Online Nevada Encyclopedia

History of Nevada Diversity

Tommyknockers

Knockers were elves believed to work in Cornwall's mines. Celts generally saw elves as living in families. Because the Cornish excluded women from mines, the same restriction applied to their underground spirits, which appeared as diminutive bearded men, forever digging in abandoned drifts.

Thomas R. Street

Thomas R. Street (unknown-1873) was an African American resident of Nevada during the Comstock era. Although little is known about Street, his major legacy is the articulate and passionate speech he delivered in Virginia City. He made his presentation during the Emancipation Proclamation anniversary celebration on January 1, 1864, while the Civil War still raged.

Thomas Detter

Though not well known among Nevadans of European descent during his lifetime, and largely forgotten by historians until the 1970s, Thomas Detter was a prominent member of western African-American society. He wrote numerous letters to California's African-American newspapers, and he was asked to give speeches in a variety of locales. Most of the residents of Elko and Eureka, Nevada, though, would know him as a prominent African-American businessman—a barber and proprietor of barber shops and "bathing establishments.

Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada

The people known as the Washoe have long lived on the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California and Nevada and at the far edge of the western Great Basin. From the high mountain lakes and meadows to the valleys below, the Washoe people created a way of life that sustained their needs for many generations. Their language, Washoe, is unique to the area, showing no relationship to surrounding languages; this suggests a long tenure for the Washoe people.

Muddy Mission

After Mormon missionaries established a way station between Utah and California at Las Vegas in 1855, they received a directive from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to scout more town sites just north of the area along the Muddy River. Not everyone approved, but Church officials authorized new Muddy settlements anyway. Before long, the Muddy missionaries discovered why no one else had settled there before them.

Thais in Southern Nevada

According to the 2000 census, 150,238 Thais live in the United States. Among them, 4,220 dwell in Nevada. Clark County is home to more than 89 percent (3,759) of the state's total. Thais are among the fastest-growing Asian American population in the United States, increasing by 64.6 percent over the last decade.

Susan Berman

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Susan Berman (1945-2000) lived in Las Vegas from 1945 to 1957. Her father, David ("Davie") Berman, was a prominent hotel owner, devoted Jew, and important citizen of Las Vegas.

Sunshine Locality

The Sunshine Locality is a National Historic Register Palaeoarchaic archaeological site located in White Pine County, Nevada. This site, which gets its name from the nearby Sunshine Well, has been the focus of archaeological interest for more than fifty years because of its extensive surface deposits, believed to be representative of some of the earliest occupants of North America.

Sue Coleman

Sue Coleman of Carson City, Nevada, is carrying on a generations-deep family tradition of basket weaving from her Native American, Washoe heritage. The daughter of Theresa Smokey Jackson, whose own mother and grandmother were weavers, Coleman takes great pride in maintaining the family legacy.

Stillwater Indian Reservation: Sewing and Quilting

The Baptist Indian Mission located on the Stillwater Indian Reservation near Fallon, Nevada, not only served as a church for Paiute tribal members, but also as a gathering place for many reservation social events, classes, and other activities (1911-1931). Baptist missionary women such as Lillian R. Corwin and Mary Brown offered classes on sewing and quilting to Paiute women and young girls.

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