This is the Arapaho closing song ([Arapaho song 52]), as adopted by the Comanche, to whom, of course, it has no real meaning. It is given here as an example of the change which comes to an Indian song when adopted by an alien tribe.
THE PAIUTE, WASHO, AND PIT RIVER TRIBES
PAIUTE TRIBAL SYNONYMY
Hogăpä′goni—Shoshoni name, “rush arrow people” (hogăp, a small water reed; pägă, “arrow”).
Nüma—proper tribal name, signifying “people” or “Indians;” the same name is also used for themselves by the Shoshoni and Comanche.
Pai-yu′chimŭ—Hopi name.
Pai-yu′tsĭ—Navaho name.
Palŭ—Washo name.
Paiute or Piute—popular name, variously rendered “true (pai) Ute” or “water (pä) Ute”—pronounced among themselves Paiuti.
Note.—The northern bands of the Paiute are frequently included with Shoshoni and others under the name of Snakes, while the others are often included with various Californian tribes under the collective name of Diggers.
SKETCH OF THE PAIUTE
CHARACTERISTICS
The Paiute belong to the great Shoshonean stock and occupy most of Nevada, together with adjacent portions of southwestern Utah, northwestern Arizona, and northwestern and southeastern California. The Pahvant and Gosiute on their eastern border are frequently, but improperly, classed as Paiute, while the Chemehuevi, associated with the Walapai in Arizona, are but a southern offshoot of the Paiute and speak the same language. With regard to the Indians of Walker River and Pyramid Lake reservations, who constitute the main body of those commonly known as Paiute, Powell claims that they are not Paiute at all, but another tribe which he calls Paviotso. He says: “The names by which the tribes are known to white men and the department give no clue to the relationship of the Indians. For example, the Indians in the vicinity of the reservation on the Muddy and the Indians on the Walker River and Pyramid Lake reservations are called Pai or Pah Utes, but the Indians know only those on the Muddy by that name, while those on the other two reservations are known as Paviotsoes, and speak a very different language, but closely allied to, if not identical with, that of the Bannocks.” ([Comr.], 45.) The Ghost dance originated among these Indians in the neighborhood of Walker river, from whom the songs here given were obtained, and for convenience of reference we shall speak of them under their popular title of Paiute, without asserting its correctness.
The different small bands have little political coherence and there is no recognized head chief. The most influential chiefs among them in modern times have been Winnemucca, who died a few years ago, and Natchez. Wovoka’s leadership is spiritual, not political. The Indians of Walker river and Pyramid lake claim the Bannock as their cousins, and say that they speak the same language. As a rule they have been peaceable and friendly toward the whites, although in the early sixties they several times came into collision with miners and emigrants, hostility being frequently provoked by the whites themselves. The northern Paiute are more warlike than those of the south, and a considerable number of them took part with the Bannock in the war of 1878. Owing to the fact that the great majority of the Paiute are not on reservations, many of them being attached to the ranches of white men, it is impossible to get any correct statement of their population, but they may be safely estimated at from 7,000 to 8,000 and are thought to be increasing. In 1893 those on reservations, all in Nevada, were reported to number, at Walker River, 563; at Pyramid Lake, 494; at Duck Valley (Western Shoshone agency, in connection with the Shoshoni), 209. Nevada Indians off reservation were estimated to number 6,815, nearly all of whom were Paiute.
