Publisher Description

With over 24,000 copies in print, this bestselling book tells how the Paiutes survived in the harsh Nevada climate. Chronicling food-gathering methods, basket weaving, hunting, skinning, and working with rabbit skins, this book serves as an invaluable reference on early Paiute culture.

Author Biography

Margaret Marean Wheat (1908-1988) was a native Nevadan, born in Fallon. She attended the University of Nevada, where her bent of interest was geology. She served with the U.S. Geological Survey in 1947, was a field worker in archeology for the Nevada State Museum, and undertook projects in water resources for the Desert Research Institute of the University of Nevada. Wheat also had the unique experience of being a fire-lookout in the Toiyabe National Forest. Though she described herself as an "amateur anthropologist," her work with Native Americans earned her the respect of her academic colleagues.

Table of Contents

Contents
Part I: The Old People and the Land
The Great Basin
Trout-eaters, Cui-ui-eaters, Cattail-eaters
The Cycle of the Year
Return of Spring
Summer Harvest
Fall and Pinenut Time
Before the Snow Flies
Approach to Winter
Waiting for the Sun
Part II: The Coming of the White Man
The Next Hundred Years
Those Wise in the Old Ways
Wuzzie George
Mattie, Wife of Stovepipe
Following Mattie's Trail
Part III: In the Manner of the Old Ones
Harvesting Pinenuts
A Boat of Cattail and Tule
Making a Duck Decoy
Cordage
Fishing and Harpoons
Arrows and Deadfalls
Rabbit Pelts, Buckskin, and Bark
Articles from Soft Fibers
Willow Work
Cradleboards
Building Houses
Notes

Review

A complete description of the arts that are rapidly disappearing as the old [Paiutes] die." —Pacific Historian

"A rare contribution to the photo documentation of the technology of the Northern Paiute . . . beautiful . . . imaginative." —American Anthropologist

"A deeply heartwarming and rewarding work." —Mary Lu Moore, Arizona Highways, May 1983

Review Text

A complete description of the arts that are rapidly disappearing as the old [Paiutes] die." --Pacific Historian "A rare contribution to the photo documentation of the technology of the Northern Paiute . . . beautiful . . . imaginative." --American Anthropologist "A deeply heartwarming and rewarding work." --Mary Lu Moore, Arizona Highways, May 1983

Review Quote

"A rare contribution to the photo documentation of the technology of the Northern Paiute . . . beautiful . . . imaginative." -- American Anthropologist

Excerpt from Book

From the Introduction: This is the story of the Indian people who were living in the western part of Nevada when the thin line of prospectors and pioneers crossed their land in 1849 en route to the riches of California. It is the story of a people whose children watched the launching of a space probe on their TV sets; whose fathers had no government and whose sons voted for presidents. This is the story of a woman who harvested worms from pine trees for food and whose daughter studied bacteriology in college; of a man who painted his sons with the red earth-paints of the desert in order that the fast bullets of World War II would pass over their heads and the slow ones would fall short. This is the story of the way people survived using only tools made from the bone, sinew, and hides of animals, from the fibers and stems of plants, and from the stones of the desert.

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