The Paiute Indian legends as well as archeological evidence , describes a race of red-haired giants . The Paiute called them the Si-te-cahs. Like their red-haired counterparts , The Ronnongwetowanca and Adena giants of the Ohio River Valley they were exterminated by the smaller but more numerous Paiute
Si-te-cahs in Paiute legend
<Page Top
The Si-te-cahs were a tribe of Indigenous Americans that lived in the Nevada / Arizona area in pre history. They are extinct, and are most likely not of the same race as Amerindians of modern times. The word "Sitecah" means “tule-eaters” in the Paiute Indian language . Tule is a fibruous water plant, the Si-Te-Cahs towards the end of their existence spent much of their lives on rafts made of tule on Lake Lahontan to avoid harassment from the Paiute.
The last known group had their home in lovelock cave where their remains were discovered in 1911. [Although the word Si-te-cah only applies to the tribe that the Paiute legends speak of, I have applied it to other related peoples and traces of peoples throughout the same vicinity.]
Native Legend
<Page Top
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
<Page Top
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.
