The Shoshoneans: The People of the Basin-Plateau, Expanded Edition

VI

VI A J L J L N D NOW, "back east." An important cultural direction for a white American. The westerner looks on the eastern United States with a derisive suspicion. At the same time he expects it to save him from what he fears: the dark, unAmerican forces of the outer world. Popsociology tells him his "history" is in the East—the arrival of those dauntless wretches in the Mayflower, Ethan Allen's simple-minded lament that he had onlyzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYWVUTSRPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA one life to give for his country, and the Constitution , which, in spite of the First and Fifth Amendments, he understands will protect him from rotting teeth and smelly armpits. To Pyramid Lake. It is thirty or forty miles from Reno. East then north. Some old maps show a Lake Winnemucca (named for the Paiute chief) alongside of it, but that was drained in the forties and is now dry. A stark moonscape—vast vertical stacks of tufa rise away from the floor of the dry bed. Pyramid Lake is immediately west of the dry lake, over a low range of mountains. The road north is a black ribbon going into the desolate stretches of southeast Oregon. Toward the southern end of the lake, more on the eastern shore, three pyramidal earth masses stand on a single base. Pyramid is a natural lake, nearly thirty miles long. The waters of the Truckee run through a green slash of valley into the shallow mud flats at the south end. Since it has no outlet, the water in Pyramid Lake is slightly salty. The Paiute woman at the trading post 45 at Nixon told me that the water contained borax and was no good for irrigation. The main Indian settlement is strung along the Truckee River from the lake to Wadsworth on Route 40, about eighteen miles south. We arrived at the lake in the afternoon. It was hot but there was a coolish breeze by the water. There was an Indian family downshore, the children playing. Lucas went to photograph them. I decided to go swimming—the water was fine, not at all cold. Upshore from me a white boy and girl had a blanket spread, transistor radio, towels, oil, they rubbed each other and so on. All the portable complement and paraphernalia of the pop culture, an instant fold-out microcosm. But there were hardly any people at all, an occasional car passed up on the road to Sutcliffe. It was quiet and restful and great relief. A sandy shore. A sort of tall, soft water grass blew in the breeze. All around, rising high, the barren hills bore the accumulating shadows away from the descending sun. Far across on the eastern shore some breasts and points of land dull orange. Back to the south on a high bluff stood a large building which, I had noticed when we passed it on the road, was abandoned and had suffered some systematic wrecking. I supposed it was the ruin of an unsuccessful business. It contributed to the loneliness of the landscape. Nothing could endure here, unless along a river, or as a nomadic fact moving across the hills. And it was even more a stark relief to see that obviously unsuccessful endeavor. The breeze, the magnified serenity of the mountains in the setting sun, the presence of the Paiute, unseen along the river under the dark cottonwood groves, the imagined softness of the leaves' rattle in that same wind far across the lake. And, lingering faintly, in my other ear, the tortured acoustics of Reno. The air felt cold when I came out of the water to dry myself. Not quite half way up the western shore of the lake is the place called Sutcliffe. It is difficult to say from the impression that night, but it looked a collection of a dozen or so houses. Perhaps there were twice that. It was nice and cool. You could hear the water below. The place felt "resorty." The bar seemed to confirm that. All the manner of a lodge, log construction, large fireplace which that night, however, had garbage in it. It seemed an isolate place and the people already there, at the bar, and a few beyond at tables up the steps, on a raised area, seemed surprised at our arrival. They were shocked by the sudden 46 presence of a Negro in their midst. This was probably...