Chief Tecopa was a Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 leader, his name means wildcat. Chief Tecopa was a leader of the Southern Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

 tribe of the Paiute

Paiute

Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...

 in the Ash Meadows and Pahrump

Pahrump, Nevada

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 24,631 people, 10,153 households, and 7,127 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 82.7 people per square mile . There were 11,651 housing units at an average density of 39.1 per square mile...

 areas. In the 1840s Tecopa and his warriors engaged the expedition of Kit Carson

Kit Carson

Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...

 and John C. Fremont

John C. Frémont

John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...

 in a three day battle at Resting Springs. Later on in life Tecopa tried to maintain peaceful relations with the white settlers to the region and was known as a peacemaker. Tecopa usually wore a bright red band suit with gold braid and a silk top hat. Whenever these clothes wore out they were replaced by the local white miners out of gratitude for Tecopa's help in maintaining peaceful relations with the Paiute.
Tecopa is buried with his son and grandson at the Chief Tecopa Cemetery in the Pahrump Valley

Pahrump Valley

Pahrump Valley is a Mojave Desert valley west of Las Vegas and the Spring Mountains massif in southern Nye County, Nevada, and eastern San Bernardino County, California. Pahrump, Nevada, is in the valley's center and the Tecopa and Chicago Valleys are immediately to the west...

, Nevada.

The Census-designated place

Census-designated place

A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...

 of Tecopa, California

Tecopa, California

Tecopa is a census-designated place in the Mojave Desert, in Inyo County, California, United States. Tecopa is located south-southeast of Shoshone, at an elevation of . The population was 150 at the 2010 census, up from 99 at the 2000 census.One of Tecopa's popular features is its natural hot...

 was named after Chief Tecopa by J. B. Osbourne who was the operator of a mining camp at the location.

In November 1971 Nevada Governor Mike O'Callaghan

Mike O'Callaghan

-External links:* * * *...

 called Chief Tecopa a leader of vision and courage and dedicated a state memorial to him at the Chief's gravesite. 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) of land were deeded to Nye County and became Tecopa Park.