In his twenties in 1861-62, Sam Clemens was a man of his times, and at  
that time in the West there was a lot of tension between Caucasians and  
American Indians. Sam, and later Twain, had both good and bad things to say  about 
the Paiutes and Washoes (sometimes mislabelled as Diggers,  a Sacramento 
Valley tribe). Twain was particularly incensed, for  example, when someone 
left a shirt infected with smallpox where a Washoe  would and did find it, wore 
it, and thus began a serious outbreak in the  tribe.
 
A few months ago State Archivist Jeff Kintop and I met with Darrel Cruz,  
Cultural Chair for the Washoe tribe and discussed the tribe's attitude toward 
 Twain. Today's Washoe tribal leadership has not forgiven Sam/Mark,  
especially for his disparaging comments in print about the meaning of their name  
for their historic homeland in the mountains. They have also not forgotten  
actions of others, including Kit Carson (Carson Range of the Sierra),  and 
are negotiating with the U.S. Forest Service to have some geologic  features, 
such as "Squaw creek", re-named. Squaw Valley, California, (1960  Winter 
Olympics) is slowly becoming known as Olympic Valley.
 
Just as there was more to World War I than the assassination of Archduke  
Ferdinand, there was more to the 1860 Pyramid Lake War than the incident at  
Williams Station. And there is much more to Twain's lifelong consideration 
of  American Indians than this one anecdote. [I use the wording American 
Indian over  Native American, following the lead of the Smithsonian 
Institution's "National  Museum of the American Indian."]
 
The flooding has been identified as being the result  of a massive 
Atmospheric River, causing flooding all over  Northern California and Nevada, and it 
truly would have created a  dramatic shallow sea to the west of Honey Lake 
Smith's Station.
 
Two of Sam's roommates at Mrs. Murphy's corral, William H. (Will) Wagner  
and John Burche had been with Col. Frederick W. Lander when  he (after being 
fired upon) brought the Pyramid Lake War to an end without  a firefight. 
[See Clemens' letter of Oct. 29, 1861, and Mark Twain's  Notebooks & Journals, 
Vol. 1, p. 80] In 1862 Burche became  assistant Territorial Indian Agent for 
the Paiutes because of his association  with Lander, for whom the Paiutes 
had great respect.
 
Bob Stewart
 

In a message dated 12/30/2014 12:54:57 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:
 
The  Paiute Indian or Pyramid Lake War began in May of 1860 because of 
events that  took place at Honey Lake Smith's Station, then referred to as 
Williams  Station.