Style and culture of North American Indians who historically inhabited east-central California, western Nevada, and eastern Oregon. After 1840 a rush of prospectors and farmers despoiled the arid environment's meager supply of food plants, after which the Northern Paiute acquired guns and horses and fought at intervals with the trespassers until 1874, when the last Paiute lands were appropriated by the U.S. government. Today, the Northern Paiute are organized as several different federally and state-recognized tribes across California, Oregon, and Nevada.
