Paiute

The Paiute group here is the Mono, or Monachi, who lived in the central Sierra Nevada, on its eastern slope and around the Mono Basin. They are often labelled Northern Paiute, but they are a separate Numic people. Their name comes from a Yokuts word for ‘fly people’, because Mono Lake gave them fly larvae to eat and trade.

The Eastern Mono of the Owens Valley dug irrigation ditches along the Owens River and could store food, while the Western Mono kept to the mountains west of the crest.