Native
Legend
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The
Paiute Indian legends describe a race of red-haired
giants called Si-te-cahs. Like their red-haired counterparts
, The Ronnongwetowanca and Adena giants of the Ohio River
Valley {See:
The Mound Builders}, The Si-te-cahs were the enemies of many Indian
tribes of the region. also according to the Paiutes, the
Si-Te-Cah were hostile and warlike and practiced
cannibalism.
The Si-Te-Cah and the Paiutes were at war, and
after a long struggle a coalition of tribes trapped the
remaining Si-Te-Cah in Lovelock Cave. When they refused to
come out and be slaughtered, the Indians piled brush before
the mouth of lovelock cave and set it on fire, annihilating The Si-Te-Cah .
"My people say that the
tribe we exterminated had reddish hair. I have some of their
hair, which has been handed down from father to son. I have
a dress which has been in our family a great many years,
trimmed with the reddish hair. I am going to wear it some
time when I lecture. It is called a mourning dress, and no
one has such a dress but my family." Sarah
Winnemucca Hopkins
Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims
Paiute legends also have the Si-Te-Cah
building a pyramidal stone structure in New York Canyon,
some miles away in Churchill County, The area is known for
earthquakes and if the pyramid existed it probably collapsed
over the years.
Lovelock
Cave
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The Unexplained: An Illustrated Guide to the World's Natural and Paranormal Mysteries
by
Karl P. N. Shuker reports that in 1911, Guano [bat
excrement] miners discovered a treasure trove
of prehistoric artifacts at Lovelock Cave, [the same cave in which per Paiute
legend states was where the Si-te-cah were slaughtered] above the southeastern shore
of Humboldt Sink. Archeologists from the Nevada Historical Society and
the University of California believe the cave was occupied from
approximately 1500 B.C. until a few hundred years before the white man
appeared in the region . Red-haired mummies and skeletal
remains ranging from 6 and a half feet to 8
feet tall were discovered in lovelock cave . Some skulls recovered from Lovelock Cave can still be
seen in museums in Lovelock and Winnemucca, Nevada.