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Show W E S H A L L R E M A I N : U TA H I N D I A N C U R R I C U L U M G U I D E 24 at a glance: utah's indians and first contact The moment of first contact between American Indians and Europeans-whether between Columbus and the Taino people in the Caribbean or between members of the Dominguez- Escalante expedition and the Utes in what is now Utah-initiated massive changes in the lives of native people. The arrival of Europeans brought new animals and trade goods, but it also brought disease, dislocation, poverty, and war. Well before non-Indians began to settle their homelands in the mid-nineteenth century, Utah's Indians experienced the effects of contact and exchange. While contact with Europeans often had tragic consequences for Indians, it is im-portant to note that these cultures survived this period of immense change and remain a part of Utah's culture to this day. The story of first con-tact, both in the Caribbean and in what we now call Utah, is one of different cultures coming together, beginning a period of irrevocable change. The people that Columbus met in the western hemisphere, on the island of what the Span-ish would call Hispaniola (what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) were the Taino people. Hispaniola was a densely populated island, and while hunting and fishing were still an important part of their economy, the Tainos also practiced agriculture. Their main crop was cassava or manioc, but they also grew a number of other crops. A peaceful people, the Tainos initially were friendly to the Europeans, but warfare, slavery, and perhaps most importantly, the diseases brought from the other side of the Atlantic left them all but extinct by the end of the sixteenth century. This pattern-of war, slavery, and disease-would take its toll on all America's native peoples, including the Indians of the Great Basin. In looking at first contact in the Great Basin, one of the best ways to understand the impact in had on native peoples is to look at what life was like prior to European settlement. While the Indians who lived in the Great Basin had distinct cultures and communities (see specific tribal lesson plans and histories for more information), these groups also had several things in common. The people of the Great Basin were nomadic or semi-nomadic, moving with the seasons to make the best use of animal and plant resources. This lifestyle required detailed and diverse knowl-edge of the uses of plants and animals for food, medicine, clothing, and shelter. They usually traveled in small groups, allowing them to live more easily off the scarce resources that the arid land provided; however, several times each year these smaller groups would come together for larger hunting and gathering purposes or simply to trade and socialize. The cultures and economies of the Indians of the Great Basin changed dramatically after the Spanish settlement of the American Southwest. The Spanish founded the colony of New Mexico in 1598, and the effects of settlement were felt by tribes who lived to the north, often even before the Indians and Europeans first met. The Spanish introduced new livestock that altered the econo-mies of Great Basin tribes, most notably horses and sheep. The Utes, Navajos, and Shoshones adopted the horse as a means of transporta-tion and as a result could travel and trade over AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY |
