Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863. Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest онлайн
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The decade of the 1860s witnessed the murder of close to 300 Northern Paiutes involved in interracial conflicts. Between 1860 and 1866 the Pyramid Lake population was decimated, with 850 individuals either being killed in war, dying from disease, or fleeing their homeland lake for the safety of the mountain country. A population estimated at 1,550 in 1860 was reduced to 700 by 1866. The decline continued so by 1880 they were only 396 Kuyuidokado (by 2010 the census listed 1,330 enrolled members of the Pyramid Lake Reservation).61
The immediate background to the Pyramid Lake War began in 1859 when war fever broke out among the white miners and settlers in Carson City and environs. This was partly the result of the starvation winter of 1859–1860 and the continuing flow of gold and silver prospectors to Paiute lands. Prior to these underlying events, however, was the immediate cause of the mysterious death of Peter Lawson in April 1859 near Pyramid Lake. Lawson, a personal friend of Old Winnemucca, was killed by a sharpshooter with a rifle. Indian Agent Frederick Dodge suspected the Mormons, but most of the residents automatically blamed the Indians for any and all violence. Dodge noted that blankets, beef, and whiskey, which Indians would usually take, were left intact at the site of the murder. While the case remained unsolved, most of the Carson City inhabitants had no doubt the murder was the result of the Pyramid Lake Indians.62