Paiute, also spelled Piute, self-name Numa, either of two distinct North American Indian groups that speak languages of the Numic group of the Uto-Aztecan family. The Southern Paiute, who speak Ute, at one time occupied what are now southern Utah, northwestern Arizona, southern Nevada, and southeastern California, the latter group being known as the Chemehuevi. Although encroached upon and directed into reservations by the U.S. government in the 19th century, the Southern Paiute had comparatively little friction with settlers and the U.S. military; many found ways to stay on their traditional lands, usually by working on ranches or living on the fringes of the new towns.
The Northern Paiute (called Paviotso in Nevada) are related to the Mono of California. Like a number of other California and Southwest Indians, the Northern Paiute have been known derogatorily as “Diggers” because some of the wild foods they collected required digging. They occupied east-central California, western Nevada, and eastern Oregon. A related group, the Bannock, lived with the Shoshone in southern Idaho, where they were bison hunters. After 1840 a rush of prospectors and farmers despoiled the arid environment’s meagre supply of food plants, after which the Northern Paiute acquired guns and horses and fought at intervals with the trespassers until 1874, when the last Paiute lands were appropriated by the U.S. government.
The Northern and Southern Paiute were traditionally hunting and gathering cultures that subsisted primarily on seed, pine nuts, and small game, although many Southern Paiute also planted small gardens. Given the warm climate of the area, they chose to live in temporary brush shelters, wore little or no clothing except rabbit-skin blankets, and made a variety of baskets for gathering and cooking food. Families were affiliated through intermarriage, but there were no formal bands or territorial organizations except in the more fertile areas such as the Owens River valley in California.
Population estimates in the early 21st century indicated approximately 17,000 individuals of Paiute descent.