n ( pl Paiutes or Paiute )
a member of a Native-American people in the south-western US. There are now only about 4 000 of them and they live mostly on reservations (= land given and protected by the US government) in Nevada , California , Utah and Arizona . They began the Ghost Dance and its religion. In earlier times the northern Paiutes attacked white people who settled in their areas, and the southern Paiutes were called Digger Indians because they ate roots.