LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Owens Valley: Owens Valley Paiute
built 658 days ago
It has been established that people lived in the Owens Valley as long as 3,000 years ago. Whether or not these early people were the ancestors of the of present day Paiute and Shoshone tribes that inhabited the area when American explorers first made contact in 1826 has not been established. The word "Paiute" is probably derived from the Indian word" Pah -Yah," meaning water. The Owens Valley was the southernmost permanent home of the Northern Paiute. Evidence of their life is prominent throughout the Owens Valley; from petroglyphs to obsidian chips to house rings, some as high as 12,600 ft. located on a windswept ridge in the White Mountains, the highest known Indian camp in North America.
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Many Paiute eventually left Fort Tejon and returned to the Owens Valley where they lived in camps near towns and farms. They integrated farm and domestic labor with traditional food gathering, and by 1866 were indispensable to the Owens Valley's agricultural economy. As Captain A.B. MacGowen, commander of Fort Independence, observed, "The people in the valley could not get along without them as they do most of the labor required."
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Owens Valley Paiute