This report summarizes a compliance consultation between the Department of Energy/ Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) and the American Indian tribes and Indian organizations that make up the Consolidated Group of Tribes and Organizations (CGTO). The consultation focused on artifacts removed from the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The report describes consultation actions and recommendations that occurred in compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

Seventeen American Indian tribes having traditional prehistoric or historic ties to lands within and in the vicinity of the NTS study area were invited to participate in this study. Their participation was in keeping with a Native American consultation process that has been developed over a period of seventeen years and has involved more than sixty tribes. Indian people participating in this study were asked to identify and make recommendations about cultural resources that are potentially impacted by the underground testing activities on Pahute and Rainier Mesas, on the Nevada Test Site (NTS). This report focuses on information collected on both ethnobiology and ethnoarchaeology. Data was collected through on-site interviews with officially appointed tribal representatives and through mail surveys. This study was conducted in compliance with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) of 1978 (PL 95 -341) and was in keeping with Department of Energy (DOE) directives to be responsive to this and other laws regarding cultural resources located on DOE facilities. This study built upon previous Native American cultural resource consultation studies conducted on the Nevada Test Site.

This collection of essays addresses the history of Numic-speaking American Indians of the Great Basin–Colorado Plateau–Mohave Desert area since these lands passed into the sovereign control of the United States after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The goal of this study is to revisit historical processes and events that transformed the lives of these Americans so profoundly that their effects are still being felt today. The perspective of contemporary Indians who shared their views with the authors, wrote portions of this history, advised on its production, and reviewed its contents, informed the versions of history relayed throughout this book. The themes explored in this collection interweave oral histories, collected by the authors through interviews with Indian people, and data from primary archival sources and publications. The essays that follow represent a small sample of themes that concern Indian people, who believe that their values, opinions, and version of historical processes and events are seldom portrayed fairly, if at all, in Western literature. This preoccupation with telling their history is all the more relevant in the context of government–to–government consultation between American Indian tribes and federal agencies, wherein productive debates about land management and resource preservation issues hinge on a shared understanding of why the land and its resources are important to Indian people and how Indian people lost control over them. It is precisely under the auspices of such a shared understanding between the Nevada Test Site and Nellis Air Force Base and several Indian tribes and organizations from Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah that this historical study was conducted.

This report presents the findings of a two-day Rapid Cultural Assessment (RCA) to assess potential impacts to resources important to American Indians from gravel road improvements associated with the Shoshone Mountain phase of the MNS Wind Farm Project on the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The study was conducted by the American Indian Writers Subgroup (AIWS), an official committee of the Consolidated Group of Tribes and Organizations (CGTO). The CGTO is composed of 16 tribes and 3 Indian organizations that have historic or cultural ties to the NTS. The work was facilitated by Dr. Stoffle from the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona (UofA). Funding was provided by DOE/NV.

This report outlines the legal requirements for consulting with American Indian groups and identifying their traditional cultural values that could be impacted during site characterization activities associated with the high level nuclear waste disposal facility project at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. More specifically the report discusses culturally relevant methods for (a) identifying persons knowledgeable about traditional cultural resources associated with properties or sites where project site characterization activities may occur and that have value to contemporary American Indian groups, and (b) implementing consultation procedures with concerned Indian peoples as required by federal policy. The report is divided into three chapters. Chapter One discusses the two federal policies most relevant to the identification of American Indian traditional cultural values and specifies which American Indian groups should be consulted during site characterization. Chapter Two provides a Native American perspective on traditional cultural values and identifies the types of values that are most likely to be of concern to Indian people and be located in the Yucca Mountain study area. Chapter Three presents a plan for identifying traditional cultural values and for consulting with the relevant Indian groups.

These photographs offer illustrations of the people, places, and resources along the two prominent pilgrimage trails in the Timber Mountain Caldera region. These photographs were taken during the 2006 Timber Mountain Caldera Landscape Study, the 2001 Shoshone Mountain Wind Farm Environmental Assessment, and 1999 NTS Rock Art study.

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.

This book examines the long -term consultation partnership involving a federal agency, a group of American Indian tribes, and a team of anthropologists. This book highlights the history, evolution, dynamics, and results of the consultation relationship between the U.S. Department of Energy Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) and 20 tribes and organizations composed of ethnic Numic-speaking Western Shoshone, Southern Paiute, and Owens Valley Paiute -Shoshone people. A team of applied anthropologists currently affiliated with the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson (UofA), and a team of archaeologists from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), a unit of the University and Community College System of Nevada in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, respectively, have provided technical assistance and contract consulting services to the Indian tribes and the DOE/NV, first on the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office (YMSCO) and, in the past decade, on the Nevada Test Site (NTS). During the early stages of the consultation relationship, the culturally affiliated Indian and pan-Indian entities unified themselves into a single indigenous organization, the Consolidated Group of Tribes and Organizations, or CGTO, for the purpose of defending their collective interests in the lands and resources comprising the NTS in south –central Nevada. Since 1994, this new Indian organization has consulted with the DOE/NV on an increasingly wider range of issues that affect Indian cultural, religious, and resource values on and around the NTS. The book also examines these cultural and religious values regarding traditional lands and resources, and the cultural significance of resources, objects, places, and landscapes within the boundaries of this facility that have been affected by DOE/NV mission activities. The consultation relationship was initiated, and continues into the present, as a result of the implementation of a series of federal environmental laws and regulations that require consultation with American Indian tribal governments when activities conducted with federal funds, in federal facilities, or both, have the potential to adversely impact traditional American Indian resources and cultural practices. Most notable among these is the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), which was passed by the United States Congress in 1978. Prior to that time, cultural resources were managed mainly in accordance with the provisions set forth in Sections 106 and 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

On August 10, 1994, the Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) published a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire Nevada Test Site (NTS) and seven off -site locations in the State of Nevada. In the EIS, DOE was to consider the following site management alternatives: (A) continue current operations and interagency project activities and programs. (B) discontinue operations, except those related to monitoring, security, and human health and safety, and decommission, (C) expand the use of the NTS to support national defense and nondefense programs, including waste management and storage, transportation, environmental restoration, and research and development; or (D) implement alternate use of withdrawn lands for new programs including unprecedented public access to remote areas for education and recreation. The structure, organization, and content of the EIS document were to be developed in accordance with the law, and included an assessment of long -term consequences of pro-posed alternatives, evaluation of mitigation strategies, and development of a resource management plan. Thus, in 1995 DOE/NV released a Draft Implementation Plan that documented the agency's approach for preparing the EIS, an important aspect of which is the incorporation of public opinion. In the same year, DOE/NV began consultations with the CGTO as required by NEPA, by the President's Council on Environmental Quality (Federal Register 43: 230, 44978 -56007), and the American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Government Policy, as amended in 2000. The CGTO appointed seven of its representatives (the American Indian Writers Subgroup or AIWS) to research the potential adverse effects of each action alternative on American Indian resources, to propose mitigation alternatives, and to outline future involvement of the member tribes and organizations in NTS programs and activities. The result of this endeavor was unprecedented, in that DOE agreed to include excerpts of text prepared by the AIWS in the main body of the EIS document and to publish the American Indian Assessment: Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-site Locations in the State of Nevada: A Native American Resource Document in its entirety, as Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996).

On August 10, 1994, the Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) published a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire Nevada Test Site (NTS) and seven off -site locations in the State of Nevada. In the EIS, DOE was to consider the following site management alternatives: (A) continue current operations and interagency project activities and programs. (B) discontinue operations, except those related to monitoring, security, and human health and safety, and decommission, (C) expand the use of the NTS to support national defense and nondefense programs, including waste management and storage, transportation, environmental restoration, and research and development; or (D) implement alternate use of withdrawn lands for new programs including unprecedented public access to remote areas for education and recreation. The structure, organization, and content of the EIS document were to be developed in accordance with the law, and included an assessment of long -term consequences of pro-posed alternatives, evaluation of mitigation strategies, and development of a resource management plan. Thus, in 1995 DOE/NV released a Draft Implementation Plan that documented the agency's approach for preparing the EIS, an important aspect of which is the incorporation of public opinion. In the same year, DOE/NV began consultations with the CGTO as required by NEPA, by the President's Council on Environmental Quality (Federal Register 43: 230, 44978 -56007), and the American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Government Policy, as amended in 2000. The CGTO appointed seven of its representatives (the American Indian Writers Subgroup or AIWS) to research the potential adverse effects of each action alternative on American Indian resources, to propose mitigation alternatives, and to outline future involvement of the member tribes and organizations in NTS programs and activities. The result of this endeavor was unprecedented, in that DOE agreed to include excerpts of text prepared by the AIWS in the main body of the EIS document and to publish the American Indian Assessment: Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-site Locations in the State of Nevada: A Native American Resource Document in its entirety, as Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996). In 2002 and 2008, reports were prepared that addressed American Indian responses to issues raised by the federally mandated five and ten year supplement analyses. This process involved looking at the 1996 Environmental Impact Assessment conducted to consider whether the issues Indian people assessed are still being addressed by the EIS and whether new issues have arisen that would require agency action such as a new Environmental Impact Statement assessment. Included in this collection is the original Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996), the 2002 Supplement Analysis and the 2008 Supplement Analysis. These efforts triggered a new Environmental Impact Statement which was completed in early 2013.