Places
Spirit Cave Man: The First Americans
Places: Northern Nevada
In 2015, scientists released the results of DNA research conducted on a set of remains from Washington state popularly known as Kennewick Man. That ancient American lived more than 9,000 years ago, close to the era of Nevada’s Spirit Cave Man.Some of the oldest sets of Paleo-Indian remains... more
Spirit Cave Man: The Controversy
Places: Northern Nevada
The ancient human remains known as Spirit Cave Man have been the focus of a legal battle beginning in the 1990s.The 10,600-year-old mummy, found in a shallow cave on federal land near Fallon in 1940, was initially thought to be a Paiute dating to about 1,500 years ago. But Carbon-14 testing in 1994... more
Spirit Cave Man: An Overview
Places: Churchill County, Fallon, Northern Nevada
The term “Spirit Cave Man” refers to the partially-mummified remains of a Paleo-Indian who lived near what is now Fallon, Nevada, about 10,600 years ago – the oldest mummified remains ever found in North America.The body rested in a shallow grave in a rock shelter near Grimes... more
Lubertha Johnson
Places: Clark County, Las Vegas, Southern Nevada
Las Vegas community activist Lubertha Johnson was born in 1906 on a Mississippi farm, and raised by her grandmother. She had originally planned to be a teacher, but due to the Great Depression and her father's ill health, she was instead forced to join her family in Chicago to help support them... more
Lost City Museum
Places: Clark County, Overton, Southern Nevada
The Lost City Museum in the town of Overton, Nevada, was built by the U.S. National Park Service and federal Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935 to preserve and display precious artifacts excavated from an area called Pueblo Grande de Nevada, and known as “the Lost City.” For centuries... more
Washoe Tribe before the Indian Claims Commission
In 1974, after more than twenty years of litigation, the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California received a settlement from the federal government in the form of $5 million as compensation for the incursion of white settlers into their ancestral homelands beginning in the mid-nineteenth century.... more
A Story of Encounters: Contemporary Arts and Folklife
The diversity of Nevada’s native cultures is expressed vividly through folklife, including traditional stories, foodways, music, basketry, pow-wows, and more. A wide range of contemporary arts also complement and extend from these folk practices.Beginning around 1914, Washoe basket weaver... more
A Story of Encounters: Literature and Storytelling
Traditional storytelling is at the heart of Native American culture. Nevada’s tribes have always passed stories down through the generations in order to explain their origins, to illuminate the world around them, and to convey important lessons. The tradition continues today, both on an... more
A Story of Encounters: Rock Art
Many forms of visual representation made on natural rocky surfaces are classified as rock art, including pictographs, petroglyphs, geoglyphs, and intaglios. Sometimes created thousands of years ago, this imagery is significant not just for its visual interest, but for what it can convey about the... more
James W. Calhoun: An Oral History
Places: Carson City, Northern Nevada
James W. Calhoun and the Nevada State MuseumInterviewee: James W. CalhounInterviewed: 1986Published: 1987Interviewer: R. T. KingUNOHP Catalog #138James W. Calhoun was born in Philipsburg, Montana, in 1903. His oral history outlines the development of the Nevada State Museum, of which he was... more
Fred Dressler: An Oral History
Places: Northern Nevada
A Contribution to a Survey of Life in Carson Valley, From First Settlement Through the 1950sInterviewee: Fred DresslerInterviewed: 1984Published: 1984Interviewer: R. T. KingUNOHP Catalog #112Carson Valley is a level plain eighteen miles in width lying along a thirty-mile stretch of the Carson River... more
A Story of Encounters: Political and Legal Efforts
The establishment of Indian reservations and colonies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries gave some of Nevada’s tribes greater autonomy, but did not resolve many longstanding inequities. Circumstances improved with the advent of voting rights and citizenship for tribal... more
A Story of Encounters: Work and Community Life
Many of Nevada’s native and non-native residents developed closer familiarity and genuine friendships by working alongside each other. From the time of the Comstock Lode, indigenous residents of the areas settled by Euro-Americans sought out roles in the new economy that had quickly overtaken... more
A Story of Encounters: Archeological Sites
From L.L. Loud’s excavation of Lovelock Cave in 1912 to the present day, archaeologists have gravitated to sites throughout the state of Nevada. Excavations that started in the mid-1920s at the Pueblo Grande de Nevada (Lost City) in Southern Nevada’s Moapa Valley accelerated in the... more
A Story of Encounters: Topics of Archeological and Anthropological Study
Beginning in the early decades of the twentieth century, researchers produced an extraordinary amount of knowledge about Nevada’s indigenous cultures. Archeological excavations explored ancient housing in caves and Pueblo (Anasazi) ruins and uncovered artifacts including ancient clothing,... more
A Story of Encounters: Anthropologists, Archeologists, and Other Researchers
Anthropological study is generally divided into four sub-disciplines: cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, linguistics, and archaeology (sometimes considered a separate field). The discipline itself was a product of the late nineteenth century, inspired by the introduction of new ideas... more
A Story of Encounters: Reservations and Indian Schools
Nevada’s indigenous communities did not share the same traditional notions of property as those of American and European backgrounds. Native inhabitants were accustomed to movement, accessing resources when needed and changing locations with the seasons. As the non-native population of Nevada... more
A Story of Encounters: Colonization and Settlement
Early Euro-American fur trappers, scouts, and emigrants passing through the Great Basin understandably raised concerns among the region’s native inhabitants like Sarah Winnemucca and her family. Confrontations between settlers and Nevada tribes increased in the 1850s with the establishment of... more
A Story of Encounters: Struggles for Control
With the influx of aspiring miners and assorted entrepreneurs to the Comstock in the years after 1859, conflict with the area’s native inhabitants was perhaps inevitable. Tensions ignited the Pyramid Lake War of 1860, followed by the establishment of numerous U.S. Army forts including Fort... more
Frank Yparraguirre: An Oral History
A Contribution to a Survey of Life in Carson Valley from First Settlement through the 1950sInterviewee: Frank Yparraguirre with Raymond BordaInterviewed: 1984Published: 1984Interviewer: R. T. KingUNOHP Catalog #130Americans of Basque ancestry figure prominently in the history of Nevada.... more
Marvin Dressler and Ted Sallee: An Oral History
Places: Douglas County, Gardnerville, Northern Nevada
Marvin Dressler and Ted Sallee: A Contribution to a Survey of Life in Carson Valley from First Settlement through the 1950sInterviewee: Marvin Dressler and Ted SalleeInterviewed: 1984Published: 1984Interviewer: R. T. KingUNOHP Catalog #113During the second and third decades of the twentieth century... more
Grace Melissa Dangberg: An Oral History
Places: Carson City, Douglas County, Minden, Northern Nevada
Grace Melissa Dangberg: A Contribution to a Survey of Life in Carson Valley from First Settlement through the 1950sInterviewee: Grace Melissa DangbergInterviewed: 1984Published: 1984Interviewer: R. T. KingUNOHP Catalog #110When Heinrich Friedrich Dangberg settled in Carson Valley in 1856 he was... more
Arnold R. Trimmer: An Oral History
Places: Carson City, Northern Nevada
Arnold R. Trimmer: A Contribution to a Survey of Life in Carson Valley from First Settlement through the 1950sInterviewee: Arnold R. Trimmer and Laurie HickeyInterviewed: 1984Published: 1984Interviewer: R. T. KingUNOHP Catalog #129During the winter and spring of 1982, Kathryn Totton guided Arnold... more
Winona James: An Oral History
Places: Carson City, Douglas County, Reno, Washoe County, South Lake Tahoe, Northern Nevada
Winona James: A Contribution to a Survey of Life in Carson Valley from First Settlement through the 1950sInterviewee: Winona JamesInterviewed: 1984Published: 1984Interviewer: R. T. KingUNOHP Catalog #121When white families began settling in Carson Valley in the 1850s, they encountered little... more
Carroll Dolve: An Oral History
Places: Virginia City, Storey County, Northern Nevada
Carroll Dolve: A Contribution to a Survey of Life and Structures on the ComstockInterviewee: Carroll DolveInterviewed: 1984Published: 1984Interviewer: Ann HarveyUNOHP Catalog #111Carroll Gladding Dolve was born into a mining family in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1908. She grew up in Virginia City and... more