Water is life, especially in the desert. The Indigenous people of the area today known as Southern Nevada know this.
The Las Vegas Wash, for example, was once an important trading ground for the Southern Paiutes who lived by Sunrise Mountain. Prior to the intrusion of white explorers and settlers, small groups or “bands” of Southern Paiutes hunted, gathered and farmed freely along the mountains and Colorado River tributaries in Southern Utah, Southern Nevada, Southeast California and Northern Arizona.
South of the Southern Paiutes, the Mojaves’ domain included the Ireteba Peaks around modern-day Nelson, Searchlight and Laughlin, Mojave National Preserve and down to Needles and Blythe, California. Known in their native language as Pipa Aha Macav, or “the people by the river,” the tribe traditionally relied on wildlife migration to the Colorado River to sustain them…