Lovelock Cave: A Tale of Giants or A Giant Tale of Fiction?

The Paiutes, a Native-American tribe indigenous to parts of Nevada, have an oral tradition that they told to early white settlers of the area about a race of red-haired, white giants or ‘barbarians’ that their ancestors referred to as the “Si-Te-Cah.”  The story was written down in 1882 by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of a Paiute Indian chief in her book Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims.  These “giants” were described as being vicious, unfriendly and cannibalistic.  In this story, the Paiutes speak of a great battle that took place which led to their extermination at site known today as Lovelock Cave.  During the early part of the 20th century archaeologists found thousands of artifacts inside this cave leading to a lengthy excavation of the site and leading to some speculation that the Paiute legend was real.