Archaeological Origins
Archaeologists do not fully agree on when or how the Southern Paiute came to inhabit their territory, but most believe that they migrated into this region from the Death Valley region of southern California. Their ancestors are believed to have brought with them a technology focused on the collection of small seeds, which enabled them to thrive in the arid desert region. Currently, our best data suggest that they arrived in the southern Nevada region at perhaps 1200 or 1300 A.D., though some archaeologists believe that they arrived as early as 1000 A.D. From here, they continued to expand eastward moving into areas that had been vacated by Puebloan people.
The ancestors of the Southern Paiute were adapted to life in the arid Mojave Desert. In particular, archaeologists believe they had a specialized toolkit that allowed them to exploit the small grasses that grow in the desert region.
Source - shutterstock.com; image id: 371221735
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