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Show 40 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History Hayes, writing to the Los Angeles Star on June 4, 1851, from a California ranch thought so: "The moon has come again - and with her, it is said, the dread Pay-u-tahs. But this time they will find few horses ... as the rancheros of the frontier generally, have sent away their stock...." " The extent of Nuwuvi involvement in horse raiding is difficult to determine. Tribal and even racial identity was seldom certain; the Californians made few distinctions and called all horse raiders "Chaguanosos" who were "adventurers of all nations."14 Some Nuwuvi conducted horse raiding independently,15 trading the horses to the caravans and other "Chaguanosos." In 1841, a party of about 134 persons composed of emigrants and New Mexican traders and headed by William Workman and John Rowland, traversed the Old Spanish Trail. En route a revealing incident occurred which suggests that the seizure of people for slaves was a common feature of the trading along the trail. One of the party, a Dr. Lyman, wrote that four New Mexicans in the group seized an Indian man, woman, and child. Although part of the party sought their release, the majority favored holding on to them. Consequently, the party split up.16 Dr. Lyman and two of his friends left the party and in traveling to California suffered much on the desert. On arriving in California, Lyman was pleased to hear that others in the party released the captive Nuwuvi secretly at night.17 Unfortunately, most Nuwuvi captives were not so lucky, as the following comments of Dr. Lyman suggest: these Indians are so ardently attached to their country, that when carried into the lands of their captors and surrounded with abundance, they pine away and often die in grief for the loss of their native deserts. In one instance, I saw one of these Paiuches die from no other apparent cause than this home-sickness. From the time it was brought into the settlements of California it was sad, moaned, and continually refused to eat till it died.18 Lyman noted that the Nuwuvi were pressed from all sides. Not only were the New Mexicans trying to capture them, but so were neighboring Indian tribes and occasional American fur trappers. He also mentioned the prices for slaves at the New Mexican markets varied widely according to age and other qualities, but a child of |