Setting the Stage: Native America Revisited

Robert S. McPherson

The writing of Native American history can be said to have started when Christopher Columbus first waded ashore on San Salvador Island in the Caribbean. It has continued ever since. What preceded his arrival — the prehistoric phase of Native Americans — has generally been left to archaeologists and anthropologists to decipher and explain from physical remains. The initial contact, post-contact, and contemporary phases are the realm of historians, who write in keeping with longstanding conventions of their own trade. In both instances, facts, dates, and interpretation generally are presented from an Anglo American perspective that has evolved over centuries.

What this has meant to the Indian people is that rarely, if ever, has their view been predominant, if it has even been known. Calvin Martin, a noted Indian historian, put it this way: "We presume to document and interpret the history of a people whose perception of the world for the most part eludes us, whose behavior, as a result, is enigmatic. ... To ignore the Indian thoughtworld is to continue writing about ourselves to ourselves" This has been especially true until recently.

Within the last twenty-five years, there has been a perceptible shift in the tide of writing that now insists on a more balanced treatment of the Indians' view of events. However, this is at times a difficult thing to achieve. Native Americans in the past have been slow to come forth with their own story for a number of reasons, including fear of retribution, a desire to leave the past behind, reticence to speak as an individual for a group, and the belief that certain events are sacred, personal, and not to be divulged for public view. Whatever the reason, when one considers how much has been produced about these people, there are relatively few tribal histories written or sanctioned by Native Americans.

In the following pages, the reader will encounter six tribal histories composed either by Native Americans or their representatives. Each author has used both written and oral sources to tell the story of the tribes living within the boundaries of Utah. The tribal histories are complex, as they speak of persistence and change, the past and the present, diversity and unity. What will be recognized early on is that there are common threads woven throughout each tribal account; but these may assume a different cultural pattern. Thus, each group enjoys a distinct identity.

Among the most prominent of these threads is a religious worldview that ties these people of Utah to a living, sentient creation. Their world is one of power, filled with holy beings who either help or hinder those who interact with them. Unlike most Anglo Americans, who separate themselves from a world they divide into animate and inanimate objects, the Indian worldview sees the land as an interconnected whole — with rocks, trees, animals, water, clouds, and a host of other participants in a circle of life. Human relationships exist with non-human entities, bonded by a mutual respect for the role each plays as a part of nature.

An example provided by the Navajo illustrates this type of connection between the land and its creatures, a characteristic viewpoint shared by all of Utah's tribes. To the Navajo, deer were animals treated and hunted with respect. They were controlled by certain gods who made them available for man's use. Before leaving for the hunt, men participated in a sweat bath to purify themselves and to encourage the holy beings to give them the best meat. Ritualized behavior circumscribed the hunt, making the act of killing a deer a sacred event recognized as good by both the animal and the gods.

The disposal of entrails and other parts not used by the hunter was also treated in a ceremonially prescribed manner to insure that new deer would be plentiful. Failure to do so could affect the amount of rainfall, since Navajo people believed that deer were in close contact with the holy beings who controlled moisture. Because deer lived in the mountains, they were protected by thunder and lightning; their antlers were not brought home since they attracted electrical storms; and, because they fed on sacred, medicinal plants, to eat their meat was to ingest medicine. This type of thinking and practice is pervasive throughout traditional Native American life.

The roots of this worldview, so different from that of most Euro-Americans, lies embedded in religious beliefs. In order to understand how these Native American practices began, one must return to the creative period of time, when the earth was "soft" and creatures talked and acted like humans. The gods were close, visible, and involved, establishing the laws and forming the world for the People — the term many different groups used to identify themselves, using, of course, the appropriate word in their own language. Rivers and canyons, mountains and deserts, lakes and caves took their place in an orderly universe recognized and utilized by the tribes. Plants, insects, fish, and wildlife made their homes under the direction of the gods. The territory in which these creatures lived was bounded by familiar landmarks given to the bands and tribes by the holy beings.

A survey of any Utah map quickly testifies to the intensity of this relationship between the land and its early inhabitants. The state's name itself comes from the Ute tribe. Other Ute names on maps include Wasatch (signifying a mountain pass or low place); Oweep (grass) Creek; Cuberant (long) Lake; and Ouray, Peteetneet, and Santaquin (Ute leaders). From the Paiutes come Panguitch (fish), Parowan (harmful water), Paunsaugunt (place of beavers), and Parunuweap Canyon (roaring water). The Goshutes added Oquirrh (wooded or shining) Mountains, Onaqui (salt) Mountains, and Tintic (a Goshute leader). Both Washakie and Wanship were Shoshone leaders, while the Navajo have provided Cha (beaver) Canyon, Oljato (moon water), Nasja (owl) Creek, and Peshlikai (silver) Fork, among many other names on the land.

To the Indians of Utah, these were places for hunting, fishing, gathering, and worship. They were sites where the People could contact the supernatural through ceremonies to invoke protection and sustain life through a holy means. A covenant based upon respect for these unseen powers, coupled with an intimate knowledge of the land, motivated the People to live within the guidance given them during the time of the myths.

This word "myth" holds a variety of meanings central to understanding the difference between the Native American and Anglo views of the world. To the former, the word defines a truth that is real — sometimes tangible, sometimes intangible — but always considered to be a powerful force in explaining why things are the way they are. Because this explanation is derived from a religious belief, faith and knowledge are mutually supportive in their explanations of physical and social relations. Victor Turner, an anthropologist who has studied the force of myths in society, calls them "the powerhouses of culture." They define and guide people through the uncertainties of life.

The general understanding of myths by most non-Indian Americans is far different. Although biblical teachings are prominent in Anglo culture, there is a far greater dependence by most people on scientific methodology and practices to explain the physical world. This has led white people to view myths of other peoples as amusing tales without true substance, powerless ramblings or fairytales about the supernatural. Superstition is considered to be the basis of myth. Factual proof, recorded events, and material culture — although intermixed by many with Christian dogma — have been a much more comfortable means of explaining the past for general Western culture. Thus, truth is considered to be something objectively discoverable through logic and observation. This stands in contrast to the Indian's view of truth as a preexisting framework, partially revealed in myth to help interpret phenomena. This dichotomy in thinking has characterized relations between native peoples and Euro-Americans throughout the Americas, including Utah.

What, then, does this non-native worldview say about the evolution of cultural development in Utah? Archaeologists and anthropologists have sketched a fairly complete picture of what they believe happened before the historic tribes appeared. Although there is disagreement on dates and the interpretation of some factual evidence, there is general agreement among researchers on the sequence of events. A very brief synopsis of this analysis of prehistory follows.

Portions of the eastern Great Basin, western Rocky Mountains, and northern Colorado Plateau, which comprise the state of Utah, were the setting for the Archaic cultures that lasted from roughly 9,000 or 8,000 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era (A.D. 1). Although there were climatological variations during this time, including more water and vegetation than are now found in the state, much of the semi-desert environment as it now appears was similar at the start of the archaeological record at the end of the last Ice Age, around 8,000 B.C. Over this long period of time, Native American groups have survived in an austere environment that required an intimate knowledge of the land and its resources. As Jesse D. Jennings, noted scholar of Utah's prehistory, said: "The key to understanding prehistoric Great Basin human adaptation lies in the recognition of a myriad of microenvironments. ... Instead of being the uniformly uninviting desert so often visualized, the Great Basin consists of hundreds of special and often rich environments where a widely varying mix of desired plant and animal species was available for harvest."

The first period of human habitation in this environment (from roughly 9000–7500 B.C.) is known from scanty remains preserved in rock shelters such as Danger, Smith Creek, and Deer Creek Caves. Most of these sites were located on the margins of lakes and sources of water, some of which have since disappeared. Knife blades, projectile points, milling stones, and fire pits indicate a hunting-and-gathering lifestyle, much of which focused around sources of water.

The next period (7500–4000 B.C.) is characterized by a more diverse use of ecological zones, ranging from high to low altitudes, for hunting and gathering. Seasonal occupation of various areas and a greater variety in diet resulted. Twined basketry, grinding stones, animal nets, and the spear thrower (atlatl) with dart were some of the simple but effective tools invented and made to work the environment. Excavations at Hogup Cave indicate how effective this lifeway was. The remains of four species of large mammals (deer, antelope, mountain sheep, and elk), thirty-two species of small mammals, and thirty-four species of birds have been found there, indicating that they were part of the diet of the cave's inhabitants. Add to this thirty-six different types of plants, and one can see a widening variety in the diet of these early inhabitants of the land.

The final phase of this Desert Archaic Culture lasted from about 4000 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era and is characterized by a large expansion of people into peripheral areas in the uplands and a decreased emphasis on living near lakes and basin areas. The diet of these people became more restricted in both plant and animal varieties, indicating a reduction in marshland habitat that forced these Native Americans to utilize other areas of the environment. At the same time, the bow and arrow replaced the atlatl, increasing their efficiency in hunting.

But there were even greater changes on the horizon, starting around 400 B.C. in the eastern Great Basin — the beginning of horticultural societies. The raising of corn, and later beans and squash, now offered an alternative to the more traditional hunting and gathering activities. From a strictly utilitarian perspective, domesticated plants increased the carrying capacity of the land. People could now better determine the amount of food available for their use and, if environmental conditions cooperated, could harvest not only what was needed immediately but enough to store for the future. As with many cultures in Native America, a slow revolution in lifestyles occurred, giving rise to a variety of sedentary cultures.

One of the most impressive prehistoric cultures in America was that of the Anasazi, found in the San Juan River drainage of the Four Corners region and extending into southwestern Utah and southern Nevada. This culture appeared in approximately 1000 B.C. and descendants are believed to live today in the historic pueblos along the Rio Grande and in the villages of Hopi, Zuni, and Acoma. The prehistoric ancestral pueblos have been generally subdivided into two major categories — Basketmaker (early and late) and Pueblo (Periods I, II, and III; examples of the later Periods IV and V are not present in Utah). This archaeological classification scheme is based on changes in technology, art, and subsistence patterns.

The relationship between the late Archaic and the early Basketmaker groups is unclear. Early Basketmaker life developed a technology centered on shallow pithouses, and it included circular storage pits, skillfully crafted baskets and sandals, feather and fur robes, and a greatly expanded tool kit. The people made their homes and stored their food in the rock overhangs of the canyon floors or amid the juniper and pinyon groves of the higher lands above. Their lifestyle still reflected a partial orientation to the hunter-gatherer tradition in that the people seasonally moved to various sites to harvest their foods (although they returned to their villages to care for their crops), continued to use the atlatl for hunting, and foraged for wild plants as a supplement to their main diet of corn and squash. Bell-shaped underground chambers and shallow slab-lined storage cists located in protective rock alcoves held not only food supplies but also the Anasazi dead.

The Late Basketmaker Period started around A.D. 450 and is distinguished from the earlier phase by the introduction of beans, stone axes, pottery, and the use of larger, more elaborate pithouses with internal storage facilities and antechambers located to the south or east of the main room. These houses may be found alone, in small clusters, or in groups of a dozen or more dwellings. Other innovations during this phase were the appearance of pottery — gray utility and black-on-white painted ware — as well as the bow and arrow to replace the atlatl.

By A.D. 750 the Anasazi reached the next stage of development, that of Pueblo I. As the name suggests, there were some significant changes in their dwellings, although elements from earlier phases persisted. For instance, the Anasazi now built their homes above ground in connected, rectangular blocks of rooms, using rocks and jacal (a framework of woven saplings and sticks packed with mud) for construction materials. One or more deep pithouses have been found in each of the building clusters and may have served a ceremonial function. These rooms were equipped with a ventilator shaft that brought in fresh air, deflected it around an upright stone placed between the shaft and the firepit, and then evacuated the smoke by the entryway in the roof, a technique utilized by the Anasazi for the remainder of their stay in the Four Corners region. In Pueblo II times this structure became the common kiva.

The Pueblo II phase started about A.D. 900 and lasted for approximately the next 250 years. A change in climate in the general region provided an increase in precipitation, higher water tables that affected springs and seeps, and temperatures more conducive to agriculture. The Anasazi reacted by moving from clusters of populations in strategic locations to a far-ranging decentralization. Satellite worksites and living sites fanned out from the larger concentrations of people. At no previous time had there been as many settlements spread over so much of the land.

The final stage of Anasazi occupation in Utah, Pueblo III, occurred between about A.D. 1150 and 1300. The general pattern of events is characterized by a shrinking or gathering of the dispersed communities into a series of larger villages in areas that were more defensible. Large communal plazas, tower clusters around springs at the heads of canyons, more carefully crafted building techniques, and decreased regional trade relations are indications that Anasazi society was undergoing rapid and significant changes.

Archaeologists argue about what caused these cultural shifts and the subsequent abandonment of the area by the Anasazi. Some people place the cause on environmental factors such as prolonged drought, cooler temperatures, severe arroyo cutting, and depleted soils. Others suggest that the area was invaded by nomadic hunters and gatherers, ancestors or precursors of the historic Ute, Paiute, and Navajo peoples. Pueblo mythology points to internal strife and the religious need to purify the group through migration and pilgrimage to a new land in the south. No single explanation satisfactorily answers all of the questions; however, by A.D. 1300 the Anasazi had left the San Juan River drainage area and moved south to places coinciding with their descendants' present locations.