2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 98 



Ute from many localities in this region when Powell first passed 

 through it in 1869. They had, however, been in close contact with 

 the white man for only 20 years and had not lost their native customs. 



Mormon settlement of Southern Paiute territory affected native 

 life in varying degrees. In the vicinity of St. George and Kanab, in 

 southern Utah, the Paiute were too poor and unorganized to offer 

 effective resistance to settlement. They lingered in their original 

 habitat in the vicinity of the newly founded Mormon villages and, 

 as the destruction of their native foods by cattle, sheep, and farming 

 made life difficult, they gradually attached themselves to these com- 

 munities. The early 1870's, however, found their native culture still 

 little affected by these contacts. Most isolated of all were the Paiute 

 on the Kaibab plateau north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. In 

 1869 many of them had scarcely seen a white man and, beyond a few 

 objects which they traded or stole from the white man, they were 

 quite untouched by civilization. When first visiting this group in 

 September, 1869, Powell * wrote, "Altogether, these Indians are 

 more nearly in their primitive condition than any others on the 

 continent with whom I am acquainted. They have never received 

 anything from the Government, and are too poor to tempt the trader, 

 and their country is so nearly inaccessible that the white man never 

 visits them." Fortunately, most of Powell's notes, collections, and 

 photographs come from these people. 



None of the results of Powell's ethnographic work have been 

 published in systematic form. Brief remarks on language, customs, 

 and mythology are found in many of his writings, and considerable 

 remains scattered through unpublished manuscripts. The latter con- 

 tain much that is of value, but the task of culling the ethnographic 

 data from other miscellaneous material, of ascertaining the identity 

 of Indians mentioned, and of eliminating repetitious notes is formi- 

 dable. Powell's extraordinarily fine collection of Ute and Paiute 

 specimens in the United States National Museum is largely unknown 

 to the scientific world. But properly to describe and illustrate it would 

 require enormous work and expense and would be handicapped by 

 the inadequate data accompanying it. Like most collections made 

 during that period, a catalog entry like "Ute" or "Pah Ute" was 

 deemed sufficient to indicate the source of a specimen. 



The most valuable ethnographic result of Powell's explorations are 

 the photographs. On his second descent of the Colorado River in 



1 Powell, John W., Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its 

 tributaries, p. 126. Washington, 1875. 



