Field file · Humanoid · Folklore
Si-Te-Cah (Saiduka)
Also known as Saiduka, Sai’i, Say-do-carah, Lovelock Cave red-haired giants
A people of Northern Paiute tradition said to have lived on tule rafts and met their end near Lovelock Cave, later twisted into a red-haired giants tale.
The Si-Te-Cah, also written Saiduka or Sai’i, appear in Northern Paiute oral tradition as a people who once lived in the Lovelock area and clashed with the ancestors of the Paiute. The name is usually translated as “tule-eaters,” after the marsh plant that grew around the old Humboldt Sink wetlands. In the tradition they lived on tule rafts, were eventually driven out or destroyed, and made their last stand at what is now Lovelock Cave. These are the Paiute’s own stories of the past and should be understood first as heritage, not as a monster legend.
Paiute author Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins mentioned the tradition in her 1883 book Life Among the Piutes, describing the Si-Te-Cah as a hostile people with reddish hair. Later popular writers added cannibalism and, above all, great height, turning a tradition into a tale of a lost race of red-haired giants.
The giant story was fed by events at Lovelock Cave. In 1911 guano miners digging bat droppings for fertilizer found mummified remains and thousands of artifacts and discarded many of them. University of California archaeologist L. L. Loud excavated in 1912, and Loud and Mark Harrington recovered a cache of tule duck decoys in 1924, now dated to roughly two thousand years ago. One miner, James Hart, later described a mummy about six and a half feet tall with red hair, and local displays promoted the idea of giants.
Archaeologists have found no evidence of a giant race. Loud and Harrington themselves, recording Paiute accounts in 1929, noted that the Si-Te-Cah were described as ordinary people and wondered whether the stories explained much older remains.
What witnesses describe
In Paiute tradition: a people who lived on tule rafts and ate tule; later accounts say they had red hair. Popular retellings add 8-to-10-foot height and cannibalism, which are not part of the earliest recorded tradition.
Where and when it’s seen
The Humboldt Sink wetlands and Lovelock Cave near Lovelock, in northwestern Nevada.
Notable sightings
- 1883Winnemucca writes of the Si-Te-Cah Nevada
Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins described the tradition in Life Among the Piutes.
- 1911–1912Guano miners and the first excavation Lovelock Cave, Nevada
Miners cleared the cave for fertilizer, destroying much of its contents. L. L. Loud of the University of California excavated for about five months in 1912.
- 1924The duck decoys Lovelock Cave, Nevada
Loud and Harrington found eleven tule duck decoys, later dated by radiocarbon methods to around the 2nd–1st centuries BC.
- 1929Archaeologists question the legend Nevada
Loud and Harrington published Paiute accounts and doubted that they described a separate historic people.
What could explain it?
- Archaeologists regard the ‘giants’ as a later embellishment; historian Adrienne Mayor notes that skeletons from the cave were of normal size and that tourist displays promoted the claim.
- Hair can lighten to a red or orange shade after death and burial, which may explain reports of red-haired mummies.
- Large fossil bones from nearby Ice Age animals could have been mistaken for human giants.
- The tradition may preserve memories of earlier peoples or of conflicts between neighboring groups, or may be a way of explaining ancient remains found in the area.
Legend, culture and tourism
Lovelock Cave is on the National Register of Historic Places (1984) and is an important Great Basin archaeological site. Its history also includes the destruction of Indigenous remains and artifacts, and the Paiute stories remain part of the heritage of Northern Paiute people today. Visitors should respect the site and its protections.
Places to visit
Archaeological site managed by the Bureau of Land Management; check current access and regulations before visiting.
Where it’s reported
Sources
First published · Updated
