Captain Truckee, a Northern Paiute spokesman, greeted the first Euro Americans he met as returning kinsmen. The Creator separated the original people because they constantly fought with each other. The Indians’ light-skinned brothers were relocated to the east, but had returned. Truckee hoped the passage of time had reconciled family differences. He was badly mistaken.

When our commander (Capt. Walker) gave his consent to chastise these Indians, and give them an idea of our strength, 32 of us dismounted and prepared ourselves to give them a severe blow…. We closed in on them and fired, leaving thirty-nine dead on the field…

Zenas Leonard-1839

Avoiding forty-niners on the California Trail was easy, but short-lived. Placer miners and traders, however, soon established Carson Valley (Genoa) and Chinatown (Dayton) in 1851. Native Americans were displaced locally, but plenty of their lands remained.

Few Indians anticipated the impacts following the 1859 Comstock Lode discovery when twenty thousand Euro Americans entered Northern Paiute and Washoe territories the following spring. Thus began systematic destruction of Indian economy and the environment that continued into the twentieth century and, some say, continues today. Virtually faced with extinction, some Indians adapted and some perished.

NEVADA INDIANS AND THE U.S. GOVERNMENT


There are 26 recognized tribal governments in Nevada today. Landholdings for these groups range in size from small communities or colonies on the outskirts of towns and cities to vast reservations within traditional homelands. Current Indian land holdings, however, are mere shadows of their former extent.

Nevada’s Native Americans were subjected to a variety of federal policies from the 1850s. Each tribal group has a unique history. The 1930s brought significant changes in U.S. – Indian relations. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” policies included Native Americans. Social reformer John Collier headed the Bureau of Indian Affairs and instituted a policy of Indian self-governance.

President Bill Clinton issued an executive order in 1994 instructing federal agencies to deal with Native American tribes on a government-to-government basis. This recognition of tribal sovereignty acknowledges the special place that Native Americans and their lands occupy within the U.S.

EARLY NORTHERN PAIUTE RESERVATIONS

The Walker River and Pyramid Lake reservations were set-aside in 1859 for all Northern Paiutes in western Utah Territory. The government believed Indians on these reservations could be trained as self-sufficient farmers, despite little arable land.

WESTERN SHOSHONE

The 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty was negotiated between the United States and selected Western Shoshone bands in northeastern Nevada. In exchange for allowing transportation and immigration through their territory and mining and settlement within their territory, the signers’ groups were promised small allotments of goods and livestock for twenty-five years.

The government then justified taking the Shoshone’s traditional land through one of the treaty’s provisions. A 1979 Indian Claims Commission recognized the validity of the Shoshone’s claim, but ruled in favor of the government’s cash settlement offer for the disputed land. A 1985 Supreme Court decision forced settlement upon the Western Shoshone for $26 million plus any accrued interest. In 2002, the settlement value was estimated at $135 million: it is still unclaimed by the tribes.

WASHOE

Washoe Indians were displaced from important resource areas from the early 1850s. Their practice of avoiding contact with Euro Americans probably prevented early recognition as a viable tribe. Indian agents suggested reservation sites within their territory, but this land was deemed too valuable for such purposes.

The 1887 Dawes Severalty Act provided Washoe families with tracts of land in the Pine Nut Range so that they could become self-sufficient farmers. These lands, however, are wholly unsuited to agriculture, as Euro Americans had already claimed the springs and well-watered areas. In the first quarter of the 20th century, the Dressler family of Carson Valley gave land to the tribe, and the government purchased additional tribal lands near Carson City, Gardnerville and Coleville.