Existing comment:
The people who came into the region killed or scared off the skittish bighorn sheep. Their cattle, sheep, and horses ate up the desert bunch grasses, whose seeds were so important to the Paiute diet. By 1844, when explorer John C Fremont paid a worn-out horse to the Moapa Paiutes for the privilege of crossing the Muddy River, their barely adequate food resources already were declining. Along the Virgin River, the Paiutes killed Fremont's mule driver, then butchered and ate some of the expedition's grazing stock. |