Si-Te-Cah

Account

Paiute oral history tells of the Si-Te-Cah - red-haired, often described as cannibalistic enemies who used balsas or canoes on the lakes of what is now western Nevada. In the tradition, they were driven into a cave after long conflict and destroyed by fire and smoke while the people watched the entrance. The story is a piece of indigenous historical memory and storytelling, bound to place and to a people's account of survival.