Customer Reviews

Survival Arts Of The Primitive Paiutes

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My grandmother wrote this book. It is dedicated to a people who's fathers survived with stone tools and whose son's saw a man walk on the moon.

My grandmother tried to record the vansishing skills of her friends, the Paiutes of Tonapa, Washoe, and Goldfield. Female anthropologists were rare, and my grandmother was a rare and special woman.

Sensitive to the people she recorded. Savage to those that threatened them.

Here is a story not in the book but that you must know. A man scraping bat guano out of caves refused to stop despite my grandmothers please that is was destroying a priceless archaeological find. With no law protecting indian artifacts she took matter's into her own hands and dynamited the mountain-creating the famous "hidden caves". Three years before her death from diabetes she revealed their location and today she is a state heroine in Nevada.

Any student of Native American history must read this book by this exceptional woman and compare. She was as brave as the West, and made of the same land as her old friends in the book.

I have owned this book for many years, and it's a wonderful resource for anyone wishing to explore this way of life. Many clear photographs illustrate the techniques and skills within, which include items for hunting, basketry, gathering materials, and much more. No other book does as much to illustrate how the Paiutes and other nearby tribes survived and thrived in the harsh Great Basin area of California and Nevada.

The knowledge and images were captured at an important moment in time -- by talking to and learning from some of the few remaining traditional elders of the region, the author has preserved a little more of the Old Ways that might have been gone forever or lost to the memories of but a very few. We owe a lot to her for the creation of this book.

This is a truly excellent resource, and everything you would hope it would be. Often books such as this, with a title such as this, leave a great deal to be desired, but this book does not fail to deliver.

Additionally, it's a very thorough account of the way of life of the Paiute. As a child, I was born and raised in Yerington, NV and my upbringing was thick with exposure to the Paiute tribe and their ways. The things I learned from the tribe, everything from spirituality to the way I see the world, will always be a part of me.

This book continues to be one of my most prized books in my ever growing library - the one I am quickest to show others.

Interesting cover to cover. A "Need to read" PRIOR to reading Sarah Winamucca's book to give you a better understanding of where Sarah is "coming from."

My copy is not for sale.

It is good documentary in text and photo to illustrate the lost arts of making duck decoy, boat of cattail and tule, harpoons, arrowheads, rabbit pelts, cradleboards and houses. The first part talks about the cycle of the year with seasons change. It is fun to learn of the history of this tribe with such unique art and craftsmanship. This tribe like red paint which as considered to cure many ailments and to prevent many more, (P.27) The cui-ui (fish) was dry and stacked like firewood in the sun or hung by their rails from the willow frames of the House.

It is interesting to know of the stand greeting "Have you eaten?", the same expression as the Chinese to share with guest.This short compact book is an enjoyable brief to learn about Paiutes.