UTAH'S DIXIE HISTORICAL SITES
SONS OF THE UTAH PIONEER - COTTON MISSION CHAPTER

M04- SHIVWITS Cemetery

Where is it? GPS DATA:
GPS    Cemetery  37’ 10.94 N   113’ 45.86 W

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   The southern Paiutes probably entered Utah about 1100 AD. There were large groups of the people who settled along the rivers and smaller groups who stayed near springs. The Paiute were mainly foragers, hunting rabbits, deer, and mountain sheep, and gathering seeds, roots, tubers, berries. And nuts (especially pine nuts). They also had some irrigated fields along the banks of the Virgin, Santa Clara, and Muddy Rivers. They raised corn, squash, melons, gourds, sunflowers, and later, winter wheat.

          The Paiutes’ first contact with Europeans probably occurred when the Escalante-Dominguez encountered Paiute women gathering seeds in 1776. Around 1827 Jedediah  Smith established an overland route to California through the Paiute territory. The presence of trappers, traders, and emigrants and their animals along this route had a serious effect on the Paiutes. Their grasses, corn, and food were eaten and trampled down by the travelers and their animals and the Paiute young women and children were often stolen and traded to the Europeans by the Utes and Navajos. This and the arrival of the Mormons in the 1850s and other permanent settlers ended the Paiute traditional lifestyle. Those who came to stay settled, cultivated, and fenced places that had traditionally served the Paiute as foraging and camping areas.

          The first reservation for the Paiutes was established in 1891 on 100 acres near the Santa Clara River at Shivwits, about 10 miles west of St. George. This settlement near Shem has changed over the years, most of the early homes are gone and newer homes have been built east of the old site. The cemetery is still in use.  The  people of the Shivwits band and the other Southern Paiute remain a close-knit group. Their rich heritage and culture are very important in making them a unique and proud people.

          There are 202 listings for burials in the Shivwits Cemetery, including four unknown graves. A number of the graves are marked with a white cross indicating they were killed in the service of their country. One of these was Corporal Crawford Snow, a member of the 101^th  Airborne Division . Crawford Snow was killed in Quang Province, 14 May 1967. His name is shown on the Virtual Wall as being Caucasian. In 2002, Mike Ainsworth who was his medic, and good friend was successful in fixing this. Mike said Snow, as he called him was one hundred percent Native American.

Link: http://www.lofthouse.com/usa/utah/washington/cemetery/shiwits.html