Skull Valley Band of Goshute Conflict

Describe the Dual Concern Model, being sure to discuss all potential outcomes. Using this conflict for the baseline facts, create hypothetical descriptions of each of those outcomes. (Note: to create these hypotheticals, you may need to go beyond the presented facts. If you do, please explicitly state any assumption or fiction, so I can understand your hypothetical.)

THE GOSHUTES AT A GLANCE GOSHUTE SOVEREIGNTY AND THE CONTESTED WEST DESERT The Goshutes have lived in the Great Basin region sial issue highlights the Goshute struggle for sov- of present-day western Utah and eastern Nevada ereignty and economic independence. since what they describe as time immemorial. Al- though there is controversy in Western science The idea of temporary storage of high-level nucle ar waste first gained the notice of the Skull Valley over the exact date of Goshute arrival in the Great Band of Goshute in the early 1990s. Due to an- Basin, the Goshutes certainly predate non-Indian settlers. As is typical of American Indian his- ticipated delays in the Yucca Mountain High Level tory, contact between the Goshutes and settlers Nuclear Waste Repository, in 1987 Congress cre- included a mix of conflict and violence, mission- ated the Office of the Nuclear Waste Negotiator ary activities, and a few moments of peace. In the with the goal of finding a temporary storage site early 1900s, the federal government established for high-level nuclear waste until Yucca Mountain two Goshute reservations through executive or- opened. The siting process was voluntary, and the agency offered significant monetary compen- ders. sation in exchange for storing high-level nuclear The contemporary Goshutes are comprised of waste. Four Native American nations reached the two federally recognized nations, each with its final stage of consideration: the Skull Valley Band own reservation and governance. The Confeder- of Goshute, the Mescalero Apache, the Tonkawa, ated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation is located and the Fort Mcdermitt Paiute and Shoshone. Al- in the West Desert, straddling western Utah and though the Skull Valley Band was poised to sign eastern Nevada. The governing body of the Con- an agreement for a storage facility, Congress cut federated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation is a funding for the program in 1994, before an agree- five-person tribal council. The Skull Valley Band ment was made. of Goshute Reservation is located approximately forty-five miles southwest of Salt Lake City in the Around the same time, a consortium of energy Skull Valley between the Stansbury and Cedar companies called Private Fuel Storage (PFS) ap- mountains. A general council (all members of the proached the government of the Skull Valley Band tribe) and a three-person executive committee of Goshute about leasing reservation land for a serve as the governing units of the Skull Valley temporary high-level nuclear waste disposal site. Goshute. Private Fuel Storage and the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes signed a lease agreement in 1997, and For nations with limited land holdings, the Gos- the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) approved the hutes have faced many controversial issues re- proposal in 1998. In September 2005, the Nuclear lated to their sovereign use of that land. From Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a license 1996 to 2006, the Skull Valley Band of Goshute for Private Fuel Storage to store 40,000 metric engaged in a controversial battle over the storage tons of nuclear waste on land leased from the Skull of 40,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste Valley Band of Goshute Reservation, but a year on their reservation. This delicate and controver- later, two separate rulings, one by the BIA under 209 WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDETHE GOSHUTES the Department of Interior, and one by the Second, although the Skull Valley Band of Gos- Bureau of Land Management, voided the 1998 hute executive council, under the leadership NRC license, effectively stopping nuclear waste of former chair Leon Bear, was in favor of the storage on the Skull Valley Band of Goshute nuclear waste facility, there were several mem- Reservation. Both the Skull Valley Band of Gos- bers of the tribe who opposed the council's hute executive council and Private Fuel Storage decision. Margene Bullcreek and Sammy Black- contested the rulings. In July 2007, the Skull bear are two prominent opponents of the site. Valley Band of Goshute filed suit against the Bullcreek opposed the site because she believed Department of Interior calling for a reversal of it was part of a pattern of environmental racism the 2006 rulings. targeting Native American lands for the disposal The proposed Skull Valley nuclear waste site of nuclear and other toxic wastes. She also argued stirred up controversy for at least two reasons. that the site would have violated the reservation First, the state of Utah's opposition to the land that she believes is sacred. proposal threatened the Skull Valley Band of Several parties in the controversy considered the Goshute's sovereignty. In 1996, former gover- Skull Valley site ideal for nuclear waste storage nor Mike Leavitt was reported as saying that because of the reservation's geographic seclusion nuclear waste would come to Utah "over [his] and sparse landscape. Indeed, in his advocacy of dead body." As a sovereign nation, the Skull Val- the proposal, Leon Bear noted that the reserva- ley Band of Goshute is not under the jurisdiction tion is already surrounded by toxic facilities that of the state of Utah but rather in a trust relation- damage the landscape, including the Tooele Army ship with the federal government. The Bureau of Depot, Magcorp, and Deseret Chemical Weapons Indian Affairs-the intermediary between Native Incinerator. Storing nuclear waste, Bear argued, Americans and the federal government-ap- might be the best bet for economic development proved the lease agreement between PFS and in an area already considered to be a "waste- the Skull Valley Band of Goshute. The executive land." Ironically, these features have perhaps also council and members of the Skull Valley Goshute prevented the fruition of alternate economic argued that the state's efforts to stop the PFS/ development projects for the Skull Valley Band of Skull Valley nuclear waste storage facility was an Goshute Indians. The Tekoi Balefill landfill, leased affront to Native American sovereignty and on the southwest corner of the reservation, is the self-determination. Several local environmental only current source of economic development on organizations in Utah also opposed the waste the reservation storage facility. Similarly, their objections to the decision of a sovereign Native American nation could be seen as a violation of the principles of sovereignty. 210 WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE