The Pah-Utah Indians are the greatest horse thieves on the continent. Rarely attempting the bold coup-de-main of the Utahs, they dog travelers during their march and follow on their trail like jackals, cutting off any stragglers whom they can surprise and overpower, and pick up such animals as stray from the band or lag behind from fatigue. At night lurking around the camp, and concealing themselves behind rocks and bushes, they communicate with each other by imitating the sounds of birds and animals. They never ride, but use as food the horses and mules that they steal, and, if within arrowshot of one of these animals, a poisoned shaft secures him as their prize. Their arms are bows and arrows tipped with obsidian, and lances sometimes pointed with iron, which they obtain from the wrecks of wagons found along the road. They also use a pronged stick to drag lizards from their holes. Yearly expeditions are fitted out in New Mexico to trade with the Pah-Utahs for their children and recourse is often had to foul means to force their parents to part with them. So common is it to make a raid for this purpose, that it is considered as no more objectionable than to go on a buffalo or a mustang hunt. One of our men, Jose Galliego [_sic_], who was an old hand at this species of man-hunting, related to us with evident gusto, numerous anecdotes on this subject; and as we approached the village he rode up to Mr. Beale and eagerly proposed to him that we should “charge on it like h—l, kill the mans, and maybe catch some of the little boys and gals.”[6] The coming of the Mormon pioneers gradually upset the Paiute government. The whites frequently settled on Indian camp sites and occupied Indian farming lands. Their domestic livestock ate the grass that formerly supplied the Indians with seed, and crowded out deer and other game upon which they largely subsisted. This interference with their movements and the reduction in the food supply tended eventually to bring the Indians into partial dependence upon the whites. Within a few years, farm crops and livestock brought to the whites more food and clothing than the Indians had ever dreamed of. No wonder they became beggars in the towns and thieves of cattle and horses on the range. As long as the whites were in the minority, they used to feed the Indians. In the words of John Dennett, an old settler of Rockville, this “gave them an idea of some other kind of food beside grass seed and wild game.” As the whites increased and became strong enough to defy the Indians, the attitude changed from one of fear to that of domination. Although they continued more or less to feed the begging Indians, they soon put a stop to thievery on the range, punishing it in many cases by death. This transition was marked by bitter feeling and even by war between the races. In time, it became increasingly difficult for the Indians to maintain themselves.