Bureau of Land Management's Decision Record and Environmental

Jersey Valley Geothermal Development Project
Environmental Assessment: NV063 -EAO8-09 1
Though archaeological data and theory states that the Western Shoshone (Newe) began to inhabit
the Great Basin area around 600 years ago, contemporary Western Shoshone contend they were
here since “time immemorial.” Social activities that define the culture took place across the
Great Basin. Pine nut gathering, edible and medical plant gathering, hunting and fishing,
spiritual/ceremonial practices, and trade occurred as the Great Basin peoples practiced a mobile
hunting and gathering lifestyle. As with the delicate and sensitive nature of the fragile resources
of the Great Basin, the native cultures appeared to be heavily impacted by social, cultural, and
environmental change, which rapidly accompanied the non-native migration from east to west.
Confined to reservations and “encouraged” to participate in a more sedentary lifestyle (farming
and cattle ranching), the Western Shoshone and other Great Basin tribes continued to practice
certain cultural/spiritual/traditional activities, visited their sacred sites, and hunted and gathered
the available game and medicinal/edible plants. Through oral history, the practice of handing
down knowledge from the elders to the younger generations, many Western Shoshone continue
to maintain a world view not unlike that of their ancestors.
Such sites of importance include, but are not limited to: existing antelope traps; certain mountain
tops used for prayer; medicinal and edible plant gathering locations; prehistoric and historic
village sites and gravesites; sites associated with creation stories; hot and cold springs; material
used for basketry and cradle board making; locations of stone tools such as points and grinding
stones (mono and metate); chert and obsidian quarries; hunting sites; sweat lodge locations;
locations of consistent pine nut harvesting, family gathering, and camping; boulders used for
offerings and medicine gathering; tribally identified Traditional Cultural Properties (TCP’s);
TCP’s found eligible to the National Register of Historic Places; rock shelters; “rock art”
locations; lands that are near, within, or bordering current reservation boundaries; lands included
in tribal land acquisition efforts that involve the Nevada Congressional Delegation, water sources
in general, which are considered the “life blood of the Earth and all who dwell upon it.”
Specifically, the cultural resources inventory of the Jersey Valley Unit Area and transmission
line corridor identified ninety-nine archaeological sites (seven of which were previously
recorded), including both historic and prehistoric resources. Of these, seven have been
recommended by Kautz as eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places
(NRHP), and fourteen sites remain unevaluated due to their location in coppice dunes, with the
potential to contain intact, stratified cultural deposits (Kautz 2009) (see also Section 3.3).
In accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act (P.L. 89-665), the National
Environmental Policy Act (P.L. 9 1-190), the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (P. L.94-
579), the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (P.L. 95-341), the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act (P.L. 101-601) and Executive Order 13007, the BLM must also
provide affected tribes an opportunity to comment and consult on the proposed Project. BLM
must attempt to limit, reduce, or possibly eliminate any negative impacts to Native American
traditionallcultural/ sites, activities, and resources.
The BLM initiated consultation with the following Tribes: Battle Mountain Band Council, Te
Moak Tribe of Western Shoshonc, Yomba Shoshone Tribe and the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe.
To date, the Battle Mountain Band has primarily been the most active and participating tribal
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