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Show 28 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History suspected them of being friends of the Hopi with whom these Nuwuvi were not getting along.29 Although refusing to visit with the Spanish, they finally told the Ute interpreter how the expedition, which had lost the trail, could get to Hopi country. The Escalante-Dominguez exploration was a significant event in Nuwuvi history for several reasons. Although the Spanish fathers turned back to Santa Fe and thus failed to blaze a trail all the way to Monterey, part of their route later was to become the eastern portion of the Old Spanish Trail. This route would bring more invaders to Nuwuvi land. It was to pass through some of the best Nuwuvi lands, such as the banks of the Virgin River and the Santa Clara, upon which the Nuwuvi farmed. When the Escalante-Dominguez party crossed their country, the Nuwuvi economy and culture were still intact. Escalante's viewpoint, like that of all whites, was colored by his own cultural background. Escalante was a Spanish priest, and he consequently saw the Nuwuvi as in need of conversion rather than completely respecting their own concepts of life. However, Escalante did make a sincere attempt to record what he saw accurately. His journal is unbiased enough to permit a dim picture of how the Nuwuvi lived. In the spring and early summer of 1776, a few months before the Escalante-Dominguez exploration, another Spanish priest, Francisco Garces, had made contact with other Nuwuvi people. Like Escalante, Garces was commissioned to find a route connecting the Spanish settlements in New Mexico with those on the Pacific Coast, but the route he sought was lower, across present-day Arizona. Traveling up the Colorado River from the Gila River, Garces left the river to avoid an area where the Mohave were fighting other Indians. In the desert west of the river he met some forty "Cheme-bets" (the Chemehuevi, the most southwesterly group of Nuwuvi). The Chemehuevi offered Garces some "very good mezcal" (a beverage made from the agave or century plant), and he recorded as much information as he could about them. He observed that they wore Apache-style moccasins, shirts made from antelope hide, and feathered headdresses. Garces was particularly impressed by the ability of these Indians to move in the desert. He commented that they were "the most swift-footed of any I have seen." The Chemehuevi informed |