Water is life, especially in the desert. The Indigenous people of the area today known as Southern Nevada know this. 

The Las Vegas Wash, for example, was once an important trading ground for the Southern Paiutes who lived by Sunrise Mountain. Prior to the intrusion of white explorers and settlers, small groups or “bands” of Southern Paiutes hunted, gathered and farmed freely along the mountains and Colorado River tributaries in Southern Utah, Southern Nevada, Southeast California and Northern Arizona. 

South of the Southern Paiutes, the Mojaves’ domain included the Ireteba Peaks around modern-day Nelson, Searchlight and Laughlin, Mojave National Preserve and down to Needles and Blythe, California. Known in their native language as Pipa Aha Macav, or “the people by the river,” the tribe traditionally relied on wildlife migration to the Colorado River to sustain them. 

The three federally recognized tribes that reside in Southern Nevada today are the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiutes and the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe. As the original stewards of the land, they remain concerned with the management of water and other resources for the sake of future generations. 

“That’s part of our way of life—not living for today, but looking seven generations ahead,” says Las Vegas Paiute Tribe Chairman Benny Tso. “We have to be aware of where we’re at with that precious resource. It’s a gift from the creator that was given to us to survive.”

Today, the tribes have found other resources to sustain themselves—they’re leading the way on solar energy in Indian country, they’ve established formidable industries in cannabis and tourism, and they continue to educate and bring cultural awareness to non-Native people and entities. 

For Native American Heritage Month, the Weekly spoke with tribal leaders in Southern Nevada about their histories, culture and how they use their resources to ensure a better future for their relatives and neighbors.

Moapa Band of Paiutes

The word Paiute comes from the Ute language with “pa” meaning water, but the Southern Paiutes refer to themselves as Nuwu or Nuwuvi. Traditionally, they lived in decentralized groups and would camp along springs, rivers and lakes in the arid Southwest. 

“We had small bands, 30 to maybe 50, spread out because of the natural resources. [All] people can’t live in one area without consuming all of the natural resources,” says Darren Daboda, tribal historic preservation officer for the Moapa Band of Paiutes.

The Old Spanish Trail and Mormon settlements in the 1800s and the arrival of the railroad in Southern Nevada changed that paradigm forever, exacerbating a slave trade of Nuwu people, disrupting the delicate desert ecosystem and depleting food sources. 

The Moapa Band of Paiutes reservation was established by President Ulysses Grant by executive order in 1873. Two years later, the government shrank it from 2.4 million acres to just 1,000 acres. 

“We lost hunting rights, water rights, mineral rights,” Daboda says, adding that the initial 2.4 million acres started in present-day Lincoln County, went down to Beaver Dam, Arizona, into Gold Butte and down to Boulder Beach at Lake Mead. 

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order to expand the reservation by 70,000 acres. It currently sits about 25 miles north of Las Vegas, with the Valley of Fire State Park to the east and Interstate 15 running through it. Of the tribe’s 312 enrolled members, a portion live on the reservation. 

As the tribe is working to introduce a bill that would expand its reservation by up to 45,000 acres, they’re leasing much of the land they have for solar development. The tribe led the first large-scale solar project built on tribal land in the U.S., the Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Installation. 

The 2,000-acre, 250-megawatt solar array opened in 2017 and is operated by First Solar. According to the company, it generates enough energy to serve approximately 111,000 homes, with power going to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. 

Behind that followed a 200-megawatt project developed by EDF Renewables on 2,200 acres—enough to power 76,000 Nevada homes, according to the company. A 75-megawatt battery storage system became fully operational in 2023. Thirdly, the 300-megawatt, 2,200-acre Eagle Shadow Mountain Solar Plant developed by Arevon Energy was completed in 2023 and also serves NV Energy.

The projects created hundreds of temporary construction jobs in the local community. NV Energy representatives said the Eagle Shadow Mountain plant brought the utility one step closer to achieving the goal of having 50% of total energy sources be renewable by 2030. 

“We’re the biggest in Indian country for solar. ... We became a partnership with these companies and said, if you’re going to thrive, how are we going to thrive at the same time?” Daboda says, adding that the tribal council is working toward a fourth solar project to be located on the reservation. 

Future economic development efforts may revolve around the tribe’s “truck stop on steroids,” the Moapa Paiute Travel Plaza on Interstate 15. The plaza sells alcohol, cigarettes and fireworks and currently employs 66 people on the reservation. It serves as an important stopping point for people visiting Valley of Fire State Park. 

The tribe has left its mark on the state park’s new visitor center opening November 22, as well as at other natural sites throughout Southern Nevada, Daboda says. 

“We’ve been involved in some of the design and in updating the interpretive signs. We’re also working with Sloan Canyon and Red Rock on an ethnographic study, because Sloan Canyon is working on its own visitor center, too. We want to update that site, and same with the interpretation at Red Rock, because it’s talking about [us] in past tense. We want to make it forward to the present,” he says.

Daboda says the tribe also has worked with the Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway and Desert National Wildlife Refuge (which includes the Corn Creek, Ash Meadows and Pahranagat areas) to conduct ethnographic studies and provide interpretive signage. 

It’s important to educate visitors on the distinct history and customs of the Southern Paiutes, and work toward greater collaboration in the future, he adds. 

In the land acknowledgments Daboda does with the solar companies that lease land from the Moapa Band of Paiutes, he emphasizes the importance of unity when working toward a brighter future for not just Natives, but for everyone on the planet. 

“I always end the land acknowledgment with the message that there’s one race, and that’s the human race. Collectively, we need to get along. For us to continue on this planet consuming its natural resources, it’s not going to be viable in the future,” he says. 

“Our philosophy is a holistic approach. How do we preserve and protect and teach the next generation? We have to have hope.”

Las Vegas Paiute Tribe

A land acknowledgment is not merely a performance; it’s an expression of intent to have good, reciprocal relations with the tribe.

“A land acknowledgment is the bare minimum that any entity or business or organization can do. It’s really about the relationship and what’s being done moving forward,” says Las Vegas Paiute Tribe enrolled member Fawn Douglas. 

Douglas performed a land acknowledgment at the recent opening of Las Vegas’ Civic Center. The gallerist (see page 36) also serves as Ward 3 Art Commissioner for the City of Las Vegas. 

“It’s on Paiute land. ... But I’ve worked closely with the City of Las Vegas on a number of things [including] educating the public about Southern Paiute history. It felt really good to do it there, to be able to acknowledge and really welcome the people to Southern Paiute lands,” Douglas says. 

Less than two miles away from Civic Center, Las Vegas Paiute Colony is a 31-acre reservation in an urban sea. The plot of land north of Downtown was created in 1911 when ranch owner Helen J. Stewart sold 10 acres of her land to the United States to establish a day school and provide homes for the Native American laborers working in and around Las Vegas.

In the 1950s and ’60s, there were several attempts by the federal government to sell the land and relocate the Nuwu to other reservations. Before that could happen, the tribe’s constitution and bylaws were approved by the Secretary of the Interior in 1970 under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. 

In 1983, Congress transferred 4,000 acres north of Kyle Canyon, called Snow Mountain, to the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe. Since, the land has become yet another site for the tribe’s economic development with the opening of a golf course in 1995. About 75% of the tribe’s 48 enrolled members live at Snow Mountain or at the Las Vegas Paiute Colony. 

“Federal recognition is important because it gives us our sovereign right, which we cherish. To be able to provide for our people and have the businesses we have and thrive, that’s what it means. It means our existence is secure,” says Las Vegas Paiute Tribe Chairman Benny Tso. 

Tso relied on that sovereign right when he ushered the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe through ventures into the cannabis industry. The tribe successfully lobbied for the passage of Senate Bill 375 in 2017, which opened the door for legal negotiations on the use and sale of marijuana on tribal lands.

The tribe then contracted with the state and created its policies and procedures. NuWu Cannabis Marketplace opened in 2017 and later added a tasting lounge.

“We opened the largest cannabis dispensary at the time in the nation [at] about 16,000 square feet. Up until 2018, we started packaging and processing our own products and got into some partnerships with other cannabis companies,” he says. 

Deryn Pete, Las Vegas Paiute Tribe Chairman from 2022-2024, set in motion the development of a 110,000-square-foot grow facility and Tso helped get it to the finish line. Tso says it just had its first harvest. 

On November 8, the tribe is combining the two economic drivers—cannabis and golf—to host “the first consumption golf tournament” known as the Vlasic Classic at the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort. The three-course resort at Snow Mountain reservation is considered the first master-planned, multi-course golf facility built on a Native American reservation.

“It’s a charity golf tournament that focuses on the Last Prisoner Project program for wrongfully incarcerated people. ... Whether you consume cannabis or not, it’s going to be a huge event,” Tso says. 

Between the success of the NuWu cannabis brand and the tribe’s golf course (which has weddings booked out through the end of 2026, Tso says), the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe has created abundance from limited economic opportunities. But their business is not all about profits. It’s about keeping the Nuwuvi legacy alive. 

“We’re trying to see how we can improve our economic development while having the land, the culture ... incorporated in our plans. ... That’s what we pride ourselves on—being able to go back to our roots and look at where we came from and incorporate how we walk between 2025 and our traditional cultural ways,” Tso says. 

On the topic of land and natural resources, Tso says it’s important for Indigenous people to have a seat at the table and a platform to share their concerns. 

“The only thing we can do is educate and do our part. We need to take a real look at depleting resources, because without that, there’s no life. Once that’s depleted, there’s no going back. ... We try to be responsible with that and send that message along to our neighbors,” he says. 

Fort Mojave Indian Tribe

The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe isn’t a tribe from just Southern Nevada. Its 42,000-acre reservation is located along the Colorado River in Arizona and California, too.

Today, the tribe has 1,448 enrolled members with about 75% living on the reservation.

“In our history, the United States tried to relocate the Mojave away from our homelands. Those at Fort Mojave remained—and that’s really important, because they did relocate many Mojave to a southern tribe,” explains Tribal Administrator Ashley Hemmers. 

In 1865, the U.S. government created the Colorado River Reservation near modern-day Parker, Arizona. Hundreds of Mojave relocated there, while those at Fort Mojave, a military outpost south of modern-day Bullhead City, Arizona, stayed put. 

In the 1890s, Fort Mojave was converted into a boarding school run by the U.S. Department of the Interior—part of a broader U.S. program of forced assimilation or eradicating Native language and culture. A compulsory education law was passed. Children were separated from their families. The school used forced labor largely for farming, and often children were treated with severe abuse. The school operated until 1930.

During World War II, some Mojave children were sent to Poston Japanese internment camp in the Colorado River Reservation in Arizona. 

Today, Hemmers says much of the tribe’s work revolves around “healing and recovery” and building a foundation for families to thrive.

“What we do is rebuild and continue to improve the impacts and move away from the cycles of harm that tried to destroy us. Our community has fought very hard to make sure our children have opportunities that their parents didn’t have,” she says. 

“We do it through soft measurements like education and health. ... We have almost 100% [high school] graduation rate. We have pathways to higher ed. We’ve improved economic metrics for younger families. We’ve worked on housing and economic opportunities that can break cycles of poverty.”

At the tribe’s recent Fort Mojave Indian Days celebration, Mojave and Hopi man and vendor Jonathan Moore, 55, discussed how the generational trauma imposed by the boarding school is waning. 

“There was no language. There was no ceremony. There are people my dad’s and mom’s age that grew up [with that] totally erased. I wasn’t taught my language because they didn’t want me to get in trouble. My daughter, she’s picking it up,” he said.

The celebration on October 17 revolved around youth dancing to bird songs. At the front of the amphitheater, three men stood in a line, each in front of a microphone and with a gourd, an instrument similar to maracas. 

Girls in ribbon skirts and shawls swayed, hopped and moved their arms in harmony with the singing and gourds. Audience members sang and clapped along. The emcee then invited couples 17 and younger to the floor. In ribbon shirts, boys rattling gourds linked arms with the girls and paraded around the amphitheater. Vendors made rounds through the crowds selling lemonade and other treats. 

In its 49th year, Fort Mojave Indian Days is open to anyone in the surrounding area. Because the tribe’s land is divided into so many different jurisdictions, cultural awareness within surrounding communities is crucial, Hemmers says. 

“When we think of Native American Heritage Month or the celebration of culture, we often think of it through a lens of integration so that we can have more acceptance and awareness. We’re all neighbors. We should learn about each other,” she says. 

That integration with the community—Native and non-native—has proven fruitful in other efforts, like the campaign to designate Avi Kwa Ame— which includes the Newberry Mountains near Searchlight and Laughlin—as a national monument. 

“As Fort Mojave people, we believe that’s where we’re created from. That’s where our oral traditions come from. That’s where our history comes from,” Hemmers says. 

A broad coalition of outdoor enthusiasts, city dwellers and Indigenous-led groups who found themselves on the same side as the tribe pushed local governments and congressional representatives and ultimately the president to recognize and establish the National Monument under the Antiquities Act. The 500,000-acre Avi Kwa Ame National Monument was created by President Joe Biden in 2023.

It’s not exactly an instance of “land back” or the return of land to Native Americans, as it requires agreements with multiple jurisdictions and the federal government. The land remains under the Bureau of Land Management. However, the Fort Mojave tribe utilizes its seat at the table to promote land stewardship for the good of all parties involved.

“For Fort Mojave, we have to live through those levels of jurisdiction every day of our life, because we have to engage with Nevada and California and Arizona and engage with the federal government. When we think about land back in our jurisdiction, ... our call is to remind all of the jurisdictions of our responsibilities as stewards of the land to preserve it for the protection of the people who rely on it.” 

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