Check out this ten-year retrospective on our projects in southern Nevada.
Gathering for Our Mountains Nuwu/Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute/Chemehuevi), U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Project Duration: 2012-Present
The Gathering for Our Mountains is an annual event, started in 2012, that brings together multiple generations of Nuwu/Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute/Chemehuevi) with the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and community supporters to engage in inter-cultural exchange, harvest pine nuts, demonstrate cultural skills, share stories and sing traditional songs. Hosted collaboratively by the federal agencies and Nuwu/Nuwuvi Tribal Nations in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (SMNRA) and the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex (DNWRC) and facilitated by Portland State University, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, and local partners, the Gathering reunites Nuwu/Nuwuvi with their ancestral lands and creates new pathways for communication. Multiple generations come together to renew familial ties, make connections with their friends and partners and care for the land.
Read the highlights from the Gathering For Our Mountains 2019
Read the highlights from the Gathering For Our Mountains 2014
Interpretive Planning Projects Nuwu/Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute/Chemehuevi), U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Project Duration: 2008-Present
These projects, funded by the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA) and other federal and private funding sources, utilize a participatory approach with seven nations of Nuwu/Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute/Chemehuevi) to create interpretive and educational content for planned developments in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, and Red Rock National Conservation Area, Nevada. A Working Group of Tribally-designated representatives co-conducted the ethnographic research with expert knowledge holders and co-designed and co-wrote content for several visitor centers, interpretive trails, picnic areas, campgrounds, and public art pieces. It is our hope that this participation will ensure that the developments are culturally appropriate to the Tribal Nations that consider these area as critical locations within their ancestral homelands.
Check out these U.S. Fish and Wildlife Podcasts on our interpretive planning processes
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Tribal Revegetation Project, 92-Acre Area, Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Complex, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada (formerly the Nevada Test Site)
Project Duration 2016-2021
The Tribal Revegetation Project embodies a unique collaboration among Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management Nevada Program, a select group of tribal representatives, an environmental anthropologist from Portland State University, and an ecologist from Desert Research Institute. The goal is to provide recommendations for the revegetation of a 92-acre low-level nuclear waster storage area on the Nevada National Security Site. The project includes a Tribal Revegetation Committee composed of two representatives from three culturally affiliated ethnic groupsL: Nuwu/Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute/Chemehuevi), Newe (Western Shoshone), and Numu (Owens Valley Paiute-Shoshone). In order to provide recommendations, the collaboration is conducting a three-year seed and transplant study that blends Indigenous knowledge and Western science to create novel solutions to this complicated situation.
Check out the project Final Report on Osti.gov
Nuwu/Nuwuvi Knowledge-to-Action: Promoting Southern Paiute Government-to-Government Consultation and Resource Management in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area and Desert National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada
Project Duration: 2010-2012
This project funded by the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act (SNPLMA) and administered by The Mountain Institute created a government-to-government consultation method for seven nations of Nuwu/Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute/Chemehuevi) and the U.S. Forest and Fish and Wildlife Services. It is also generated a proposed collaborative resource stewardship plan for two protected areas. The project utilized a series of meetings at the protected areas and on native lands with a Working Group of tribally designated representatives and tribal governments. Ecological knowledge was also collected using ethnographic techniques with expert knowledge holders, who also served on a resource stewardship advisory committee that conducted forest surveys. Finally, at the appropriate time of year multi-generational families were invited to both protected areas to harvest pine nuts in pinion-juniper habitats, tell stories, and transmit the Native language.