Nevada

E

National Representation

In addition to its two U.S. Senators, Nevada elects three members to the House of Representatives, giving the state a total of five electoral votes.

VIII

History

A

Original Nevadans

The first peoples in Nevada probably arrived about 12,000 years ago. Dart points made of stone, called Clovis points, have been found in the state that are at least 10,000 years old. Early inhabitants lived in rock shelters or caves, and gathered most of their food. People who lived in Lovelock Cave near Lake Lahontan about 3,000 years ago hunted animals with darts rather than bows and arrows. Archaeologists have even found decoy ducks that were used to attract birds.

About 300 bc people of the Anasazi culture appeared, living in pit houses around the Muddy and Virgin rivers. The Anasazi built their houses with adobe and rocks, mastered pottery and basketry, and may have mined salt. Between about ad 700 and 1100 the Anasazi began raising corn, beans, and squash, and also developed irrigation. Before the migrating Paiutes pushed them out of Nevada, the Anasazi had domesticated dogs and begun growing cotton.

When the first European entered what is now Nevada, it was peopled chiefly by three native groups: the Paiute, the Shoshone, and the Washoe. Of these, the Northern Paiute were perhaps the best known. Their home territory included most of western Nevada, particularly the area from Pyramid Lake to Walker Lake. The Shoshone ranged mainly along the Humboldt River east of present-day Winnemucca. The Washoe lived in the Carson and Washoe valleys, the Truckee Meadows, and around Lake Tahoe. The Southern Paiute lived in the southeast.

---

---

The Great Basin environment forced all native peoples in Nevada to live a nomadic existence as hunter-gatherers. The continuous search for food was the dominant aspect of life in this harsh land, and the native inhabitants of Nevada demonstrated remarkable survival skills. While their material culture was limited, these Native Americans, particularly the Washoe, are known for their excellent basketry. One Washoe woman, called Datsolalee, achieved wide recognition for the intricate designs on the baskets she wove in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

B

Arrival of Europeans

The Spanish founded no settlements in Nevada as they had in other parts of what became the southwest United States. In 1776 Father Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Father Silvestre Velez de Escalante attempted to find a route from Santa Fe (in present-day New Mexico) to California and may have entered eastern Nevada. They were convinced that a river they called the San Buenaventura must flow from the Rocky Mountains across Nevada through the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the Pacific Ocean, but they were unable to find it. That same year Father Francisco Garces tried to find a route from the upper Sonora settlements in Mexico to California. During his search he may have come through the Las Vegas meadows in southern Nevada.

C

Exploration

The territory that is now Nevada came under Mexican control when Mexico won its freedom from Spain in 1821. Exploration of Nevada began with two fur trappers, Peter Skene Ogden of the Hudson’s Bay Company of Great Britain and Jedediah Smith of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, who were followed by others. Ogden and Smith entered at opposite ends of Nevada, seeking new beaver ponds and the elusive river, the San Buenaventura.

C

1

Jedediah Smith

On his way overland to California, Smith entered Nevada in August 1826 (near present-day Bunkerville) and his party arrived at San Gabriel Mission in California in November. Mexican authorities ordered Smith to leave immediately by the same route. Instead, he turned north, and in 1827 crossed the Sierra, accompanied by two of his men, and entered the central part of Nevada, following a route from Tonopah to Ely. Smith thereby became the first white man to cross Nevada, the first to be aware of the extent of what came to be called the Great Basin, and the first to trade with and report on the native peoples of the area. He, too, failed to discover the San Buenaventura River.