Duck Valley Indian Reservation
The Duck Valley Indian Reservation was established as a homeland for members of both the Western Shoshone and Northern Paiute tribes of Native Americans. Isolated in the high desert of the western United States, it lies directly on the state line between Idaho and Nevada, the 42nd parallel.
The reservation, in the shape of a square, 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 450.391 square miles (1,166.5 km2) and a resident population of 1,265 persons was reported in the 2000 census, over 80 percent of whom lived on the Nevada side.
Its only significant community is Owyhee, Nevada, at an elevation of 5,400 feet (1,650 m) above sea level. Owyhee is nearly equidistant from its two nearest major cities: 98 miles (158 km) north of Elko, Nevada and 97 miles (156 km) south of Mountain Home, Idaho.[1]
History
On April 16, 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes established the Duck Valley Western Shoshone Reservation by Executive Order. Despite having a designated reservation, efforts were made to force them off the valuable Duck Valley lands and join their Shoshone kinsmen at Fort Hall, Idaho in 1884, efforts that were successfully resisted by the bands' chiefs.[2]
Meanwhile their Northern Paiute brethren joined up 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. Upon their release, the Northern Paiute returned to the Duck Valley, and President Grover Cleveland expanded the reservation by Executive Order on May 4, 1886 to accommodate them.[2]
President William Howard Taft expanded the reservation to its current size by Executive Order on July 1, 1910.[2]
Sister reservations
- Fort McDermit, Nevada
- Fort Hall, Idaho
Notable members
- Tina Manning, d. 1979, water rights activist and married to American Indian Movement chairman, John Trudell, 1972-1979 (she died in a house fire caused by an arsonist).
Highways
- Idaho State Highway 51 heads north to Bruneau and on to Mountain Home and Interstate 84 (indirect connection via its Business Loop).
- Nevada State Route 225 heads south to Elko and Interstate 80
References
External links
- Duck Valley Shoshone-Paiute Tribes (official website)
- Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Idaho/Nevada United States Census Bureau
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