Native Americans of the
Great Basin
by Dorian Ho, Declan Kazan, Emma Keneally, and
Melanie Huashuayo
Present Day Areas
Great Basin
Area
The Great Basin was a very large area of land.
It covered almost all of the present day states of Utah and
Nevada. The Great Basin also covered large parts of Oregon,
Wyoming, and Colorado. The land also covered smaller portions of
what is now present day Arizona, California, and Montana. The land
includes includes many small basin and range systems and parts of
the mountains, high desert, and low desert that define its external
boundaries.
Tribal People
Shoshone People
Several Native American groups reside in
the Great Basin, including the Western Shoshone,
Goshute, Ute, Paiute, and Washoe. With the exception of the Washoe,
all of the tribes speak a Numic language, although in different dialects.
amilies of these tribes were normally nuclear, meaning they consisted
of a father, a daughter, and a child. Agriculture was an important idea
in the life of the native people, especially the Paiute and Goshute. As
for government, the Shoshone had “talker”, who was informed of the
local seed harvests. In addition, the Ute tribe had two chiefs, who
were the chief spokesman and the civil chief, but occasionally therer
would be a war chief.
Geography/Climate
Mountain Range
The geography of the Great Basin includes
many smaller mountain ranges, basin systems,
and parts of mountains, high deserts, and low deserts that define
its external boundaries. In addition, the Great Basin is located
between two of the mountain ranges in present-day United States.
However, in the Great Basin, the summers can be sweltering,
whereas winters can be extremely cold. Moreover, the rainfall can
be from 1.5 inches near Death Valley, but as much as 40 inches at
the Wasatch Mountains. Precipitation(rain, hail, sleet, snow) usually
comes from melting snow in the spring. Areas of the Great Basin
can be desert-like, dry or scorching depending on the location.
Human/Environment
To survive the Great Basin, tribes gathered Washoe Basket
and made products from their environment from where they lived.
Their houses were made out of branches from trees and grass.
Plants were the main source of food in the tribes of the Great
Basin. Products like baskets and cloth for men were made out of
woven grass, or branches for the baskets. Women gathered nuts
and berries while the men hunted animals like deer or fished in the
western rivers for the salmon that swam there. Often of what they
ate were berries, carrots, pinon nuts, and agave paste. The Great
Basin had many ways to survive in their environment, even though it
was scarce.
Culture/Religion
Tribes of the Great Basin believed in
animals such as Wolf, Coyote, Rabbit, Bear,
Sagebrush
and Mountain Lion that roamed the Earth before humans. These
animals had the skillset and speaking of humans, and were the
reason for topography, economy/prosperity, and harvest. However,
some tribes believed in malevolent spirits such as water babies,
who lured people to their deaths in water, and unupits, who caused
illness. Native American tribes of the Great Basin depended on the
native plants, especially sagebrush, which they used to build shelter
and baskets.
Bibliography
❏ http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Great_B
asin
❏ http://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Basin-Indian
❏ http://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/historyculture/historic
-tribes-of-the-great-basin.htm
❏ http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1300
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