Tribally Approved American Indian Ethnographic Analysis of the Proposed Millers Solar Energy Zone

Tribally Approved American Indian Ethnographic Analysis of the Proposed Millers Solar Energy Zone Ethnography and Ethnographic Synthesis For Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Solar Energy Study Areas in Portions of Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah Participating Tribes Duckwater Shoshone Tribe, Duckwater, Nevada Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, Death Valley, California By Richard W. Stoffle Kathleen A. Van Vlack Hannah Z. Johnson Phillip T. Dukes Stephanie C. De Sola Kristen L. Simmons Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology School of Anthropology University of Arizona October 2011 Solar PEIS Ethnographic Assessment Page 1 MILLERS The proposed Millers solar energy zone (SEZ) is situated in the southern end of the Big Smoky Valley, located in Esmeralda County, Nevada. The Big Smoky Valley is a north-trending basin within the Basin and Range province in south-central Nevada. The valley is roughly 567,700 acres and stretches 115 miles. The SEZ is approximately forty miles east of the California/Nevada border, fifteen miles northwest of Tonopah, Nevada, and sits just north of Interstate 95. The valley shares borders with the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, the closest section-sitting due north of the Millers SEZ (see Figure 1). Figure 1 Google Earth Image of Millers SEZ American Indian Study Area and Big Smoky Valley The Millers SEZ American Indian study area extends beyond the boundaries of the SEZ because of the existence of cultural resources in the surrounding landscape. The Millers SEZ American Indian study area includes plant and animal communities, geological features, water Solar PEIS Ethnographic Assessment Page 2 sources, storied lands, historic events and the trails that would have connected these features. Western Shoshone tribal representatives maintain that, in order to understand Numic connections to the SEZ, it must be placed in context with neighboring connected places. Summary of SEZ American Indian Study Area Significance The lands under consideration in the Millers SEZ American Indian study area, related to the Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), were traditionally occupied and used, aboriginally owned, and historically related to the Numic-speaking peoples of the Great Basin. People specifically involved in the Solar PEIS field consultations summarized here are from the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe (Figure 3) and Duckwater Shoshone Tribe (Figure 2) and are representing the cultural interests of the Western Shoshone people. Figure 2 Duckwater Tribal Representatives Within the Millers SEZ Figure 3 Timbisha Tribal Representatives at the Base of and on Crescent Dunes in the Millers SEZ American Indian Study Area Solar PEIS Ethnographic Assessment Page 3 Numic-speaking peoples have and continue to stipulate that they are the American Indian people responsible for the cultural resources (natural and manmade) in this study area because their ancestors were placed here by the Creator and subsequently, they have lived in these lands, maintaining and protecting these places, plants, animals, water sources, and cultural signs of their occupation. These Numic-speaking peoples further stipulate that, because they have lived in these lands since the end of the Pleistocene and throughout the Holocene (or approximately 15,000 years), they deeply understand the dramatic shifts in climate and ecology that have occurred over these millennia. Indian lifeways were dramatically influenced by these natural shifts, but certain religious and ceremonial practices persisted unchanged. These traditional ecological understandings are carried from generation to generation through the recounting of origin stories occurring in Mythic Times and by strict cultural and natural resource conservation rules. The involved American Indian tribal governments and their appointed cultural representatives have participated in this PEIS in order to explain the meaning and cultural centrality of the plants, animals, spiritual trails, healing places, and places of historic encounters that exist in these lands. Map 1 Pleistocene Lakes in Nevada and California Solar PEIS Ethnographic Assessment Page 4 The Late Pleistocene ecology of the Great Basin region was rich in fauna and flora. Central to this supportive habitat were wet forested uplands, full grasslands, and long wetlands located along a complex network of streams feeding into medium and large lakes (Grayson 1993). American Indian people hunted, gathered, made trails, and built communities throughout this area. They engaged with this topographically interesting landscape through ceremonial activities. Large mammals, like mastodons, ranged throughout these habitats from the lowest wetlands up to 8,990 feet where the Huntington mammoth remains were found—a subalpine environment in the Late Pleistocene (Grayson 1993:165). While contemporary scholars often focus their studies on charismatic species like the Mastodons, dozens of medium sized mammals have also been found, including camels, horses, ground sloths, skunks, bears, Saber-tooth cats, American lions, flat headed peccaries, muskoxen, mountain goats, pronghorn antelope and American cheetahs (Grayson 1993:159). Smaller mammals were also present. Avian species were abundant and occurred in many sizes that ranged from the largest (the Incredible Teratorn with a wingspan of 17 feet and the Merriam’s Teratorn with a wingspan of 12 feet—both related to the condors and vultures) to the smallest (humming birds) (Grayson 1993:168). Other birds included flamingos, storks, shelducks, condors, vultures, hawks, eagles, caracaras, lapwings, thick-knees, jays, cowbirds, and blackbirds (Grayson 1993:167). The biodiversity of the land and air was matched by the fish species and numbers in the streams and lakes. There were at least twenty species of fish including whitefish, cisco, trout, chum, dace, shiner, sucker, and sculpin (Grayson 1993:187). The fish species traveled widely across the Great Basin through a variety of interconnected lakes and streams. The Late Pleistocene lakes (Map 1) were but a central portion of this hydrological network supporting fish species and by implications, great biodiversity in flora and fauna. Grayson (1993:169) concluded his analysis with an ecological assessment of the Late Pleistocene natural conditions in the Great Basin region: The large number of species of vultures, condors, and teratorn in the Late Pleistocene Great Basin raises a number of interesting ecological questions…the fact that there were so many species of these birds here suggests that the mammal fauna of the time was not only rich in species, but also rich in number of individual animals. Naturally, the American Indian populations also were well supported by this bounty of nature. Lake Tonopah Central in the interpretation of the Millers SEZ American Indian study area is a massive Late Pleistocene lake, wetland, river, and stream hydrological system dominated by what is today called ancient Lake Tonopah. This hydrological system supported both complex biodiversity and biocomplexity for tens of thousands of years—possibly since the Pliocene, as did a similar hydrological system centered in Fish Lake Valley and Columbus Marshes to the west (see Map 2) (Reheis et al. 1993b). Indian people, according to their oral history accounts, have lived in this productive environment since time immemorial. This area, consequently, became and continues to be culturally central in their lives. Solar PEIS Ethnographic Assessment Page 5 Map 2 Big Smoky Valley Drainage Basin with Pleistocene Lakes Solar PEIS Ethnographic Assessment Page 6 The watershed of ancient Lake Tonopah extends down slope from the north to the south along what is known today as Big Smoky Valley. This enclosed hydrological system is about sixty-two miles north to south and twenty-one miles east to west. Prominent mountains and ranges surround the major wetlands, lakes, and river in this watershed (see Map 3). Viewing this watershed counterclockwise, Lone Mountain sits in the southeast, the San Antonio Mountains in the east, Mount Jefferson and Wildcat Peak are highpoints in the Toquima Mountain Range, which defines the eastern edge of Big Smoky Valley. Mahogany Mountain and Arc Dome are the southern and most visible portions of the Toiyabe Range, a portion of the Shoshone Mountains. The northern portion of Mahogany Mountain is the headwater of the major north- flowing Reese River. The southeast side of Mahogany Mountain contains Peavine Canyon, out of which flows the Peavine Creek. Royston Hills and Paradise Range define the watershed in the west as does the Monte Cristo Range in the southwest. Water flows off the slopes of all these mountains and hills but Peavine Creek is a prominent hydrological feature today, as it flows down slope along the entire length of the Big Smoky Valley and into ancient Lake Tonopah. This hydrological system was a cultural and natural center in the lives of many Shoshone people for thousands of years. Map 3 Millers SEZ American Indian Study Area and Associated Water Systems Solar PEIS Ethnographic Assessment Page 7 Special Features Big Smoky Valley (Millers SEZ American Indian study area) is a Storied Land with many important cultural features (Table 1). There are stories here about events that happened before people came to be in charge of the world. It was a time some call Mythic Time, but this term should be used carefully because in Western Culture, the term mythic means not true or fictional. In Numic culture, Mythic Time denotes

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