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Show 42 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History On the Mohave River, Fremont met a party of six Mohave Indians. He questioned them, and, among other things, learned that conflict had developed between the Mohave and the Nuwuvi. The Mohave were trading with Indians in California, bringing them blankets and goods manufactured by the Hopi, but they "rarely carried home horses, on account of the difficulty of getting them across the desert and of guarding them afterwards from the Paiute Indians, who inhabit the sierra, at the head of the Rio Virgin."22 If the Mohave informed Fremont correctly, there was apparently some intertribal horse thievery occurring during this time, perhaps caused by economic pressures and defense needs. While camped further down along the Mohave River, Fremont and his men were surprised by the appearance of two Mexicans, a man and a boy, who told Fremont that their party of six persons had been attacked by Indians at the Archilette (Resting Springs, on the Spanish Trail a short distance west of the present Nevada border, and just inside Nuwuvi territory). When attacked, the party, with a cavalcade of thirty horses, was waiting at this spring for the annual caravan in order to travel with it. The two Mexicans claimed that several Indians had visited their camp and behaved in a very friendly manner, but a few days afterward a party of one hundred Indians attacked their camp.23 The two Mexicans joined Fremont's party, which left the Mohave and traveled on to the Agua de Tomaso (Bitter Springs). According to the Mexicans, this was where they had left the horses which they had driven off during the attack. The horses were gone, and Kit Carson and two others set out to find them. They rode over 100 miles in the pursuit and return. They attacked an Indian camp which was probably Nuwuvi. They found the camp in a mountain recess, where great preparations had been made to feast a large party. Apparently not many people were at the camp but more were expected. Carson and the others opened fire on the camp, hitting two men and taking one boy captive; the other people fled to safety. They then scalped the two who were shot. One was found to be still alive but was instantly killed.24 Carson examined the camp, finding that "large earthen vessels were on the fire, boiling and stewing the horse beef; and several baskets, containing fifty or sixty pairs of moc- |