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Show 16 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History gathered their essential pine nut supplies. Pine nuts were particularly important because they were the basic element in the food stores for the coming winter. During the fall, while food stores were prepared for the winter, houses were built or old ones repaired. During the summer, brush shelters were made for windbreaks or sleeping. The winter required more substantial homes called Ranees. There were many different types of kanees. A common type was made by constructing domelike frames of supple but sturdy branches covered with layers of bark stripped from junipers or grass or brush. Smoke holes were left in the top of each kanee. Various other types of shelter were used, including in later years tipis adopted from the Utes. During the long winter months, the Nuwuvi occupied themselves with the manufacture of various implements such as baskets, cordage, and clothing. Clothing usually was made of cliffrose bark, especially the skirts the women wore. Dresses and shirts also were made of antelope and buckskin. Men commonly wore buckskin shirts, leggings, and breechcloths. Sandals made of yucca were preferable for winter footwear, while hide moccasions more commonly were worn in the summer. Rabbit skins were used to make blankets that were tied about the chest as a cape. Nuwuvi baskets were made in two basically different ways. They were coiled or twined. Some women preferred to make them out of willow, while others considered squawbush to be a superior material.8 Twined baskets became more common in later years, but formerly such baskets as burden baskets, cooking baskets, food bowls, winnowing trays, and water jars were commonly coiled. The latter were usually water-proofed with pine pitch. All types of baskets were twined although there were several different methods and results depending on the basket's use. For instance, burden baskets intended to carry large articles in such situations as when moving camp, had a much more open twine than baskets used for gathering seeds or pine nuts. Some of the baskets were decorated, usually with the fibers of a greyish-black plant called "devil's horn" or "claws." These were woven in intricate patterns through the light-colored willow. Woven designs were never planned before-hand on the basis of established patterns. Instead, the basket-maker allowed her imagination to create |
