Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin

Introduction & Top Questions
Traditional culture patterns
- Language
- Technology and economy
- Social organization
- Kinship and marriage
- Religion and ritual
Modern developments

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Map showing the distribution of Numic languages and major indigenous groups of the Great Basin region in the western United States. The area outlined in red includes territories of groups such as the Shoshone, Paiute, Ute, Gosiute, Washo, Mono, Panamint Shoshone, Chemehuevi, and Shoshone-Bannock, with major geographic features like Lake Tahoe, the Great Salt Lake, and the Colorado River also labeled.

Related Questions

How did Great Basin beliefs describe the roles of animal ancestors such as Coyote, Wolf, and Bear?
How did Great Basin hunters catch rabbits, antelope, and waterfowl?
How did Great Basin peoples catch fish in rivers and lakes?
How did Great Basin peoples collect and process wild seeds?
How did Great Basin peoples organize themselves into mobile kin-based bands?
How did Great Basin peoples use baskets, nets, digging sticks, and grinding stones?
How did Ute, Shoshone, Shoshone-Bannock, and Northern Paiute groups resist colonial encroachment?
How did Wovoka’s Ghost Dance teachings spread beyond the Great Basin?
How did clothing differ between horse-using and pedestrian Great Basin groups?
How did fishing during spawning runs affect social gatherings at lakes?
How did horse use expand the territory traveled by Great Basin peoples?
How did horses change housing and hunting for some Great Basin peoples?
How did mounted Ute and Navajo bands affect Southern Paiute, Western Shoshone, and Gosiute communities between 1800 and 1850?
How did shamanism influence traditional religious life in the Great Basin?
How did successful leaders gain followers among Great Basin peoples?
How did the Comanche become associated with the Great Plains rather than the Great Basin?
How did the Ghost Dance movement begin among Northern Paiute people in western Nevada?
How did the Great Basin’s mountains and closed valleys affect the region’s water supply?
How did the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 change tribal government in the Great Basin?
How did the Southern Ute and Eastern Shoshone help spread horses to the northern Plains?
How did the dry climate of the Great Basin shape Indigenous settlement patterns?
How have Great Basin tribes used lawsuits to seek compensation or the return of ancestral lands?
What did Wodziwob teach in the Ghost Dance movement of 1870?
What did the self-names Numa, Nungwu, and Numu mean among Numic peoples?
What evidence suggests that Numic peoples spread through the Great Basin from southeastern California?
What foods made up most of the traditional Great Basin diet?
What goods did western Great Basin peoples trade with neighboring communities?
What happened to Great Basin tribes after they were forced onto reservations after 1870?
What kinds of shelters did pedestrian Great Basin peoples build in summer and winter?
What role did spirit-beings play in Great Basin religious beliefs?
What was the annual round followed by many Great Basin peoples?
Which Great Basin groups practiced limited horticulture along the Colorado and Virgin rivers?
Which Great Basin peoples acquired horses earliest after contact with Spanish settlements?
Which groups spoke Central Numic languages in the Great Basin?
Which groups spoke Southern Numic languages in the Great Basin?
Which present-day states were included in the Great Basin culture area?
Which tools were commonly used by both horse-using and pedestrian Great Basin peoples?
Why did bison become an important prey animal for horse-using Great Basin groups?
Why did the Great Basin have many brackish and salty lakes?
Why was early spring often a difficult season for Great Basin food supplies?
Why were Great Basin Indigenous children sent to distant boarding schools?
Why were Great Basin bands usually small and frequently moving?

Geography & Travel Human Geography Peoples of the Americas North American Peoples

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External Websites

National Park Service - Historic Tribes of the Great Basin

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Great Basin culture area - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Great Basin culture area - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin

North America

Also known as: Great Basin Indian, North American Great Basin Indian(Show More)

Written by

Catherine S. Fowler

Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno. Author of In the Shadow of Fox Peak: An Ethnography of the Cattail-Eater Northern Paiute People of Stillwater Marsh; Tule Technology:...

Catherine S. FowlerAll

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Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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History

Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin, any of the Indigenous peoples of North America inhabiting the traditional culture area comprising almost all of what are now the U.S. states of Utah and Nevada as well as substantial portions of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado and smaller portions of Arizona, Montana, and California. Great Basin topography includes many small basin and range systems and parts of the mountains, high desert, and low desert that define its...