Walker Lake outside Walker River Paiute Tribe reservation. (Photo: Jeniffer Solis/Nevada Current)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

For years, members of the Walker River Paiute Tribe who depend on well water have been plagued by water scarcity, brought on by a lack of infrastructure and funding. 

Between aging pipes, pollutants and regional drought, the tribe’s existing water infrastructure has been stretched to its limits — compromising both public health and economic development.

But after seven years of lobbying, the Walker River Paiute Tribe now has the funding it needs for a $12 million water system improvement project to secure a reliable and sustainable water supply for well users on the tribe’s reservation. 

In total, the project will provide a comprehensive domestic water supply distribution system for more than 100 residences on the reservation.

Andrea Martinez, the chair of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, said the tribe hopes to complete the project in a little over two years. The project will secure clean drinking water, and expand the tribe’s capacity to add new homes on the reservation.

“This has been a priority for the tribe for years. And we’re fortunate to get funding for this project. It’s really humbling to see this come to fruition. It gives me hope for the next generations of our tribe,” Martinez said. 

Last week, the Department of the Interior awarded the Walker River Paiute Tribe more than $2.4 million to construct a domestic water supply for communities solely dependent on well water.

That funding builds on a $5.2 million U.S Department of Commerce economic development grant to the tribe in 2023, a $1 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant for water quality improvements, and $3 million in drinking water state revolving loan funds. The remaining funds would be covered by the additional American Rescue Plan funding awarded to the tribe.

The $2.4 million grant awarded last week will be used to construct a 410,000-gallon water storage tank on the Walker River Paiute Reservation for the project, which will include about 25,000 feet of pipe across the reservation, and a new water line needed to construct housing.

“We’re going to be able to bring our people back home by having this water infrastructure and building out homes. Ultimately, I think that’s going to help our tribe continue to grow and succeed and be fruitful in the future,” Martinez said. “I think once we have the water infrastructure, we’ll be able to see our vision.”

‘Coming back home’

Nevada has 28 federally recognized tribes that span 28 reservations, bands, colonies and community councils. Most reservations in Nevada are remote and face a host of challenges unique to rural communities, including lack of infrastructure, inadequate water treatment facilities, and limited funding. 

Tribes in rural Nevada are highly vulnerable to water insecurity because of a lack of access to water infrastructure stemming from policy decisions made in the early days of federal agencies such as the Bureau of Reclamation.

Many homes that rely on well water don’t have adequate water pressure for home use, leaving residents with unreliable water access. A report by the Indian Health Service in 2019 noted that low water pressure in Walker River Paiute Tribe housing has led to health risks associated with bacteria growth in stagnant water.

Improvements to water infrastructure can reduce inpatient and outpatient visits related to respiratory, skin and soft tissue, and gastroenteric disease, according to IHS. Based on 2020 data, every $1 spent on water and sewer infrastructure can save $1.18 in avoided direct health care costs for these diseases.

Lack of adequate water pressure on the reservation also means that much of the reservation lacks the water pressure needed for piping fire hydrants, putting the tribe at severe risk of fire damage. Existing water storage capacity on the reservation falls short of meeting current codes for fire suppression, according to the Interior. 

“It could have been detrimental to our community if there were fires in areas that didn’t have adequate water pressure,” Martinez said. 

Lack of water infrastructure has cost the tribe, both in terms of public health and economic development, said Martinez.

“I think that’s probably one of the fundamental contributors to why we can’t have people come back home and work for the tribe. We talk about leaving the reservation, getting educated, coming back home to help your people and make something better for the tribe. But ultimately, what I have witnessed is that there are no homes for these individuals to come home to,” she said.

A number of current tribal employees are forced to live off the reservation despite a desire to return, due to lack of housing and the necessary infrastructure needed to support those homes, said Martinez.

“It’s just so sad and detrimental to see,” she continued.

The funding for water infrastructure is a huge game changer for the tribe, and will allow the tribe to build more homes and businesses,   said Martinez. The tribe is also wrapping up a $1 million water rights settlement with the Bureau of Reclamation that will secure the tribe’s water rights to the Weber Reservoir, and recognize the tribe’s jurisdiction over groundwater on their reservation.

“This is considered a historical settlement for the tribe. I believe it’s been over 100 years that we’ve been fighting for our water,” Martinez said.

Once the water infrastructure project is complete, the tribe can utilize those hard-fought water rights for the tribe’s benefit, she said.

“We can continue to build capacity and become successful, but also build cultural preservation. If we have more citizens living on the reservation there could be a stronger sense of cultural preservation and connection to our traditions and heritage.”

The funding for the $2.4 million grant will come from the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress in 2022. In total, the Department of the Interior announced $147.6 million in funding for 42 drought resilience projects in ten states last week.

In a statement announcing the funding, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland applauded the Biden administration for “making record investments to safeguard local water supplies and build climate resilience now and into the future.”

“By working together in close coordination with states, Tribes and other stakeholders, we can provide much needed relief for communities across the West that will have a lasting impact for generations,” Haaland said.

Editor note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Nevada is home to 21 federally recognized tribes. Nevada is home to 28 federally recognized tribes that span 28 reservations, bands, colonies and community councils.

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Landscape view of Bahsahwahbee from Rose Guano Mountain. (Photo: Monte Sanford)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Monday marked the anniversary of a violent massacre in Nevada’s Spring Valley by federal soldiers, who in 1863 targeted Native men, women, and children gathered for a religious ceremony in a sacred stand of Rocky Mountain junipers.

For decades, tribal members have fought to protect the unique grove of Rocky Mountain junipers growing on the valley floor, where hundreds of Native people were massacred in the 1800s by settlers and the federal government to pave the way for western expansion.

The region known to tribal members in Nevada as Bahsahwahbee — Shoshoni for “Sacred Water Valley” — is where the spirits of their ancestors killed during those massacres live on in the trees that grew in their place.

The Ely Shoshone, Duckwater Shoshone, and the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation — a coalition representing about 1,500 enrolled tribal members — commemorated the anniversary of the May 6, 1863 massacre by calling on the Biden administration to designate Bahsahwahbee, locally known as the Swamp Cedars, as a National Monument within the National Park System.

“Bahsahwabee links our past to our future, and it’s time for the federal government and officials to center our tribes and get our proposal across the finish line,” said Alvin Marques, chairman of the Ely Shoshone Tribe. “This monument in the National Park System gives us the comfort that our culture will be preserved, for our slain ancestors, our elders, and the generations to come.”

Currently, about 3,200 acres of Bahsahwahbee are designated as an area of critical environmental concern under the Bureau of Land Management, but those protections are limited and only apply to a portion of the much larger cultural area. 

Most of the Swamp Cedars 14,175 acres remain largely unprotected against threats from climate change, drought, and over-pumping of groundwater. If Bahsahwahbee became a monument, the land would transfer to the National Park Service, where it could be managed in cooperation with the tribes.

There are two ways national monuments can be designated: either by Congress through legislation, or by the president through the Antiquities Act of 1906. A large portion of Bahsahwahbee is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the proposal to designate the site as a national monument enjoys broad support throughout Nevada.

In 2021, the Nevada Legislature passed a resolution urging Congress to designate Bahsahwahbee as a national monument. A year later, lawmakers in White Pine County — home of the future monument — approved a final letter of support for the designation.

Democratic U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen said they plan to introduce a bill in Congress that would designate the 25,000 acre sacred site as a national monument within the National Park System. Last year, both senators also began lobbying Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in support of the Bahsahwahbee National Monument.

That support has only grown in recent months, including from regional conservation groups, energy companies, and even Patagonia — a popular clothes retailer. 

“That so many organizations across Nevada and the Nation are supporting our Tribes’ effort to designate Bahsahwahbee as a National Monument within the National Park System means a great deal to us as Native Americans. Too often, Tribes are isolated in our work to heal our traumas from the past, to tell our stories, and to move forward in a good and inclusive way on such a monumentally significant initiative like this monument effort,” said Amos Murphy, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, on Monday.

“We could not do this without their help. And for that, we are incredibly grateful.”

For tribes, the area serves as a living memorial of three separate massacres between 1850 and 1900, one of them a military attack in 1859 that killed an estimated 500 to 700 Native people in one of the largest massacres of Native people in U.S. history. The site still remains a place of healing and mourning for Indigenous Peoples across the Great Basin, who continue to visit the site to connect with their ancestors, offer prayers, and hold healing ceremonies.

“Bahasahwahbee has been the Tribes’ ceremonial gathering area for millennia,” said Monte Sanford, the tribes’ National Monument Campaign Director. “We hope this year will be a turning point for the Tribes, after more than 161 years, to finally have a voice in the future of Bahsahwahbee.”

Last month, representatives for the Ely Shoshone, Duckwater Shoshone, and the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation met with senior White House officials and top personnel within the Department of Interior to discuss the Bahsahwahbee National Monument. Monte said supporters of the monument came away from the meeting optimistic about the monument’s future.

“We feel good that President Biden will see Bahsahwahbee National Monument within the National Park System as important and good for the nation, and will designate it sometime this year,” Monte said. 

If successful, Bahsahwahbee would also join Avi Kwa Ame — a biologically significant landscape in southern Nevada — as the fifth national monument in Nevada. Nevada’s Avi Kwa Ame was one of five national monuments President Joe Biden created in 2023, using his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906.

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“It is critically important that Tribal communities have clean drinking water sources, reliable sewage systems, and effective solid waste disposal facilities,” said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

In the last decade, Native American communities throughout Nevada have seen a significant increase in Safe Drinking Water Act violations due to failing infrastructure and paltry federal funding for tribes.

Now the federal agencies responsible for protecting tribal health and water safety are investing more than $1 billion in funding to accelerate the development of drinking water and community sanitation infrastructure projects in Indian Country. 

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Service announced the historic funding on Tuesday following the first-ever White House Clean Water Summit.

According to the agencies, the more than $1 billion in funding could potentially fully fund the construction costs for about 90 water projects in Native American communities, depending on the amount requested by each applicant.

Part of that funding, $320 million, will be reserved for tribes in the 17 western states served by Reclamation, including Nevada. Projects in eligible western states may be funded for up to 100% of the cost of planning, design or construction. 

Funding for the tribal water and sanitation infrastructure will be allocated from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. The announcement is also part of a newly signed agreement between the agencies to coordinate directly to effectively develop water infrastructure in native communities.

“It is critically important that Tribal communities have clean drinking water sources, reliable sewage systems, and effective solid waste disposal facilities. Investing in critical infrastructure helps to improve health and safety for children and families, and advances economic opportunities throughout Tribal communities,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in a statement.

Nevada has 21 federally recognized tribes that span 28 reservations, bands, colonies and community councils. Most reservations in Nevada are remote and face a host of challenges unique to rural communities, including lack of infrastructure, inadequate water treatment facilities, and limited funding. 

Tribes in rural Nevada are highly vulnerable to water insecurity because of a lack of access to water infrastructure stemming from policy decisions made in the early days of federal agencies such as the Bureau of Reclamation.

“Having access to safe and reliable water systems is an essential matter of public health,” said Indian Health Service Director Roselyn Tso in a statement “Unfortunately, far too many Native American communities are still awaiting these basic services.”

“This agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation will accelerate completion of these critical projects and reduce barriers for our tribal nations to partner with our agencies,” she continued. 

During the summit, the White House called on state and local governments to create and advance policies and strategies for conserving and restoring America’s freshwater systems. The Upper Snake River Tribes — which includes the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation in Nevada — signed onto the initiative to advance freshwater restoration in their communities.

Researchers in Nevada found that from 2005 to 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency registered 187 health-based violations in public water systems serving Native American communities in Nevada, the most common being “volatile organic compounds” in water, or harmful gasses produced by a number of products and processes including common sources like gasoline.

Recent EPA reports suggest that trend has continued in Nevada since. From 2019 to 2023, the EPA registered 23 Safe Drinking Water Act violations in public water systems serving the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. Most of those violations were due to groundwater contamination in the tribe’s drinking water, according to the EPA.

During that same time period, the EPA recorded 48 Safe Drinking Water Act violations for the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation, a majority of which were due to volatile organic compounds infiltrating the tribe’s drinking water caused by a lack of infrastructure and inadequate water treatment facilities.

Improvements to sanitation facilities can reduce inpatient and outpatient visits related to respiratory, skin and soft tissue, and gastroenteric disease, according to IHS. Based on 2020 data, every $1 spent on water and sewer infrastructure can save $1.18 in avoided direct health care costs for these diseases.

“At the Interior Department, we know that having modern water infrastructure is not only crucial to the health of our kids and families – it’s also important for economic opportunity, job creation and responding to the intensifying effects of climate change,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the Interior, Michael Brain.

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Nevada Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Nevada U.S. Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto called on Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra to improve tribal access to federal mental health services via a letter sent on March 14. 

The Indian Health Service is “the agency tasked with providing direct public health support to members of Tribal communities,” the senators wrote. But multiple agencies within Health and Human Services (HHS) “are involved in broadly addressing mental health needs and suicide prevention,” the added.

The senators called on those agencies “to work on increasing Tribal access to their mental health programs and services, to make a renewed commitment to improving culturally appropriate consideration when developing HHS mental health programs and research initiatives, and to take additional steps to make care and research more culturally competent and inclusive, using direct consultation with Tribal communities on how to do so.” 

“Tribal communities have among the highest rates of suicide and mental health needs in Nevada and across the nation, yet access to robust and culturally competent care for Tribes lags behind other communities in the United States,” the senators wrote in the letter. “According to the Nevada Indian Commission, one of Nevada’s Tribal nations recently experienced a suicide cluster that left twenty-one children without a parent.”

The death rate from suicide for American Indian and Alaska Native adults is about 20% higher as compared to the non-Hispanic white population, but access to mental health services is limited due to the rural and isolated location of many Tribal communities. 

“Like so many Native American communities, our Tribal Nations in Nevada have been irreparably scarred by suicide,” said Stacey Montooth, the executive director of the Nevada Indian Commission, in a statement endorsing the senators’ letter. “For the first people of this land, intergenerational trauma coupled with daily hardships of reservation life, especially for our young people, have created unbearable situations for which taking one’s life is commonplace. We know that Indigenous people have disproportionately higher rates of mental health problems such as suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, violence, and substance use disorders, but with innovative approaches that are culturally competent we can address this.” 

“Tribal communities across Nevada have felt the impact of this mental health crisis, and it’s clear we need new solutions and resources,” said Angie Wilson, Director of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Tribal Health Center, in a statement endorsing the senators’ letter to the HHS. 

The senators’ letter called on HHS to explain how the programs the department oversees are culturally competent, how they are reaching out to Tribal nations to ensure that they are aware of federal funding for mental and behavioral health services and programs, and how the funds are awarded.

The letter also asked Becerra to identify changes in federal law that would make mental health programs administered by HHS more inclusive and available to tribal communities.

And the senators called on HHS to detail how it is implementing the national suicide hotline, 988 tribal response cooperative agreements through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, including a list of states that were awarded federal funding to implement it, states that applied and did not receive any, and states that did not apply. 

Suicide is preventable, the national hotline for suicide prevention is 988. 

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Nevada Democratic Sen. Sen. Jacky Rosen during a Senate committee hearing last month. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Nevada Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen announced Monday that $1.34 billion in funding for tribal housing programs is now available, including for the Indian Housing Block Grant program. 

The funding was included in the government spending package approved by Congress and signed into law last week. 

Native Americans in tribal areas have some of the worst housing needs in the nation, facing higher poverty rates, overcrowded housing, lack of plumbing and heat, and limited infrastructure for sewer, gas, and energy, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC).  

Rosen last month urged the Senate Appropriations Committee to increase funding for tribal housing, specifically by reauthorizing the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA).

Originally enacted in 1996, NAHASDA is the primary federal statute to address housing in tribal communities, including the Indian Housing Block Grant program, the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant program, and the Title VI Loan Guarantee program.

Yet Congress had not officially reauthorized the act since 2013, and program funding has been largely stuck at funding levels that were set then. As a result, when adjusted for inflation, funding for tribal housing has actually decreased over the last several years. 

Nevada is home to 28 Tribes, bands, councils, and colonies, many of which received grants through the Indian Housing Block Grant program to build affordable housing. 

“As we confront a housing shortage and affordability crisis, Tribal communities in Nevada are being hit particularly hard,” Rosen said in a statement announcing the funding. “That’s why I pushed for increasing funding for housing in Tribal communities in the bipartisan government funding package.” 

“Thanks to the strong leadership of Senator Rosen, together we’re delivering record funding for Native communities in Nevada and across the country. This funding will help support unique and urgent Native housing needs, including building more affordable housing, providing rental assistance, and getting electricity and plumbing into homes,” said U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, Chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

This story has been updated to include a quote by U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, Chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

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The Reno Sparks Tribal Health Center. (Photo: Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, rsic.org)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

The Reno Sparks Tribal Health Center announced its designation Thursday as a Tribal Federally Qualified Health Center, which allows it to pay higher reimbursement rates to specialists providing care. The designation is in collaboration with the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.

“Tribal patients will have an easier time accessing care, and I hope it will help all those who suffer from chronic diseases,” said Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Chairman Daryl D. Gardipe, in a statement announcing the partnership. 

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved the designation, which allows the Reno Sparks Tribal Health Center to negotiate payment rates with specialist providers that are higher than the typical Nevada Medicaid payment rates. 

The designation, combined with CMS reimbursing Nevada Medicaid at 100% for all services provided to Native Americans in the state, means it will cost less for the specialist providing the care and Nevada Medicaid will be reimbursed more by CMS.  

“This designation is a win-win,” Angie Wilson, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Tribal Health Center Director, said in a press release. “It will benefit patients seeking care, providers managing their business, our Tribe as we work to improve the health of the community, and as a savings to the State budget.”

Reno Sparks Tribal Health Center is Nevada’s largest tribal health center, providing care to approximately 6,000 patients. 

Native Americans have worse health outcomes in diseases that often require specialists to treat such as diabetes, cirrhosis, chronic lung diseases, as well as behavioral health illnesses and issues, but often face systemic barriers in access to care including inadequately staffed facilities. 

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The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Tribal Health Center. (Photo courtesy Reno-Sparks Indian Colony)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Representatives from the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Tribal Health Center and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week urged a Senate panel to approve legislation to help recruit and retain health care workers at Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities.

The IHS Workforce Parity Act, co-sponsored by Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Millen, would allow providers working part-time to access IHS scholarship and loan repayment programs.  

This bill would bring IHS’s program in line with the requirements for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) loan and scholarship programs, which allow U.S. students pursuing health care careers to have their education costs covered as long as they commit to providing health care in provider-shortage areas thus helping recruitment efforts in these areas. 

“This legislative change would create parity between IHS and the NHSC programs and enable IHS to make better use of these tools to recruit and retain key professionals in a highly competitive environment,” HHS Assistant Secretary Egorin said at the hearing. 

IHS has a 25% vacancy rate for health care providers nationally, but the vacancy rates in rural and frontier tribal clinics in Nevada can be as high as 50%, Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Tribal Health Center Executive Director Angie Wilson told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee during a hearing this week. 

Many IHS sites don’t have a full-time provider and the current requirement that health care professionals work full-time to access grant and loan repayment benefits acts as a barrier, Wilson said.

Understaffing at IHS facilities worsens health care outcomes for tribal communities in areas such as diabetes, cirrhosis, chronic lung diseases, and behavioral health needs, Wilson said.

By failing to address understaffing, the U.S. is also failing to fulfill its trust responsibility to ensure the health care needs of Native communities.

Trust Responsibility is a legal agreement between First Nations and the federal government that the U.S. government will protect tribal treaty rights, lands, and resources including supporting self-governance through “legislative authorization and adequate funding.”

“The health outcomes for our Indian people should be the report card for how well the Trust Responsibility is being upheld,” she said in testimony.

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(Rosen Senate office photo)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Nevada Democrat U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen urged her colleagues to increase funding for tribal housing in a letter sent to the Senate Committee on Appropriations Thursday afternoon. 

Native Americans in tribal areas have some of the worst housing needs in the nation, facing higher poverty rates, overcrowded housing, lack of plumbing and heat, high development costs, and limited infrastructure for sewer, gas, and energy, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. 

Rosen specifically is calling for the reauthorization of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA), which is intended to address these unique needs by funding the Indian Housing Block Grant program, the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant program, and the Title VI Loan Guarantee program.

Despite the bill acting as the primary federal statute to address housing in tribal communities, it has not been reauthorized since 2013, and program funding has been largely stuck at funding levels set then.

“Congress has not reauthorized this important law for over a decade, and appropriators have funded its programs at largely stagnant levels, without even accounting for historically high inflation. This insufficient federal housing assistance has exacerbated the housing crisis facing Tribes in Nevada,” Rosen said in the letter to U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D–HI), the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R–MS), ranking member of the same committee. 

While the U.S. Senate passed the reauthorization of the NAHASDA through an amendment attached to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 in July 2023, no action has been taken since. 

Nevada is home to 28 Tribes, bands, councils, and colonies, many of which received grants through the Indian Housing Block Grant program to build affordable housing. 

The reauthorization of NAHASDA is only one piece of the puzzle. She’s also calling for the Indian Housing Block Grant to be adjusted for inflation. The program’s stagnant funding furthers systemic inequities, according to NLIHC.  

“Despite the dire need for affordable housing resources, made worse by rising housing costs and historically high mortgage interest rates, Congress has consistently underfunded critical programs that support affordable housing development, operation, and maintenance in Indian Country,” Rosen wrote in the letter. 

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Tribal citizens can now use the same voting system allowed Nevada military members, residents living overseas and voters with disabilities to mark their ballots electronically. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Tribal members who reside on a reservation or colony in Nevada can now register and vote from the comfort of their own homes using an electronic ballot system, making 2024 Nevada’s most accessible election year for Native American voters yet.

The 2024 Presidential Preference Primary Election will be the first election where Native voters residing on reservations in Nevada can vote using Nevada’s Effective Absentee System for Elections (EASE) system, which allows Nevada military members, residents living overseas and voters with disabilities to mark their ballots electronically.

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo signed the bill expanding EASE last summer, which also requires election clerks to meet with all tribes located in their jurisdiction to coordinate voting locations prior to all elections.

“This is the first election where EASE is available to anyone who meets the criteria of being a member of a federally recognized tribe or band and living on a reservation,” said Secretary of State’s Chief Deputy Gabriel Di Chiara, who also serves as the department’s tribal liaison. 

“We were able to make it happen right in time for the presidential preference primary,” he continued.

The secure online ballot-delivery system allows voters to retrieve their signature from existing information — like county clerk records — to register, request a ballot, and electronically transmit their ballot back to their local election office for validation in one seamless session. Under the system, new voters can also use EASE to register and vote by uploading an image of their identification card and signature. 

EASE “is entirely secure, and it is impossible to double vote via EASE,” Di Chiara said.

First established in 2014 for eligible military and overseas voters, EASE was expanded to voters with disabilities in 2021, giving those with mobility issues the ability to cast their vote privately and independently.

Tribal communities in Nevada share many of the same registration and voting barriers Nevada military members and residents living overseas face, like geographic isolation and unreliable mail delivery.

“People who live in tribal nations often have to drive hours in their own reservation areas just to drop off a mail-in-ballot at the post office or go to a polling site,” said Tammi Tiger, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Participatory Democracy.

Nevada’s rural reservations can also lack traditional addresses, with named streets and numbered homes, making it difficult for tribal citizens to receive and return mailed ballots. Only 35% of all reservations and colonies in Nevada have home mail service, leaving a P.O. box — often located in post offices several miles from their homes — as the only option.

For years, Nevada’s tribal citizens have also voiced their need for greater access to voter registration, said Tiger. One of the biggest advantages of the EASE system is that it allows tribal citizens to use their tribal IDs to verify their identity for online voter registration, significantly reducing systemic barriers for Nevada’s tribal communities. 

After direction by Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar to improve access to voting for tribal voters living on reservations, tribes, voting advocacy groups, and election officials landed on EASE as an all-encompassing solution to tackle barriers tribal voters still face casting a ballot.

“By sitting down and talking through what made sense, EASE checked all the boxes,” Di Chiara said. “It allowed members of tribes and bands in rural communities to register to vote and vote, using their tribal ID. It’s a tool that we could provide verification on and have control over. And it’s easy to use.”

It’s difficult to say how many tribal citizens have taken or will take advantage of EASE during the 2024 Presidential Preference Primary Election, said Stacey Montooth, the executive director of the Nevada Indian Commission. Statewide, 209 EASE ballots have been returned and accepted, according to data from the secretary of state’s office updated Saturday morning. 

But there’s a lot of evidence that Native voters are turning out more than ever before, said Montooth.

System follows earlier reforms

An analysis of registered voters and zip codes revealed that during the 2020 presidential election, Mineral County, home to the Walker River Paiute Tribe, recorded its highest voter turnout at more than 80%, exceeding the total statewide turnout rate of 78% that year.

“One of the other reasons we know that Indian Country is much more engaged in the civic process is because of the number of Native Americans who are running for office,” Montooth said. “We’re not just going to the polls and voting. You know, we’re getting our names on ballots.”

During the 2022 Nevada State Assembly elections, Shea Backus, Cherokee, regained the seat she lost to Jacob Deaville as the state assembly member for district 37 in Las Vegas. That same year, Mercedes Krause, Oglala Lakota, was the Democratic nominee for Nevada’s 2nd congressional district. She ultimately lost to incumbent Republican Rep. Mark Amodei.

“Dare I say it’s a movement,” Montooth said. 

This year’s election reforms also build on a slew of changes in recent years. 

In 2021, the Nevada Legislature passed a bill allowing tribes to request a polling site or ballot drop box on their reservation that would automatically return each election cycle. That same year, the U.S. Census Bureau required Nye County to administer federal elections in the native Shoshone language due to the Voting Rights Act, which requires counties whose voting-age population is more than 5% Native American to provide language assistance.

The Duckwater Shoshone Tribe in Nye County now “has an elder there helping to translate the ballot for their members,” said Tiger. 

“Where would you even imagine that? I felt like that should be at every reservation, so the elders feel more included. Now those who would like to hear it in their own language or need to hear it in their own language have that translation available,” Tiger continued.

This year marks 100 years since the federal Indian Citizenship Act recognized U.S. citizenship for all indigenous people in the U.S., Tiger noted. And despite recent gains and the higher turnout for Native voters in recent elections, there’s more work to do to make elections truly equitable for Native Americans, said Tiger.

“We’re setting up the infrastructure to build a statewide ecosystem for our tribal communities on reservation land and in urban areas, so we can coordinate our resources and support one another statewide,” Tiger said. 

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Video screengrab of U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen describing introduction of her Truckee Meadows Public Lands Management Act.

Policy, politics and progressive commentary

Washoe County may soon see a boost in development and construction after Nevada’s junior U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen announced a new federal land bill on Tuesday.

As the state with the highest percentage of public land in the nation, Nevada relies on federal legislation to increase land available for development.

The Truckee Meadows Public Lands Management Act introduced by Rosen would make nearly 16,000 acres of public lands in Washoe County eligible for sale at fair market value to spur economic development. 

Washoe County and federal land managers will jointly identify parcels of land suitable for sale. Parcels considered suitable for sale will have to undergo a review by the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service before being sold. 

Another 3,467 acres of public land will be awarded to local governments in Washoe County for public use, including parks, water treatment facilities, a public shooting range, public schools, and roadway expansions. The University of Nevada, Reno would also be awarded one acre of public land for public use, including a campus expansion, according to the bill.

Under the bill, 30 acres of public land will be reserved for affordable housing. Federal land managers will also need to consider if any of the 16,000 acres of public land for sale is suitable for affordable housing before approving the sale. 

“As Washoe County continues to grow, the lack of housing available can increase home prices at a time when inflation is already hurting Nevada families,” said Senator Rosen in a statement. 

The bill would also set aside about 774,000 acres of public land as Wilderness and National Conservation Areas to prevent further development. Nearly 174,000 acres of public land will also be designated as “withdrawal areas” under the bill, meaning they will be open for recreation, but settlement, sale, or development of the land is prohibited. 

Some conservation groups, like the Friends of Nevada Wilderness, praised the bill’s conservation measures, calling it “a milestone in the history of public lands conservation in Nevada.”

“It’s hard to overstate the importance of this legislation for Washoe County and the entire state,” said Shaaron Netherton, executive director of the Friends of Nevada Wilderness. “The conservation, recreation and cultural values of our public lands are increasingly under stress by climate change and the growing demand for public access to our open spaces.”

If passed by Congress, the bill would also expand more than 21,000 acres of land held in trust for the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. 

Daryl Gardipe, the recently elected chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, applauded Rosen and her staff for collaborating with the tribe on the final draft of the bill. 

“This has led to the introduction of a lands bill benefitting all parties in an equitable fashion,” Gardipe said. “We are pleased with the support we received from multiple stakeholders to preserve our culturally important areas, while also allowing the surrounding cities to continue their growth.”

Rosen said she has been working on her Truckee Meadows public lands legislation for years with a wide range of affected groups. Earlier this year, Rosen unveiled a working draft of the bill and collected feedback from hundreds of Nevadans during a public comment period, which she incorporated into the current bill draft.

“My bill strikes a balance between responsible development, permanent protection of hundreds of thousands of acres of Nevada’s public lands, and local community growth. I’ll keep working in the Senate to make sure this legislation becomes law, helping to shape a better future for our state,” Rosen said in a statement.

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