Great Basin Indian

Great Basin Indian, member of any of the indigenous North American peoples inhabiting the traditional culture area comprising almost all of the present-day U.S. states of Utah and Nevada as well as substantial portions of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado and smaller portions of Arizona, Montana, and California. Great Basin topography includes many small basin and range systems and parts of the mountains, high desert, and low desert that define its external boundaries. The region’s northern basin and range systems transition rather gradually to the intermontane plateaus of Idaho and Oregon; likewise, the differences between the Great Basin Indians and the Plateau Indians are culturally continuous. Anthropologists sometimes refer to the Plateau and Great Basin jointly as the Intermontane culture area.

The Great Basin is arid to semiarid, with annual average precipitation ranging from as little as 2.1 inches (53 mm) in Death Valley to 20–25 inches (500–630 mm) in mountainous areas. Precipitation falls primarily in the form of snow, especially in the high country. Because of the surrounding topography, water does not leave the basin except by evaporation or industrial means; brackish and even salty water are common on basin floors, as at the Great Salt Lake. The area is characterized by a vertical succession of ecological zones, each with a dominant xerophytic (desert-type) flora and related fauna. Before industrialization, the region’s population density was sparse, ranging from 0.8 to 11.7 persons per 100 square miles.