The Duck Valley Indian Reservation () was established in the 19th century for the federally recognized

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ), also known by the endonym Newe, are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the United States with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshon ...

- Paiute Tribe. It is isolated in the high desert of the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, and lies on the state line, the 42nd parallel, between

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. The reservation, in the shape of a

square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

, is almost evenly divided in land area between the two states, with the northern 50.2 percent in southern Owyhee County, Idaho and the southern 49.8 percent in northwestern Elko County, Nevada. The total land area is . A resident population of 1,265 persons was reported in the 2000 census, more than 80 percent of whom lived on the Nevada side. In October 2016 the Nevada Native Nations Land Act was passed to put Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service lands into trust for six federally recognized tribes in the state. The Shoshone-Paiute Tribe had of Forest Service land added to their reservation. Some other tribes received thousands of acres of trust lands. Gaming is prohibited on the new lands."Nevada Native Nations Land Act"
, Propublica website; accessed 30 November 2016 The only significant community on the reservation is Owyhee, Nevada, at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. Owyhee is nearly equidistant from the two nearest major cities: north of

Elko, Nevada Elko is a city in and the county seat of Elko County, Nevada, United States. As of the official 2020 U.S. Census, the city has a population of 20,564. Elko serves as the center of the Ruby Valley, a region with a population of over 55,000. Elko ...

, the county seat of the county by that name; and south of Mountain Home, Idaho.

History

On April 16, 1877,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Rutherford B. Hayes established the Duck Valley Western Shoshone Reservation by

Executive Order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of the ...

; it was also used for

Northern Paiute people 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, ...

. Despite the Native Americans having a designated reservation, local settlers and some politicians tried to force the tribal members off the valuable Duck Valley lands in 1884, suggesting they should join their Western Shoshone kinsmen at the reservation at Fort Hall, Idaho. The bands' chiefs successfully resisted these efforts to be displaced from their lands. Meanwhile, the Northern Paiute band joined with another branch of Shoshone in the Bannock War of 1878. Survivors were sent to a prisoner-of-war camp at the Yakama Indian Reservation in

Yakima County, Washington Yakima County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 256,728. The county seat and most populous city is Yakima, Washington, Ya ...

. Upon their release, the Northern Paiute returned to the Duck Valley. President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

expanded the reservation by Executive Order on May 4, 1886, to accommodate the Paiute. President

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

expanded the reservation to its current size by Executive Order on July 1, 1910. It was unusual to have two federal government actions to enlarge the reservation after it was established; most federal actions have been taken to reduce the size of Indian reservations. The Shoshone-Paiute Tribe of Duck Valley is one of five federally recognized tribes in the state of Idaho, each of which have reservations. The others are the Coeur d'Alene, Kootenai Tribe of Idaho,

Nez Perce The Nez Perce (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region h ...

, and Shoshone-Bannock. It is one of several federally recognized tribes in Nevada, some of which include other Shoshone and Paiute bands.

Sister reservations

* Fort Hall Indian Reservation, Idaho * Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, Oregon/Nevada * Duckwater Shoshone Tribe of the Duckwater Reservation * Summit Lake Indian Reservation * Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation * Reno-Sparks Indian Colony

Notable members

* Tina Manning, d. 1979, water rights activist and wife of

American Indian Movement The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an Native Americans in the United States, American Indian grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues ...

chairman, John Trudell, 1972–1979. (She and several family members were killed in a suspicious house fire.)

Highways

References

External links

Duck Valley Shoshone-Paiute Tribes
(official website)
Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Idaho/Nevada
United States Census Bureau {{authority control Northern Paiute Western Shoshone American Indian reservations in Nevada American Indian reservations in Idaho Geography of Elko County, Nevada Native American tribes in Idaho Native American tribes in Nevada Geography of Owyhee County, Idaho