Chief Tecopa - Leader of the Pauite "Ni-Wi" Tribe

"My Heart is easy now. When foreigners came to our land, bringing cattle and horses and seeds to plant crops, I was afraid our people would die of starvation rather than share their land and water. But I've learned the white men have a special kind of magic for getting the things that they want."

- Chief Tecopa

The town of Tecopa ( from the Pauite word Tecopet which means "wildcat" ), was named after Chief Tecopa ( Teca-Avats ), who became most famous as the peacekeeper of the "Ni-Wi" Pauites. Chief Tecopa was alive prior to the Anglo-Saxon migration into the Southern Basin region, and lived until between 1904-1906 ( there are conflicting dates in historic accounts ). He watched the arrival of the white man, and witnessed them take his peoples' lands as their own.

Rather than resist the arrival of the white man, Tecopa sensed the changing times. He saw an opportunity for his people, who had long struggled to live in one of the harshest habitable climates in North America. Prior to the white man's arrival, Chief Tecopa believed that his small band of tribes would one day become extinct. He convinced the Ni-Wi to befriend the newcomers, and spent the rest of his life working toward a cooperative future, one that included food, warmth and shelter for his struggling people.

When Chief Tecopa died in 1904, the Pauites recited the Lords Prayer rather than the traditional burial chants. This was in accordance with Tecopa's final wish; he had told his people that there was much magic in the great Chief in the sky called God.