Description

The overall objective of the American Indian study is the preparation of a written report focusing on the ethnohistory and contemporary perspectives of selected communities affected by the Old Spanish Trail (OST). The project can be divided into two separate but related parts: (1) a brief history of each community under study and its historic relationship to OST, and (2) a description of contemporary community views of the trail. Of special interest will be any contemporary knowledge related to the role played by the trail (and/or events related to the trail’s history and use) that affected the history and perspective of each community. Also of interest will be any places or resources along the trail that have significant cultural meaning to the subject communities. These are often referred to as “ethnographic resources.” This report describes American Indian responses to various activities along the OST during its pack-train period, which was roughly from 1829 to 1849. The Indian responses are diachronic beginning with the first contacts by Indian people residing on and using traditional Indian trails which were to be used for pack-trains to and from California and culminating decades later when the full impacts of pack-train use had been absorbed and responded to by these proximal Indian peoples. While there were contacts between Indian people and Euro-Americans before 1829, commercial traffic along the OST initiated unprecedented and sustained American Indian natural resource and social impacts. This report describes the places involved and responses received from American Indian tribal representatives during the field visits conducted from June 2006 to June 2007. This report helps both the American Indian tribes and the involved Federal agencies to better understand what kinds of responses have been recorded and what kinds of places have elicited these responses. The following tribes participated in this study: Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Colorado River Indian Tribe, Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiute Indians, Pahrump Paiute Tribe, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, and Southern Indian tribe.