buffalo, no more white men, and the Indians living in harmony.

Wovoka preached that in order to achieve this vision of the future, the Indians needed to rid themselves of white influence, especially the use of alcohol. He also called upon the Native peoples to pray, meditate, and dance. Within a few years, the Ghost Dance religion had spread to angry and frustrated tribes all over the West. Some tribes, like the Sioux, interpreted the Ghost Dance as a call for renewed violence against whites. Though the Paiutes refrained from resorting to violence, they embraced the Ghost Dance for many years as a form of resistance to white culture.

A succinct history of the Burns Paiute Tribe, written by a member of the Tribe, can be found in a book entitled The First Oregonians, published by the Oregon Council for the Humanities, Portland. "The End of a Way of Life: The Burns Paiute Tribe," by Minerva Soucie, chronicles Burns Paiute history from the Wada'Tikas' first contact with non-Indians up to the present. Rather than repeating or trying to paraphrase her words, a brief summary and timeline is presented below:

•1830s - First contact between the Wada'Tika and fur trappers in the Harney Valley.

•1860s - Increased non-indian settlement leads to negotiations between the Paiute people and the government for a place where they could maintain their old ways of hunting and gathering.

•1872 - September 12, President Grant established a 1.8 million acre Malheur Reservation, the boundaries of which were soon reduced, first because of pressure by settlers to increase grazing lands, and then due to the discovery of gold

•1878 - The Bannock War: Many Paiutes fell victim to the war between the government and the Bannock Tribe, despite the fact that most Paiutes did not participate. At the end of the war, the surviving Paiutes suffered their own "Trail of Tears" as they were removed from the reservation and moved to Fort Simcoe, Washington.

•1880s - Because there were no longer any Paiutes living on the reservation, it was opened up to public use, and settlers promptly began to graze cattle and homestead within its boundaries.

•1887 - Allotment Act: The Paiute were invited to return to the Malheur Reservation or onto tribes' reservations in Washington, Oregon, or Nevada. Those who overcame their suspicions and returned to Harney County received 160 acres of unirrigated alkali desert impossible to farm.

•1935 - A 771-acre "New Village" was acquired for the Tribe by the federal government. Title to the land was finally received from Congress in 1972.

•1968 - The Paiutes were finally fully recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

•Today - The Burns Paiute people are in the process of recovering their tribal identity through a tribal research project which includes conducting oral histories with tribal elders and analyzing historical photographs and records. A 1982 video entitled "The Earth is Our Home" explores ancient Paiute traditions.