The Southern Paiute people have lived for centuries across the region now called southern Utah, southern Nevada, and northern Arizona, where before 1850 thousands were organized in dozens of separate bands. They lived with reverence for the earth and knew its seasons, plants, animals, waters, rocks, soils, skies, fire, and air. They spoke their own language, honored the Creator, and passed their stories, ways, and traditions from parent to child across a hundred generations. Among their traditions was the etching of petroglyphs, which preserved their stories like books, and places with many petroglyphs served as their libraries. Although their way of life was changed by outsiders and they endured great hardship, they survived as a people, maintained valued traditions, and adapted across the decades as part of the broader surrounding cultures. Today, the Southern Paiutes are organized in several federally recognized tribes, including the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah with its Shivwits, Cedar, Indian Peaks, Koosharem, and Kanosh bands.