ST. GEORGE — Less than 10 people in the Shivwits Band of Paiutes can speak their language fluently today. And one of their educators hopes to increase the number of native speakers and increase the public’s understanding of their history.

“We don’t want to be forgotten,” Karma Grayman, a Shivwits Band culture keeper with the Southern Paiute Tribe, said during a presentation at Utah Tech University as a part of Native American Heritage Month.

“During this modern time, our Paiute language, stories, songs, history, traditional lifestyle, and Indigenous homelands have been nearly forgotten and lost due to the practice of assimilation,” Grayman said. “Our elders have foreseen when our children would no longer know who they are, speak their language, nor carry on some of the traditional ways.”

Grayman said she wants to help tribal people recall what they were taught when they were younger and pass it on to younger generations. Tribal members are encouraged to contact her for resources to learn the language.

Grayman also desires to share the tribe’s history with other area residents living in Southern Utah, which used to be Native American lands. Grayman said new people are moving into the area and usually are unaware the area was originally Indigenous land.

Her concern also stems from the Paiutes’ history not usually written down; it was an oral tradition passed down through families.

“We have a history not written in books,” Grayman said. 

The presentation was hosted by Conserve Southwest Utah and the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at Utah Tech University. In a news release, Sarah Thomas-Clayburn, community outreach and partnerships coordinator for Conserve Southwest Utah, said they encourage Washington County residents to learn and celebrate Indigenous culture. 

“As an advocate for our local natural and cultural resources, Conserve Southwest Utah acknowledges that the public lands we work to safeguard our Southern Paiute homelands,” Thomas-Clayburn said.

Before Grayman began her talk, she was introduced by Shaquoyah Silvas, a Shivwits Band of Paiutes member. Silvas explained the beginning of the Paiutes’ history upon the earth. She said the origin of her people came from a wise wolf, Tabuts and his younger brother, a coyote, Shinangwav. 

Silvias explained that Tabuts carved many different types of people out of sticks. When he was finished, he placed the people in a sack, so he could scatter them evenly throughout the earth so that all people would have a fair share of land. 

However, his brother Coyote was mischievous and cut open the sack. The people fell out into small concentrated clusters worldwide, and this uneven distribution caused contention and fighting between humans. As legend has it, the few remaining people left in the sack were blessed by Tabuts and placed in earth’s choicest land: those people were the Southern Paiutes.

Grayman said that before settlers, the Paiutes’ homeland spread across more than 30 million acres of southern California, southern Nevada, south-central Utah, and northern Arizona. 

She said when the pioneers and other settlers moved into Southern Utah, they brought diseases and animals. Additional challenges to her tribe included being on the Spanish Trail trade route. And Ute and Navajo Native Americans captured some of the Paiute women and children and sold them as slaves to the settlers. 

“The animals that were brought here destroyed what we usually the plants that we depended on,” Grayman said.

She also talked about the government’s program of taking Native American children out of their homes and shipping them off to boarding schools. Grayman said the government told them it was because they didn’t have electricity or running water. 

According to the website Utah Indians, it was the federal government’s termination policy in the 1950s to enforce assimilation. It also removed any federal aid, which had devastating social and economic consequences. Before 1954, each Paiute band, except the Cedar Band, had its own reservation and functioning tribal government. However, under termination, these bands lost federal recognition and their eligibility for federal support. 

According to the tribe’s website, the Shivwits Band had its own constitution and by-laws in 1941 and governed itself as a federally recognized tribe. Then in 1954 the Shivwits Band was terminated and not recognized by the United States government. But in 1980 the Shivwits Band’s sovereign status was restored by Congress.

The Utah Indians’ website stated that the Paiute tribe wasn’t prepared for termination. The Paiutes suffered; nearly one-half of all tribal members died between 1954 and 1980. They lacked basic health resources.

“Without adequate income to meet their needs, the Paiutes could not pay property taxes and lost approximately 15,000 acres of former reservation lands. A less tangible, but equally important, result was the Paiutes’ diminishing pride and cultural heritage,” the site states.

Grayman said that history is “done and over with.” And now the Paiutes have to move forward. She is proud that her tribe, the Shivwits Band of Paiutes, is progressing. Their reservation is located 12 miles from St. George, Utah.

“They are moving forward and I’m very proud of them,” Grayman said. “And so we need to look at our history. And we never forget our ancestors. That’s one thing we don’t do; we don’t forget our people that have gone on. Because each one has left something left for us, whether it be a song or a story.”

Looking at the packed auditorium, Grayman said everyone is a part of a tribe. Still, most people don’t know who their ancestors are. 

“So I always tell people that it’s good to know who you are and where you came from,” Grayman said.

Before the settlers came in, the Paiutes had beliefs that were respectful of the earth, especially the water.

“I was taught when I was young that the rocks, the mountains, the animals’ all spoke one language,” Grayman said. “We could understand each other.”

Then she said suddenly that the languages disappeared after the settlers came in. 

“We want to know who we are,” she said. “And so our language is so important. Because that makes us, us.” 

Grayman said people have an inherent responsibility to care for the land. 

“We’re tied to the land, and our culture is tied to the land. So if the land goes away and the land is mismanaged or misused, then our culture goes away,” Grayman said. 

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