Much time has been spent talking about the early “settlers” of Nevada, of the Mormon influence and that of the incoming white folk. But long before any kind of white or European explorers even dreamed of seeing the area, there were civilizations who had already come and gone from the area.

When the first humans set foot in what is now Nevada, the area was a much different place. It was sometime after the last great Ice Age, when glaciers filled the high valleys and lower basin areas were giant lakes that froze in the winter.

The wild animals of the area are nothing like what we see today. First, hairy mammoths and caribou and other northern animals called the land home, but as temperatures climbed, animals migrated into the area from the south, including mastodons, camels and sloths, followed by predators like the short-faced bear and the saber-toothed tiger.

It is believed that sometime around this period, between 18000 B.C. and 8000 B.C., the first humans arrived. Little is known about these people, and similarly little is known about anything that happened between the time they first set foot in what is now Nevada around 1500 B.C. There is little archeological evidence of these civilizations, and what there is is difficult to translate and explain.

 The first inhabitants of the area were not familiar with agriculture or advanced weaponry. Their diet is thought to have consisted largely of seeds, roots and berries, augmented with the occasional animals that could be taken with the rather primitive hunting implements like clubs and the spear and atlatl. It is not known how these people adapted to the extinction of large mammals or the drying climate that reduced the available vegetation.

Early Civilization
Archeological evidence doesn't show much until the period of around 1500 B.C., when the first evidence of the people sometimes called the “Basket Makers” appeared. In the north, these tribes seem to be similarly ignorant of agriculture, but there is evidence that the tribes in the southern part of the state were perhaps the first in the Southwest to grow corn.

While the evidence suggests that there were little advancements made among the northern tribes, those in the south prospered. They developed the bow and arrow, which gave them a marked edge in hunting, as well as advancements in pottery that allowed them to store water and food.

Basket Makers is a name given to early Native American cultures in the Southwest, though it actually encompasses the predecessors of the Pueblo and is also more commonly referred to collectively as the Anasazi culture.

These people mingled with early Pueblo Indians who came north from what is now Arizona into the Moapa Valley. The Pueblo brought with them more advanced agricultural knowledge, including cultivation of cotton, beans and squash. They also brought more advanced methods of building houses.

Evidence of these people in Southern Nevada can still be seen today at the Lost City Museum in Overton, where a recreation of the Pueblo Grande de Nevada is maintained. At its peak, this city extended up to four or five miles and was as far as one mile wide. It consisted of farm lands and small villages scattered throughout the valley. It is not at all clear what happened with these people or why they left. Speculation ranges from an extended drought to increasing conflicts with neighboring tribes. There is evidence to support this latter theory, as the last known Pueblo settlements in the Moapa Valley, which date to sometime around A.D. 800, were on the tops of mesas and in other locations that are easier to defend.

It is believed that these Pueblos might have moved east and joined with the ancestors to the present day Hopi and Pueblo tribes in Arizona and New Mexico. But at the height of their civilization in Nevada, they cultivated a large part of the state. Archeological finds show a distribution of their pottery stretching from the eastern border toward Beatty and north through Tonopah and into the northeastern part of the state in Cobre.

After the Pueblo left the area, Nevada became home to the Paiute Indians in the north and south as well as the Shoshone in the central part of the state. There is considerable evidence that suggests that these new tribes had contact with the Pueblo before they left the region.

When the Mormon pioneers arrived in the area in the middle 1800s, both the Paiutes and Shoshone bands were demonstrated practitioners of agriculture, and they also made pottery. These were the last tribes of Nevada and they remain to this day, despite the disreputable—some might say genocidal—efforts of the U.S. government and settlers to drive them out of existence.

The Relics
While there is documentation of interaction with the Native Americans of Nevada after the Mormons arrived, much of what we know about the early tribes of the state can only be deduced and inferred from the archeological evidence they left behind.

At Lovelock Cave in Northern Nevada, basketry made at least 3,000 years ago was found in exceptional condition. In addition to baskets, matting, sandals, wooden tools and primitive clothing were all found. The cave was so dry that it preserved bodies as well, and a number of mummies were also discovered.

In Southern Nevada, artifacts and other evidence of the state's first inhabitants abound. Huge amounts of pottery vessels and other tools were found in Overton at the site of the Lost City. Dart points, clothing and a variety of other artifacts have been found scattered throughout the southern part of the state.

But perhaps the most intriguing find in the area are the petroglyphs found in places like Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon and throughout other mountainous areas around Clark County as well as the rest of the state.

There is no way to interpret what the petroglyphs mean or what their significance was to their creators. While some symbols can be pretty clearly distinguished—snakes, man, animals—the rest are subject to debate. Similarly, it is not really known just what group is responsible for creating these prehistoric works of art.

By Greg Jones

Greg Jones is managing editor of Casino Connection Nevada, as well as associate editor of Global Gaming Business magazine.

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