I’m an Indian from a northeast tribe. We would make similar deadfalls on a much larger scale by splitting large logs and using that instead of rocks. You could get yourself a lot bigger meal than that ground squirrel with one of these traps in the right environment. However, I understand that for the Paiutes, food was scarce and they had a pretty rough life living out there in the desert.
I always laugh watching Les gnaw on those tiny squirrel bones for his breakfast, but the biggest kick I get is watching him fail to catch fish, I don’t think he ever caught one until well into the third season of Survivorman.
We finally realized that Les just goes out and basically starves for 5-7 days and tries to live through it. We love to watch him grouse about it or die from delight at finding some rotten fish an Eagle has dropped somewhere. :-)