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.