hese tribes, and he notes that the reason for these deaths is uncertain:
The cause of this mortality has been attributed to different causes. Some allege that it is the result of the change of their mode of living, being now compelled to live on entirely different food to what they were formerly accustomed. Again it is said it is caused by adopting the customs of the Americans in wearing clothes, that habitual use of ardent spirits which some traders have very improperly and illegally sold to them. . . but the greater number of deaths has been caused by the great Indian Scourge the Small Pox.
The agent states that the Indians were better off before the coming of the White settlers, and he sees that the changes have been many. The Indians build their homes differently, arrange their huts differently, shape their camps differently. The men used to hunt and now sit around the camp doing nothing. It does not appear that the Indians are being forced not to hunt or that the government is doing anything directly harmful to them. It is rather that the huge changes the tribes face has caused them to alter their normal mode of life to their detriment. Some of their sources of livelihood have been destroyed or curtailed, and the Indians do not understand why this has happened or what they can do about it.
The threat to the Indians of the Great Basin was minor until the coming of the Mormons, as noted, and Brigham D. Madsen notes this in discussing the coming of
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