The Walker River Paiute Tribe

The Walker River Paiute Tribe is the community of Northern Paiute people located on the Walker River Indian Reservation in central Nevada.  The reservation is typical of Great Basin landscapes.  At 4,100 feet, it is covered by sparse vegetation and consists of flat basin land crossed by mountain ranges.  It is quiet, the air is clear and the sites are beautiful!

Location and Population:  The tribe has approximately 3,000 members, with about 900 living on the reservation.  The reservation consists of 323,000 acres north of Walker Lake along the banks of the Walker River.  The only town on the reservation is Schurz, where tribal offices are located.  The only commercial establishments on the reservation are in Schurz.

History:  Prior to contact with Europeans, the Northern Paiute lived in loosely organized bands occupying a specific territory, usually centered around a water and food supply.  Bands traveled seasonally in search of wildlife and wild foods.  People apparently moved freely between bands, which were referred to by the staple of their diet.  For example, the Walker River Paiute were known as the Agai Dicutta or Trout Eaters.

Things started to change rapidly in the 1840's when the arrival of a significant number of settlers in the Great Basin began to make it very difficult for the Paiute to hunt, travel and gather food as they had in the past.  Contact led to inevitable violence between settlers, soldiers and the Paiute.  However, many more Paiute died from European diseases than through clashes with Europeans.

The Walker River Reservation was established in 1859.  As with most reservations, its present size is a small fraction of the original land that was set aside.

Wovoka, a Native American religious figure who founded the Ghost Dance Movement, was a Northern Paiute.  The Ghost Dance Movement swept through native populations during the very dark years of the late 1800's and promised protection from White people and a return of Indian dead.  (A Ghost Dance was held on the Walker River Reservation in 2006.)  Wovoka is buried in Schurz.

Current Social and Economic Conditions: Like nearly all reservation communities, most economic measures tend to be lower than the national averages.  Please keep in mind that statistics tend to highlight "what's wrong" in a community rather than "what's right."  The following statistics are from the 2000 Census:

Education attainment on the reservation is also much lower than the national average, which reflects the lack of employment opportunities in remote areas like Schurz.  Nationally, 24.4 percent of the population has a bachelor's degree or higher; on the Walker River, the equivalent figure is only 5.1 percent.

How to Learn More: Because the Walker River Paiute Tribe is relatively small, there is a limited amount of information available on the web.  Wikipedia has several good articles about the Northern Paiutes and their reservations:

There are several good postings about Wovoka and the Ghost Dance:

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Last modified: June 10, 2008