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The legend of Bryce Canyon was explained to a park naturalist in 1936 by Indian Dick, a Paiute elder who then lived on the Kaibab Reservation:
"Before there were humans, the Legend People, To-when-an-ung-wa, lived in that place. There were many of them. They were of many kinds – birds, animals, lizards and such things, but they looked like people. They were not people. They had power to make themselves look that way. For some reason the Legend People in that place were bad; they did something that was not good, perhaps a fight, perhaps some stole something….the tale is not clear at this point. Because they were bad, Coyote turned them all into rocks. You can see them in that place now all turned into rocks; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding onto others. You can see their faces, with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks. The name of that place is Angka-ku-wass-a-wits (red painted faces). This is the story the people tell."
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The Southern Paiute thought that the oddly-shaped rock formations that we call ‘hoodoos’ were actually frozen people: people who had done bad things, and as a result, were trapped in stone.
“Paa” ute means water ute, and explains the Southern Paiute preference for living near water sources. The Spanish explorer Escalante kept detailed journals of his travels in the Southwest and made notes concerning Southern Paiute horticulture, writing in 1776, that there were “well dug irrigation ditches” being used to water small fields of corn, pumpkins, squash, and sunflowers. Nearly every traveler who documented his explorations in southern Utah had an account that made reference to fields cultivated by the Southern Paiute along Ash Creek, the Santa Clara River, and the Virgin River. Water was the crucial element to traditional Paiute life-ways and subsistence strategies. In the 1850s, when Mormon settlement of southern Utah began, it was through water-access-denial that the Southern Paiutes began being marginalized. These “water utes” lived nomadically. After planting their fields in the spring, they often journeyed up in elevation (10,000 ft.+) to the lush meadows and cool forests of Markagunt Plateau, leaving the heat of the Cedar Valley below. Markagunt means high land of trees, and it is atop this plateau that the Cedar Breaks National Monument is situated. Here, in the refreshing highcountry, the Southern Paiute gathered berries and plants, hunted mule deer and elk, and collected nearby Brian Head chert to use in the production of stone tools. Other forms of production included the making of bow and arrow; coiled, twined and pitch-covered baskets; nets; sandals; cordage; lightweight bark skirts and leggings; buckskin and other hide dresses, shirts and breechcloths; and rabbit skin leggings, ropes, blankets and capes. The lasting Southern Paiute presence in the Cedar Breaks area has been well-documented. Over a 4-year period (1996-1999), archaeologists surveyed 2,318 acres within the Monument and additional acres of the surrounding Dixie National Forest. Results concerning the lengthy Southern Paiute presence in the area included the discovery of ceramics, sherds, debitage (material resulting from the manufacture of stone tools), projectile points and tools like scrapers, choppers, and hammerstones. The Paunsaugunt Plateau was used for seasonal hunting and gathering activities, but there is no evidence of permanent settlements. Fremont and Anasazi people occupied the portion of the Colorado Plateau near Bryce Canyon from around 200 A.D. until 1200. The Fremont were more to the north and west, with the Anasazi more to the south and east. There is recently discovered evidence of the mixing of these two cultures on the Kaiparowits Plateau. Native Americans first occupied the Colorado Plateau 12,000 years ago, but no evidence of their activities has yet been found on the Paunsaugunt Plateau. |
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