page_title: Cui-ui
section_title: Paiute tribe
hierarchical_section_title: Cui-ui / Paiute tribe
context_page_description: The cui-ui is a large sucker fish endemic to Pyramid Lake and, prior to its desiccation in the 20th century, Winnemucca Lake in northwestern Nevada. It feeds primarily on zooplankton and possibly on nanoplankton. The maximum size of male cui-ui is approximately 53 cm and 1.6 kg, while females reach approximately 64 cm and 2.7 kg. The life span of cui-ui is typically about forty years, but the fish do not reach sexual maturity until at least age eight. The cui-ui is an endangered species, and one of the few surviving members of its genus.
  The cui-ui population is generally improving in numbers, having attained an estimated population exceeding one million in 1993, thanks to the efforts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in analysis of the Truckee River spawning grounds and of the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection and EPA in following up on protection measures. The reason the cui-ui remains endangered is the recent history of recruitment variation, illustrating that in many years of the 1970s and 1980s there was virtually no recruitment whatsoever due to unsuccessful spawning in an unfavorable water quality and water flow environment of the Truckee River.
context_section_description: The Pyramid Lake band of Northern Paiute called themselves the "Cuiyui Ticutta", which means cui-ui eaters. Together with the Lahontan cutthroat trout the cui-ui was an important food supply for the Cuiyui Tikutta and neighboring Paiute bands who would travel to Pyramid Lake to share in the harvest during the spring spawning runs.
  Subsequent to European American settlement of western Nevada in the 1860s many Cuiyui Ticutta made a living by selling fish, although the European Americans generally preferred trout to cui-ui. Cui-ui were also still important for subsistence, despite Bureau of Indian Affairs attempts to encourage farming and discourage fishing. Following the construction of Derby Dam in 1905 and diversion of much of the Truckee River's flow, the Pyramid Lake fishery declined and by 1930 it was no longer capable of supplying even subsistence food. Although conditions have improved recently, the cui-ui are now managed for symbolic and ecological purposes, and are not a food source.
caption: Cui-ui
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