The Two Battles of Pyramid Lake
Nevada State Historical Marker No. 148
Please treat this area with reverence and respect
The battle site is located within the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation. Except for Nevada SR 447 and a former railroad, the landscape is relatively the same as it was in 1860. This marker is located at a spot that would have been the north end of the battlefield.
Early settlement of what is now northwestern Nevada had a disruptive effect on the Northern Paiute and Shoshone. The Shoshone and Paiute had subsisted on the sparse resources of the desert by hunting deer and rabbit and eating grasshoppers, rodents, seeds, nuts, berries, and roots. Miners felled single-leaf pinyon groves, a major food source for the Paiute, and because of the Nevada deserts, settlers grouped around water sources. Settlers' livestock trampled or ate the sparse vegetation. In addition, settlers and Paiutes competed for grazing lands, where the settlers tried to run cattle. Indians partly adapted to the change by trading finely woven baskets, deer, and rabbit skins for food and goods. Other times, settlers gave them food or blankets. Some Native Americans took jobs farming for settlers or served as stock tenders on Pony Express stations. Nonetheless, they resented the encroachment into their territory. Chief Numaga traveled to Virginia City and aired the grievances of the Paiutes. Herders had driven cattle all over Paiute grazing land, letting their livestock eat grass used by Paiute ponies. Worst, he claimed, these cattlemen threatened violence if Chief Numaga did not return cattle they claimed as missing from their herds. Cattlemen told William Weatherlow, a local militia captain, that Numaga and the Indians were extorting two cattle a week from them.
The Paiutes and their allies, the Bannocks and Shoshones, gathered at Pyramid Lake towards the end of April 1860 for a conference on how to deal with the encroachments of the white men. Most of the leaders spoke out for war. Chief Winnemucca (Poito), the most senior leader at the assembly, appeared to be in favor of war, but refrained from taking a public position. Numaga was the only chief who spoke in favor of peace. He agreed that the white men had greatly wronged the Indians, but pointed out that given their numbers and resources, the whites would be bound to win any war.
While Numaga was speaking, a group of Indians arrived and brought news of an incident that had just happened at Williams Station. Mogoannoga, a mixed-race Bannock warrior, had led a raiding party to attack a Pony Express station called Williams Station, on the Carson River near present-day Lake Lahontan. One version says the raid was an unprovoked attack to provoke war. Another says the raiders had heard that men at the station had kidnapped two Paiute women, and fighting broke out when they went to investigate and free the women. Either way, the war party killed five Americans After hearing what had taken place, Numaga said, "There is no longer any use for counsel; we must prepare for war, for the soldiers will now come here to fight us."
The war was preceded by a series of increasingly violent incidents, culminating in these two pitched battles in which 79 Whites and 25 Indigenous people were killed. Smaller raids and skirmishes continued until a cease-fire was agreed to in August 1860; there was no treaty.