This thesis is a qualitative case study of a risk controversy generated by a proposal to construct a high-level nuclear waste repository on the Goshute Indian reservation in rural, northwestern Utah. Using data taken from local newspapers and public hearings, I examine and compare the claims-making activity of project opponents and project proponents. I explore and analyze variability in claims making along four specific dimensions: risk communication, trust and distrust in science and technology, environmental equity, and tribal sovereignty. My analysis is intended to illuminate the sources of contention between opponent and proponent claims-making groups in this case.

One of the greatest challenges to modem society is the management and disposal of hazardous by-products that have accompanied the industrial advances of the twentieth century. One of the most difficult by-products to deal with has been radioactive waste. Previous research has shown that due to the real and perceived risks associated with this type of waste, the burden of storing said waste has fallen on minority communities, including Native American groups. This research examines the proposed temporary nuclear waste storage facility to be located on the Skull Valley Indian Reservation in Utah. Using an ethnographic case study approach, this research examines the claimsmaking activities of opponents and proponents involved in this information campaign. Of specific interest is the rhetoric that each of these groups employ in an attempt to establish a regime of truth. This research focuses on the prominent rhetorical themes and tactics used by the stakeholder groups vying for supremacy and public acceptance.

The United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Operations Center obtained American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funding to conduct an ethnographic overview of select proposed solar energy zones (SEZs) to augment the research that had been conducted for the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Solar Development in Six Southwestern States (Draft Solar PEIS). The objective of this project was to solicit tribal identification of traditional cultural properties and sacred landscapes, religious and traditional use sites, significant ethnobotanical resources, other sensitive or significant resources (including visual), and tribal perspectives on the direct and indirect effects of solar energy development through oral interviews and on-site visits to proposed SEZs in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) was selected to perform this work, assisted by the University of Arizona’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA). As the project progressed, the list of participating tribes was modified to accommodate changing tribal needs and requests. When the tribe that had requested to participate in an ethnographic study for three of the California SEZs (Imperial East, Iron Mountain, and Riverside East) was unable to participate, the scope of the project was modified. In the Draft Solar PEIS, the high cost of conducting Class I archaeological records searches for the four California SEZs had precluded that research; the current project was modified from ethnographic interviews to a Class I records search for all four California SEZs (Imperial East, Iron Mountain, Pisgah, and Riverside East) by SWCA. BARA conducted ethnographic studies for Amargosa Valley, Delamar Valley, Dry Lake, East Mormon Mountain, Gold Point, and Millers in Nevada (inclement weather prevented visits to Dry Lake Valley North), and for Escalante Valley, Milford Flats South, and Wah Wah Valley in Utah.

These photographs offer illustrations of the people, places and resources in the 9 proposed solar energy zones (SEZs) visited during the Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement.

These four presentations were prepared for the Society for Applied Anthropology's annual meeting in 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. These presentations present findings from the Solar PEIS Native American ethnographic study. / The Ethnographic Research team at BARA in the School of Anthropology, UofA has shifted to what we are calling “ethnography in bits and pieces” for situating American Indian cultural concerns. We wanted to provide essays that would more directly target the resources, places, and landscapes actually identified by tribal representatives during field work. We chose to negotiate the essays with the tribal representatives. We chose to have the essays follow the discussion of tribal cultural concerns and thus be directly responsive to those concerns. This session provides cases from three studies and assessment of this new methodology.

These four presentations were prepared for the Society for Applied Anthropology's annual meeting in March 2013 in Denver, CO. These presentations present findings from the Solar PEIS Native American ethnographic study. / The United States government is considering areas in the five states for the large-scale solar energy development. These solar energy zones (SEZs) contain important Native American resources ranging from traditional use plants, healing places, and trail networks. During the environmental impact assessment, Numic-speaking peoples shared with University of Arizona ethnographers their thoughts regarding cultural uses of the SEZ and associated resources and potential impacts. This session focuses on unique cultural resources and the cultural implications of solar energy development.

Archaeobotanical evidences for the presence of wild plants at Fremont archaeological sites are numerous. However, little can be positively argued for why those plants are present, if they were used by site inhabitants, and how they were used. Additionally, there are likely several wild plants that were used but that do not appear in the archaeobotanical record as pollen or macrobotanicals, the two most commonly identified plant remains. I argue that it is possible to provide better interpretations for how and why the Fremont used plants by researching how their historic counterparts, the Goshute, Shoshone, Ute, and Southern Paiute, used the same plants that are identified at prehistoric sites. I further argue that a phytolith typology for Fremont archaeology can provide more insight into prehistoric plant use. I demonstrate its utility through a phytolith analysis of ground stone tools from Wolf Village, a Fremont site in Utah County.

This study is about the impacts of the transportation of low level radioactive waste (LLRW) on American Indians. The terms American Indians, Native Americans, and Indians are used interchangeably throughout this report to refer to people who are members of tribes in the United States. The information contained in this report is valuable to non -Indian individuals, communities, and governments as well as to the tribes and the U.S. Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) for which it was prepared. Many of the individuals who agreed to participate in this study asked if their non -Indian neighbors were also being given the opportunity to share their views and perspectives on the transportation of LLRW near and through their neighborhoods. Although this study was designed to include only Native Americans, it can serve as a model for additional studies in non –Indian communities. American Indian tribes have a unique status as sovereign nations within the U.S., and this study was designed to address that relationship.This study includes an assessment of social and cultural impacts. One type of impact assessment concerns the estimation and communication of risks associated with potentially dangerous technologies or substances. Such an assessment, a technological "risk assessment," is generally conducted by natural or physical scientists and focuses on the probability and magnitude of various scenarios through time (Wolfe 1988). The specialists who conduct the assessment believe their estimates reflect the "real risks" of a technology or project because the estimates were made using scientific calculations. This study is not a risk assessment. Instead, this study pays attention to the public perceptions of impacts and risks. Like other social scientists, the researchers and American Indian partners who designed and conducted this study focus on public perceptions and frame the discussions in terms of locally defined values and concerns.This study involves 29 tribes and subgroups and is therefore very complex. Every effort has been made to present information systematically to help the reader make sense of what is being presented. Information about the tribes is presented in the same order throughout the report.