Piute Mountain (10,541 ft.)
| Named by USGS in 1896
|
"In California this spelling is now generaly accepted for most of the place names named
for the tribe. The name Paiute (as anthropologists prefer to spell it) is applied to
three groups of the Shoshonean family: the Northern Paiute or Paviosto in northwestern
California and adjacent Nevada and Oregon, the Owens Valley Paiute (or Eastern Mono)
in California, and the Southern Paiute of southern Nevada and southern Utah. However,
the name has often been loosely applied to many Indians of the Great Basin area. The
term Paiute has been said to mean 'water Ute' or 'true Ute'. However, the name Ute (a
neighboring tribe, after whom the state of Utah is named) enters English from Spanish
yuta, whereas Paiute comes through Spanish payuchis, probably from
Southern Paiute payuutsi 'Paiute Indian' (Sapir, p. 640). By false analogy,
the English term Paiute has been made to resemble the tribal name of the Utes (HNAI
11:393). The spellings Paiute and Piute were generally used by the men of the Pacific
Railroad Survey in the 1850s. Piute Creek [Lassen Co.], a tributary of the Susan
River, appears to be the only feature named for what anthropologists now designate as
Northern Paiute. Piute Mountain and Creek [Yosemite NP]; Piute
Mountain [Mono Co.]; Piute Pass, Creek, and Canyon [Fresno Co.];
and Paiute Monument [Inyo Co.] are all in teh territory of the Eastern Mono
tribe, locally called Paiute. The Sierra pass on the Fresno-Inyo county line was named
by L.A. Winchell because it was used by Owens Valley Indians.
The name was applied to the creek by J.N. LeConte in 1904
to avoid the name "North Branch of the South Fork of the San
Joaquin River" (Farquhar. Piute Range and
station [San Bernardino Co.] are in the territory of the
Chemehuevi tribe, closely related to the Southern Paiute.
The station was named by the Santa Fe in 1903-4. A nearby Pah-Ute Springs, shown on
the Santa Fe map of 1880, doubtless suggested the name. Piute Butte [Los
Angeles Co.] as well as Piute Mountains, Peak, and town and Pahute Peak
[Kern Co.] are decidely outside the Paiute territory, but close enough to justify their
naming. When rangers of Sequoia National Forest climbed a mountain near Piute Peak about
1945, they found a tube containing a record left by earlier climbers indicating that
this was the original Piute Peak. Since, however, the namegivers had spelled the name
Pahute, the rangers left this name on the new peak, and we now have both names (Stewart)."
- Erwin G. Gudde, California Place Names
References to can also be found in these files:
More of Bob's Trip Reports
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Piute Mountain
This page last updated: Tue Aug 19 11:46:20 2008
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