THE SOUTHERN PAIUTES

Key Concepts
Arizona Strip
Chemehuevi
the Cry
the Ghost Dance
the Bear Dance
termination
Cultural Resource Management
Colorado River Corridor
Glen Canyon Dam

Reading Assignment, Text: Chapter 11, "The Southern Paiutes," pp. 400-415

The traditional territory of the Southern Paiutes followed a huge arc of land around the north and west sides of the Colorado River, considered to be the heart of their territory. Only the San Juan Paiutes live east of the Colorado River. An area that stretches some 350 miles east and west, ranges from the high Colorado Plateau, through canyon country, through basin and range, and into the Mojave Desert. Sixteen identifiable groups of Southern Paiute once lived in this broad L-shaped swath of territory that spans southern Utah, northern Arizona, southern Nevada, and the adjacent area of California. This includes the Arizona Strip, which is the northwestern area of Arizona separated from the rest of the state by the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. Those who lived farthest north and east took on Plains traits, while others adopted many characteristics of River Yuman culture. The Chemehuevi are unique because they broke away from the Southern Paiutes to move into an area near their sometime-allies, the Mojave, along the Colorado River, where they reside today. They took on many River Yuman traits, such as floodplain farming, earth-covered houses, an emphasis on dreaming, the warfare complex, and an elaborate mourning ceremony.

Prosperous relatives of a deceased person give a Mourning Ceremony, or Cry, related to the Mojave ceremony, from three months to a year after the death. Several families who have also lost loved ones often share the enormous outlay of food and goods required by the ceremony.

By the early 1900s, the Kaibab Paiute had adopted the Ute Bear Dance, and it spread westward to other Southern Paiute groups. Celebrated in early spring to conciliate the bear just beginning to awaken from winter hibernation, the Bear Dance is also a festive social occasion when women take the initiative by selecting their partners and directing the elements of the dance. Male singers provide the music on rasps, with the initial tremolo that begins all Bear Dance songs creating the noise of thunder that is believed to awaken the bear in his cave.