Together they recorded many Paiute songs, and Sapir describes Tillohash's musical memory with some amazement:
Despite his five years' absence from home, Tony's musical memory was quite remarkable. Besides the myth-songs [i.e., the myth recitatives] spoken of here, over two hundred other songs of various kinds (three or four varieties of "cry" or mourning songs, bear-dance songs, round-dance songs, ghost-dance songs, medicine songs, gambling songs, scalp songs, and others less easy to classify) were obtained from him.[3]
The work ultimately led to a book-length description of the language, now considered a classic in linguistics.[4]
After his studies at Carlisle, Tillohash returned to Utah and married a Shivwits Paiute woman. Together they raised a family and ranch cattle. He was elected chairman of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes.[1] He and Stewart Snow observed the changes that the Great Depression and the Indian New Deal brought to their tribe, when they wrote in 1940: "For the past six years we have depended largely on the various Federal Relief Agencies. Our farms have been somewhat neglected."[5] He served on the tribal council through the 1940s.
