In the early 1800s, the American West was still very wild and unknown.  Native American tribes still prospered and lived peacefully in this area.  Two tribes were prominent in the Great Basin region…the Paiute and the Shoshone.  This part of America became the states we now call Nevada, Utah, and Idaho.  

In 1820, a boy was born to a Shoshone family.  He was called: Bad Face.  When he was older he married the daughter of a Paiute chief called: Old Wuna Mucca. By marrying a Paiute, you were adopted into the Paiute tribe.  So Bad Face became a Paiute.  By the 1850’s, white settlers started to spell the Paiute clan name as: Winnemucca. (Winnemucca, loosely translated, means “one moccasin.”)  Later, Bad Face came to be called: Winnemucca the Younger.

In January 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill near Coloma, California.  What was a trickle of travelers heading to the mountains of California soon became a steady stream.  Old Winnemucca and his band of Paiutes lived along the Humboldt River near Pyramid Lake (Nevada).  The California (Gold Rush) Trail passed right through Paiute land.

_{On the left: Old Winnemucca; Photo – Wikimedia Commons
On the right: Winnemucca the Younger; Photo – Wikimedia Commons}

Old Winnemucca was more of a medicine man (prophet, spiritual man) to his people.  He tried to be friendly to the white settlers coming to his country from the east.  He tried to get Bad Face, his son-in-law, to trust the whites as well.  Bad Face tried, but it did not go well.

Whites coming to the region from the east thought the Native Americans were savages that could not be trusted.  The white settlers needed land for farming, for their cattle, and for their sheep.  (It did not help that gold and other precious metals were also discovered in the region.)  

In 1860, fights started between the settlers and the Paiute people that followed Bad Face.  The fighting started in northwestern Nevada and was called the Pyramid Lake War.  The Paiutes and Shoshone were moved by the US Government from one reservation to another.  Bad Face tried to protect his people.  He tried to get the government to treat his people fairly.  In the process he also became part of the fighting. The fighting continued, off and on, until the end of the 1880’s. 

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Bad Face died in October 1882 at Coppersmith Station, Nevada.  Some reported that he was poisoned.  Other reports said that Bad Face was “bewitched” by a young wife.  (The young wife was later stoned to death along with their three year old child.)

Bad Face’s daughter, Sarah Winnemucca, went on to become famous in her own right.  Much of what we know today about her father comes from Sarah’s writings.  Bad Face’s son, Natchez, also became a leader of the Paiute people.  The City of Winnemucca, the only incorporated city in Humboldt County, Nevada, is named after Bad Face, also known as: Winnemucca the Younger.