The Only Way Through · Episode 2 of 14 · 23 min
Ten Thousand Years on the River
Eleven canvasback decoys from Lovelock Cave, the oldest known duck decoys anywhere, show the Humboldt was a working corridor long before wagons or rails. The Numu and Newe ran a marsh fishery, pinyon harvests, game drives, and a toolstone quarry. The episode notes the damaged archaeological record, follows the Spirit Cave repatriation, and ends with the tribal governments that exist today.
Who's who
- L. L. LoudBerkeley archaeologist who excavated Lovelock Cave in 1912
- M. R. HarringtonMuseum of the American Indian archaeologist who collected the decoys in 1924
- Sydney WheelerArchaeologist who found the Spirit Cave burials in 1940
- Len GeorgeFallon Paiute-Shoshone chairman quoted in the 2025 continuity study
- Ginny BengstonAuthor of the BLM's 2003 ethnographic study of the corridor
- David Hurst ThomasLead author of the 2025 Spirit Cave continuity study
Where it happens
- Lovelock Cave, NevadaSource of the decoys; guano miners damaged the deposit in 1911-1912
- Spirit Cave, NevadaBurial of the man the tribe calls the Storyteller
- Tosawihi quarries, Battle Mountain, NevadaLargest intensively studied toolstone quarry complex in North America
- Humboldt River, Nevada+2 more episodesTen-thousand-year corridor for Numu and Newe peoples
- National Museum of the American Indian, WashingtonHolds the decoys, catalog number 13/4512
Timeline
- 400 BC to AD 1The Lovelock Cave canvasback decoys are made, per the museum catalog.
- 1911-1912Guano miners remove about 250 tons of deposit from Lovelock Cave.
- 1995Nevada designates the decoys its official state artifact.
- November 18, 2016Spirit Cave remains pass from the BLM to the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe.
- 2018The tribe reburies its ancestors; the genome study appears in Science.
- 2025A study finds genetic continuity across ten thousand years with no replacement.
Still debated
Archaeologists long held that Numic speakers spread across the Basin about a thousand years ago, while tribal history and the 2025 genetics point to continuity; the newest evidence leans toward the tribal view. Indigenous burning on this corridor is asserted but undocumented.