Utah Centennial County History Series - Piute County 1999

A t the time that Mormon church officials were planning to send settlers to the Piute County area, the land up and down the Sevier River was occupied by small groups of Paiute Indians, for whom the county would be named. Although they relied mainly on seeds, roots, and small animals for their sustenance, even before settlement they had built crude irrigation ditches from small streams to water wheat, corn, melons, amaranth, and indigo. They wore simple clothing: the men a breechcloth and the women a skirt often made of grasses and reeds. Children wore no clothes. The women also wore basketry hats which protected their hair from pitch when they gathered pine nuts. They wove burden baskets, seed beaters, winnowing and parching trays, flat trays, water jugs (ollas), and bowls. The latter two were sealed by placing pine pitch inside and then shaking hot rocks in them to melt and distribute the pitch. The men used bows and arrows, flint knives, and rodent hooks to dig small animals from their holes. They were a docile, peaceful people.

By 1863 it had become obvious to the Mormons that the sparse water supply could not sustain more families and farms in the