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Updated: May 10, 2025
But very little can be done for these Indians by the government in their present unsettled condition. They should be brought upon one of the reservations set apart for the Indians in Nevada, or upon the Uintah reservation in Utah, where they could receive suitable care, and proper instruction in the arts of civilized life. Washoes.
The water is suddenly dashed over her "to make her vigorous and strong," and the dance comes to an end. This rude and rough treatment, in the early days, was made to have all the potency and sanctity of a religious rite. The reason for it was clear. The Washoes were surrounded by people with whom they were often at war. Indian warfare takes no cognizance of sex or its special disabilities.
Their range seemed to be from Washoe and Carson valleys on the east in winter, up to Tahoe and over the Sierras for fishing and hunting in the summer. While in the early days of the settlements of whites upon their lands the Washoes now and again rose in protest, and a few lives were lost, in the main they have been a peaceable and inoffensive tribe.
The breaking down of all the old customs by contact with the whites has made men and women alike indifferent to what work they do so that the family larder and purse are replenished thereby. In the early days the Washoes were expert hunters of bear and deer. They used to cross over into the mountains of California for this purpose, and the women would accompany them.
No arrow could pierce his feathers, nor could the strongest spear do more than glance from the scales on his face and legs, yet his coward's heart made him afraid for his toes had no claws, and his mouth no beak. Late one fall, the Washoes were making their final hunt before going to the valleys and leaving the Lake locked in its winter snows.
The tribes residing in Nevada are Pah-Utes, Pi-Utes, Washoes, Shoshones, and Bannocks, and are native to the districts inhabited by them respectively. Pah-Utes. These Indians, numbering about 6,000, inhabit the western part of the State. Two reservations have been set apart for them, one known as the Walker River, the other as the Pyramid Lake reservation, containing each 320,000 acres.
The man, however, lived to be very old." Jackson was not sure whether he believed this story or not. But his manner of telling it indicated that it was very real to him. Now and again near Tallac one may see one of the dances of the Washoes. Though war is past with them they still occasionally indulge in their War Dance and its consequent Scalp Dance.
But with them as with all aboriginal people who have absorbed the vices and none of the virtues of the whites, the Washoes are fast losing power, vigor and strength by disease and dissipation. The smoke of the campoodie fire is also ruinous to their eyes and ophthalmia is prevalent among them. It is no uncommon thing to see a man or woman entirely blind.
The former, however, ranging further east in Nevada, were always regarded as interlopers by the latter if they came too near to the Lake, and there are legends current of several great struggles in which many lives were lost, where the Washoes battled with the Paiutis to keep them from this favored locality.
One of his legs is muffled up in a red blanket, and in one hand he carries a rudely-invented crutch. "How will you trade horses?" I banteringly ask as we meet in the road; and I dismount for an interview, to find out what kind of Indians these Washoes are. To my friendly chaff he vouchsafes no reply, but simply sits motionless on his pony, and fixes a regular "Injun stare" on the bicycle.
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