The Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe is a
federally recognized tribe
This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
of
Northern Paiute
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a r ...
and
Western Shoshone Western Shoshone comprise several Shoshone tribes that are indigenous to the Great Basin and have lands identified in the Treaty of Ruby Valley 1863. They resided in Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah. The tribes are very closely related cultural ...
peoples, whose reservation
Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation spans the
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
and
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
border next to
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
.
["Tribal Directory."]
''National Congress of American Indians.'' Retrieved 2 June 2013. The reservation has in Nevada and in Oregon.
Peoples from these two tribes have historically also lived in what is now defined as southwestern Idaho. They are close culturally and linguistically to the
Bannock people
The Bannock tribe were originally Northern Paiute but are more culturally affiliated with the Northern Shoshone. They are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People. Their traditional lands include northern Nevada, southeastern Oreg ...
and various other Shoshone-language peoples. Peoples of these tribes are members of other federally recognized tribes in Nevada and Idaho.
In October 2016 a federal law was passed to put approximately 19,094 acres of
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...
(BLM) land into trust for the Tribe in order to expand their reservation; this was done under the Nevada Native Nations Land Act.
Gaming
Gaming may refer to:
Games and sports
The act of playing games, as in:
* Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming"
* Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles
* Playin ...
is prohibited on the new lands.
["Nevada Native Nations Land Act"](_blank)
, Propublica website; accessed 30 November 2016
Reservation
The Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation spans the distance of the Nevada–Oregon border, in
Humboldt County, Nevada
Humboldt County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 17,285. It is a largely rural county that is sparsely populated with the only major city being Winnemucca which has a population of 8,431. Humbo ...
and
Malheur County, Oregon
Malheur County () is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 31,571. Its county seat is Vale, and its largest city is Ontario. The county was named after the Malheur River, which runs thr ...
,
[Pritzker 241] near the
Quinn River
The Quinn River, once known as the Queen River, is an intermittent river, approximately long, in the desert of northwestern Nevada in the United States. It drains an enclosed basin inside the larger Great Basin.
It rises in northeastern Humbold ...
, which runs east to west through the Tribe's Nevada lands. Just to the east is southwestern Idaho. The
Fort McDermitt Military Reservation was established 14 August 1865 at the former site of Quinn River Camp No. 33 and a stagecoach stop, Quinn River Station, in what was a traditional seasonal homeland of the
Paiute
Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...
,
Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
* Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
* Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho
* Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah
* Goshute: western Utah, easter ...
and Bannock peoples.
The reservation was established with in Nevada and in Oregon, mostly areas of arid land. In October 2016 the federal government put into trust for the tribe approximately acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in Nevada, in order to expand their reservation and give them a more sustainable base. Gaming is prohibited on these new lands. This was done under the Nevada Native Nations Land Act (PL No: 114-232).
History
Originally the fort was established to protect the
stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
route from
Virginia City
Virginia City is a census-designated place (CDP) that is the county seat of Storey County, Nevada, and the largest community in the county. The city is a part of the Reno– Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Virginia City developed as a boom ...
through
Winnemucca, Nevada
Winnemucca () is the only incorporated city in, and is the county seat of, Humboldt County, Nevada, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 8,431, up 14.0 percent from the 2010 census figure of 7,396. Intersta ...
to
Silver City,
Idaho Territory
The Territory of Idaho was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 3, 1863, until July 3, 1890, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as Idaho.
History
1860s
The territory w ...
, in the southwestern part of the area. It was named after Lt. Col. Charles McDermit, commander of the Military District of Nevada, who was killed in a skirmish in the area in 1865.
The Paiute had traditional territory ranging from the Southwest up into Nevada, Oregon and southwestern Idaho. The Paiute in this area became known as the "Northern Paiute." They are related culturally and linguistically to the Shoshone, Bannock and other tribes of the region.
When the military outpost was closed in 1889, the Military Reservation was adapted as the Fort McDermitt Indian Agency. Northern Paiute and Shoshone were settled here. In 1936 the federal government established an
Indian reservation
An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which it ...
to support the tribe's organizing as the Paiute and Shoshone Tribe under the
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian ...
.
[Johnston, Charlie]
"Reservations & Colonies"
, ''Nevada Magazine'', July/August 2011; Retrieved 2 June 2013. They had to give up their traditional, hereditary chiefs as leaders in favor of an elected, representative form of government.
Government
The Tribes drafted a Constitution and Bylaws (which were approved after changes by the US
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
). It also had a Corporate Charter (drafted by the federal government and containing provisions not required by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.) On 6 May 1936 the new Constitution, ByLaws and Corporate Charter was approved by 54 of 65 available voters.
The government has an elected chairman and an elected eight-member Tribal Council, including a vice chairman.
[Pritzker 226]
As at the 2010 census, 313 Native Americans lived on the reservation, with 42 enrolled members living in nearby
McDermitt, Oregon.
[ More tribal members than "enrolled" tribal members live on the Reservation. The Tribe's Constitution and laws have some conflicting definitions of tribal members.
The Constitution defines tribal members as:
*the "original allottees in 1936,
* t birthsuch of their descendants homaintain a bona-fide residence on the eservation, and
*"every child of one-fourth or more Indian blood both of whose parents are members of the . . . Tribe" (see Constitution and ByLaws, Article II, Section 1(a), (b))). Thus the people do not need to be enrolled citizens to be considered members.
The Constitution and ByLaws allow the Tribal Council to enroll two classes of People; see id., Article II, Section 2(a),(b). The confusion was created in the 1980s. At a time when Northern Paiute ]land claims
A land claim is defined as "the pursuit of recognized territorial ownership by a group or individual". The phrase is usually only used with respect to disputed or unresolved land claims. Some types of land claims include aboriginal land claims, A ...
funds were about to be disbursed, federal officials suggested that the Tribal Council enact an "Enrollment Ordinance" to define membership qualifications of the Tribe and noted that only the council had authority to do this. The ordinance did not address conflicts with standing definitions of members, as noted above (and in Article II, Section 1(a) and (b)).
Language
The tribe speaks the Northern Paiute language
Northern Paiute , endonym Numu, also known as Paviotso, is a Western Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, which according to Marianne Mithun had around 500 fluent speakers in 1994. ''Ethnologue'' reported the number of speakers in 1999 as 1 ...
, also known as Paviotso, which is a Western Numic language. Fort McDermitt has the greatest concentration of Northern Paiute speakers among the various locations where they live. 20–30% of the tribe's children can speak the language.["Paiute, Northern."]
''Ethnologue'', Retrieved 2 June 2013.
Communities
* Fort McDermitt, Nevada
Notable tribal members and residents
* Sarah Winnemucca
Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins ( – October 17, 1891) was a Northern Paiute author, activist (lecturer) and educator (school organizer). Her maiden name is Winnemucca.
Her Northern Paiute name was Thocmentony, also spelled Tocmetone, which translates ...
[
* ]Chief Winnemucca
Winnemucca ( – 1882) (also called Wobitsawahkah, Bad Face, Winnemucca the Younger, Mubetawaka, and PoitoOntko, Gale. ''Thunder Over the Ochoco,'' Volume I: ''The Gathering Storm''. Bend, OR: Maverick Publications, Inc., 1997.) was a Northern P ...
, also known as Old Winnemucca, Sarah's father and a war leader
References
Further reading
Pritzker Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
* R. Eagleye Johnny, "Can Indian Tribes Afford to Let the Bureau of Indian Affairs Continue to Negotiate Permits & Leases of Their Resources?", ''American Indian Law Review'' 16(1): 201–211 (University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1991)
* Erickson, J.D., Chapman D. and R. Eagleye Johnny, "Monitored Retrievable Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel in Indian Country: Liability, Sovereignty, and Socioeconomics," ''American Indian Law Review'' 19(1): 73–103 (University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1994)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fort McDermitt Paiute And Shoshone Tribe
Paiute
Shoshone
American Indian reservations in Nevada
American Indian reservations in Oregon
Geography of Humboldt County, Nevada
Geography of Malheur County, Oregon
Native American tribes in Nevada
Native American tribes in Oregon
Federally recognized tribes in the United States