While lawmakers are meeting in Carson City, they have to debate issues that could affect every corner of the state – including Native Americans living on and off reservations.
Native voters and organizers are making themselves heard, too. There’s a long list of bills that specifically apply to tribal communities and plenty of others that could impact tribal communities in Nevada.
One of the issues lawmakers are considering is whether to protect the Swamp Cedars, which is a Western Shoshone sacred site located in White Pine County.
Another is AB103, which would change the regulations around the excavation of prehistoric Indian burial sites.
Correction: Assembly Joint Resolution 4, which calls on the federal government to expand protections for the Swamp Cedars cultural site, has been amended to request the area either be designated as a National Monument or included within Great Basin National Park.
Delaine Spilsbury, elder, Ely Shoshone Tribe; Teresa Melendez, Nevada Native Vote Project; Stacey Montooth, Executive Director, Nevada Indian Commission; Marla McDade Williams, Lobbyist for the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony