Nuwuvi : a southern Paiute history

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32 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History When Smith reached the Colorado River, "an old Pautch [Paiute] farmer could be seen on the east side of the river, and perhaps the hope of profiting from the corn patch justified the considerable trouble involved in the crossing." 41 Smith went on to the Mohave villages, from where Mohave guides led him on to San Bernardino. In the summer of 1827 Smith returned to Nuwuvi territory, traveling substantially by the same route, but leaving the Virgin River to avoid its narrows and going over the Beaver Dam Mountains. Again Smith's account is extremely brief, but of the Virgin and Santa Clara River areas he did say, "not an Indian was to be seen, nor appearance of any having been in the locality during the summer; their flimsy little lodges were burned down." 42 From the time Smith came to the Virgin until he reached the Colorado, only one Nuwuvi, who kept close to the hills, was seen. At the mouth of the Virgin, Smith observed that the old Nuwuvi farmer on the east side of the Colorado was still there. After a battle with the Mohave near their villages, Smith salvaged what he could and went west to the Mohave River. About eight miles up the river, he came upon two Nuwuvi lodges. From them he purchased two horses, some sorghum candy, and a few water jars.43 This is the first mention of the Nuwuvi possessing horses. There is much that is puzzling in Smith's account. The Nuwuvi along the Virgin and Santa Clara Rivers were friendly to Smith on his 1826 incursion, but in 1827, though not hostile, the Nuwuvi seemed to be carefully avoiding the whites. That the Nuwuvi "lodges" had been burned down is even more mystifying. Perhaps the Nuwuvi had heard about other hostilities between Anglo-Americans and Indian people near and within their country. In March of 1826 another group of Anglo fur trappers, including James Ohio Pattie, had ascended the Colorado River after trapping along the Gila. Arriving at the Mohave villages, a Mohave headman, pointing to the beaver furs and indicating that these were stolen property, demanded that the trappers make payment. Pattie refused, and when the Mohave returned the next day to repeat his request, Pattie shot and killed him. The next day, in a series of short battles, over sixteen Mohave were killed. After the last skirmish, Pattie wrote: "We suspended those that we had killed upon the trees, and left their bodies to dangle in terror to the rest... ." 44 The news of this hostility