12 Thursday, February 25, 1999 Pahrump Valley Gazette
Foof:00f:ep00. . .
by Sands Stark
PVG Staff
Long ago the Valley was beautiful and fertile. Natural
springs abounded and a large lake filled the lowest point. The
lake was surrounded by trees, plants and all manner of
wildlife and birds. The People who lived there were ruled by
a beautiful, but vain, Queen. One time she ordered her people
to build a mansion to surpass any ever built by their neighbors
to the south, the Aztecs.
For years her people worked on a palace to please her.
From all over the area they transported marble, quartz and
logs from the forests over the mountains. But the Queen was
never satisfied; whenever the work seemed to slow down, she
would whip and beat the people to work harder.
The Queen, fearing the work would not be completed
before she died, commanded that all her people work on the
palace, even her own family. Her kingdom became a land of
slaves. When her daughter fell down in exhaustion, she
cursed the Queen and her kingdom. She then died.
The Queen lamented and tried to appease the Creator, but
in vain. All nature seemed to punish her. The sun grew and
came closer-so close that all the plants burned away. The
animals disappeared. The beautiful lake, the streams and the
wells all went dry.
The People, too, suffered, and many died or deserted the
kingdom.
The Queen died of the heat and all alone.
Sometimes the half-completed palace can still be seen in
the distance, a mirage along the horizon.
With this legend, the Shoshone explain the origins of
Death Valley, or, as it is called in their language, Ground
Afire. In the beginning the People had no name other than
Newe. The name Tumpisa means red rock and their descen-
dents are the Tumpisa, or Timbisha Shoshone.
There are sacred places on this land. Places that were
named in the oral traditions of the People as having been
traveled by supernatural brings, hot springs with curative
properties, petroglyph sites attributed to the shamans of the
old ones, or land sites referred to in the "bird song" chants.
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These oral maps have been
closed off in many cases to
preserve them for the
Timbiska. Vandalism has
destroyed much of the his-
tory of the People.
Like their neighbors the
Mojave, Paiutes, Serrano,
Chemehuevi and Kawaiisu,
the Timbisha were semi-no-
madic spending their winters
in the valley and summers in
the cooler regions of the
Panamint Mountains. They
were able to survive this harsh
land by becoming for the most
part vegetarians supplement-
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ing their diets with small game, reptiles and insects.
During the past 200 years the Native Peoples inhabiting
the area have changed their traditional way of life to adapt to
the influx of European and, later, American influence. The
1849 gold rush in California changed forever their place in
Death Valley. By the late 1800s and early 1900s the Timbisha
Shoshone's freedom and lifestyle had become severely re-
stricted. Mining districts were established without regard for
the Native American uses of the land. The newcomers estab-
lished camps and took over the few remaining springs in the
area. The Shoshones' invaded wintering grounds and the
interruption of their food-gathering activities changed a way
of life that had remained unchanged for thousands of years.
The basic necessities for human life are still present in the
Valley. Water and food, tool making materials, access to
summering sites and the sacred places reserved for spiritual
rites that continue today. The Timbisha have today a sense of
the land and the ancestors who came before.
The population shift during the early 1900s resulted in the
establishment of more concentrated reservation areas for the
NVe American bands inhabiting Death Valley. Four land
parcels of 160 acres each were set aside for the groups
inhabiting the area. They were the Indian Ranch, Saline
Valley Ranch, Warm Springs Ranch and Hungry Bill Ranch.
Warm Springs and the Hungry Bill were bought back for
inclusion into the Death Valley Monument.
The Timbisha Shoshone who had lived within most of
Death Valley and the nearby lands in California are now a
federally recognized tribe and have approximately 300 mem-
bers. In 1933 the National Park Service designated a 40 acre
area south of Furnace Creek as a village site. The Service
build 12 adobe buildings, a trading post and laundry facility.
Eight trailers were added in 1977.
In the recent Environmental Impact Statement and Man-
agement Plan for Death Valley, the Death Valley Timbisha
are listed as foremost under the heading of Cultural Re-
sources, worthy of preservation.
This is the 16th column is the series.
I DEATH VALLEY - A distant view of Bad Water from
Dante's Peak.
PVG file photo
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