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Show 48 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History moved south.51 Pratt's remarks about the Nuwuvi cornfields are very important for they indicate that the Nuwuvi had resumed their cultivating despite Spanish Trail disruption. Later travelers along the Santa Clara mistakenly thought the Nuwuvi had been made farmers by the Mormons. Pratt's diary next mentions Nuwuvi when his party arrived at the Muddy River where he met a large group of them. Pratt's party bought corn and beans from the Indians who appeared much more friendly than they had to earlier parties. Pratt commented on the worth of this valley. He noted the land was fertile with plenty of good water. 52 Considering their farms, it is easy to see why the Nuwuvi tried so hard to protect this valley. Though farming operations were disrupted in the succeeding years, at present the Nuwuvi are farming along the Muddy within the confines of the Moapa Reservation. Pratt travelled on to Las Vegas where he wrote the following: "There is the finest stream of water here, for its size, I ever saw. . . . It comes too, like an oasis in the desert just as the termination of a 50 mile stretch without a drop of water or a spear of grass." He noticed many Nuwuvi here, but they avoided his party. Las Vegas Springs was a Nuwuvi "oasis in the desert," used as a temporary camp in crossing the desert. Pratt again foresaw an influx of people.53 Today the Nuwuvi live on ten acres of land adjacent to the city of Las Vegas. From Pratt's diary, we learn that Nuwuvi farming, even in the areas through which the Spanish Trail ran, had persisted though perhaps it was disrupted some years, or its proportions reduced to accommodate the caravans. This was not a small accomplishment. The Spanish Trail had had a severe effect on the lives of the Nuwuvi. The slave trade which developed could not be forgotten easily. In 1853, when Mexican involvement in the slave trade was being ended by the Mormons, Lieutenant E. F. Beale traveled over the trail to become Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California. Gwinn Harris Heap, Beale's journalist, attested to the frequency of slave raiding along the trail. Meeting Nuwuvi on the Santa Clara he soon found that the women had hidden their children when they saw his party approaching fearing they would steal them. Heap stated that annual slave expeditions came out of New Mexico and often resorted to "foul means" to acquire children. The raids were |
