PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Utah and the Arizona Strip: Ethnographic and Historical Background

Native American Occupation, pre-1776

"Pipe Spring" (as it was later named by Latter-day Saints), along with other springs in the immediate area, was used by indigenous peoples long before European or Euroamerican explorers and colonists discovered it. Prehistoric cultural resources appear in all portions of the monument and consist of ceramic and lithic scatters, charcoal deposits, and structural remains akin to what archeologists classify as the Virgin/Kayenta Anasazi (ca. A.D. 1100-1150). [5] These materials appear to be related to prehistoric structures in the area, including the large unexcavated pueblo of 22-40 rooms located immediately south of the monument, all of which are within the boundaries of the Kaibab Indian Reservation. Prehistoric petroglyphs are also found in and adjacent to the monument.

The arid region of southwestern Utah, southern Nevada, and northern Arizona was territory traditionally inhabited by the Southern Paiute by A.D. 1150. [6] Prior to the arrival of Europeans to North America, small bands of semisedentary people gathered the natural plants and hunted the fauna of this ecologically diverse region. Pine nuts were especially valued as a dietary staple. The Southern Paiute practiced small-scale horticulture, planting and irrigating crops of corn, beans, and squash near permanent water sources. Their lives depended on a wide range of seasonal resources in different ecozones. Considerable distances between these food sources demanded great mobility. Water was then, as now, a key resource available at only a few places, and these places governed band movement and territories. [7]

The Southern Paiute had contact and relations with other native peoples: the Hopi to the east, Ute to the north, Goshute to the northwest, Shoshone to the west, Mohave to the southeast, and Hualapai and Havasupai to the south, across the Colorado River. Today, most Southern Paiute believe they were the people, or were related to the people, that archaeologists refer to as the Virgin River Anasazi. (The Kaibab Paiute refer to these ancient people as the iinung wung.) Archaeologists, however, are not in agreement on this issue. Some believe the Southern Paiute came out of the Great Basin when the Virgin River Anazasi abandoned the area; others propose they were post-agricultural Anasazi using hunting and gathering strategies in response to recurring environmental crises. Existing evidence is insufficient to determine if the Southern Paiute pushed the Anasazi out of the area ca. A.D. 1100-1150 or joined with them to become a common people. [8]

The Kaibab Paiute are one of a number of distinct Southern Paiute bands that have inhabited the Arizona Strip. They believe the area to be their ancestral home, their mythology holding that the Kaibab Plateau was their place of origin. According to oral history accounts collected in 1932 by anthropologist Isabel T. Kelly, the southern boundary of Kaibab Paiute traditional territory extended from the junction of the Paria and Colorado rivers downstream until just beyond Kanab Creek Canyon. The western boundary extended northward crossing the Virgin River just east of Toquerville and ended at the Kolob Plateau. The northern boundary proceeded from that point to the Paria River, which formed the eastern boundary. A conservative estimate of their traditional territory is 4,824 square miles. [9] Events of the 18th and 19th centuries would irrevocably impact the extent of their territory and way of life, and pose a serious threat to their survival. The history of the Southern Paiute and in particular, the Kaibab Paiute, continues in the following sections.