Shoshone-Paiute Tribes

I am an enrolled member of the Shoshone-Paiute tribes of the Duck Valley Indian reservation. The reservation is located in north-eastern Nevada and south-western Idaho. The only town within the boundries of the reservation is Owyhee, Nevada.

In 1877 the Western Shoshone people were relocated by the United States government to this land in Northern Nevada. The Shoshone people roamed throughout the western United States and the Great Basin range was their original known home land.

Similar circumstances for the Northern Paiute people were being handled by the U.S. government. The original people of the Boise Valley and Snake River were relocated to the Idaho land established for the reservation.

The U.S. government's plan was to have the two tribes eliminate one another. The Paiutes' original land is throughout the states of California, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. The Shoshone and Paiute Nations are located throughout the Western United States.

The two nations were known to live and rome from the Mexico border north to Saskatchewan, Canada and from the Rocky Mountains west to the Pacific Ocean. This information cannot be found in present history books because of political implications.

Currently, the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes business council consists of a governing body of tribal leaders.

Tribes Chairman: Kyle Prior
Vice-Chairman: Robert Bear
Council Members:
Brian Thomas, Steve Pursley, Lyod Hanks, Dennise Smith Sr. and Darlene Blossum’Paiva .

Updated MARCH 2008.