The Moapa Band of Paiute Indians of the Moapa River Indian Reservation are a federally recognized tribe of Paiutes, who live in southern Nevada on the Moapa River Indian Reservation. They were in the past called the Moapats[1] and the Nuwuvi.[2]
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The Moapa were adept at basketry. They wore clothing made of leather, yucca, and cliff-rose bark.
The Moapa practiced irrigation agriculture before contact with Europeans.[3] The Moapa suffered from Spanish slave raiders attacks in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
In 1869 the United States relocated the Southern Paiutes to the Moapa area. Originally the entire Moapa River watershed and lands along the Colorado River (some of which area is now under Lake Mead) was assigned to the Moapa; however, in 1875 their reservation was reduced to 1,000 acres (4.0 km2).
They latter suffered from decimation by disease in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1941, they organized with a formal constitution. In 1980 the Moapa River reservation was expanded, with about 75,000 acres (300 km2) added.
High rates of unemployment have plagued the reservation and caused some of the Moapa to relocate elsewhere.
Their reservation is the Moapa River Indian Reservation, located near Moapa Town, Nevada.