Yesterday, we covered the area that's now southern Nevada, starting with geological history, touching on the native history, and winding up in 1776, where European history begins.
The first explorers from the east to touch southern Nevada were Franciscan friars establishing a trade route from New Mexico to California, which came to be known as the Old Spanish Trail.
Before Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1822, the Spanish government had enforced strict laws against trespassing. After independence, the first wave of Eastern traders, trappers, and mountain men penetrated the previously unknown American Southwest. In 1826-27, the famed trader and explorer Jedediah Smith became the first American explorer to travel through southern and central Nevada and he made contact with the Paiute.
Three years later, Antonio Armijo, a Mexican trader, set out from Santa Fe on the Old Spanish Trail to California. An experienced scout in his party, Rafael Rivera, discovered a shortcut along the route by way of Las Vegas's Big Springs, thereby making him the first non-Indian to set foot on the land that would become Las Vegas.
In the 1830s, warring Utes from the northeast used the Las Vegas Cutoff of the Old Spanish Trail to raid the peaceful Paiute, kidnapping children and women for the slave markets of New Mexico and California. In addition, Mexican and American trading parties began camping at Las Vegas's Big Springs and creeks; their grazing stock destroyed the precious grasses and their guns killed the limited game. At first the Paiute carefully avoided the interlopers, but as natural resources were depleted, some resorted to sneak thievery, stealing horses and cattle to butcher for food. That was when the traders began shooting at the Paiute themselves.
By 1851, the portion of the Old Spanish Trail from central Utah to southern California had been so tamed and improved by Latter-day Saint-guided wagon trains that it became known as the Mormon Trail. In 1855 Brigham Young sent a missionary party to colonize Las Vegas Valley and civilize the Indians. The colony failed and disbanded a few years later. In 1865, the Gass family started homesteading the valley, using the Mormon Fort as its initial dwelling place.
Scattered incidents of harassment, theft, and violence plagued Paiute-settler relations for the next five years or so. In the early 1870s, the Southeast Nevada Indian Agency had been established and nearly 1,000 acres near the Moapa and Virgin rivers, not far from Las Vegas, were set aside for a Southern Paiute reservation. However, it proved difficult to confine even a small portion of Nevada's early inhabitants; as nomads, the Paiute were unaccustomed to living in a restrictive society governed by a central authority.
Even so, the Las Vegas Paiute fared slightly better than some of their neighbors. They found work at mines and on ranches and when Helen Stewart, known as the First Lady of Las Vegas, took over the Gass Ranch in 1884, she began to champion the Paiute cause. She established a 10-acre colony for the tribe, where many descendants still live today; there's a little strip mall and discount cigarette store there. The Paiute also own 4,000 acres in the desert north of the city, where the Snow Mountain golf resort continues to be developed.
Tune in tomorrow for the official founding of Las Vegas.
