DEAN BARLESE: 

Black Rock, the playa, has always been a special place way before the coming of Burning Man, and it still holds a special meaning to us. In sacred areas we can see from the playa, you can look in every direction, and there are sacred mountains within healing range. So it’s always special to be out there. 

STUART:

So, way back in 1990 when we first got the crazy idea to move the Burning Man from San Francisco where it was born, out to the Black Rock Desert where it stands now, one of the big reasons that we chose this particular site was because it seemed empty. It seemed lifeless, void; middle of nowhere, right? 

And we used to describe it with words like that in all of our literature. We used words like “wasteland,” “wilderness,” “vacant,” “empty.” I remember a Black Rock Gazette headline that was “Welcome to Nowhere.” As if it wasn’t even a real place at all, and certainly not anyone’s home – except I don’t know, maybe later there was the whole “Welcome home” thing – but, nowhere.

Well. To be fair, to a city eye, the Great Basin country out there, it can look like a whole lot of nowhere. This is black sky country at night. One of the lowest population densities on the continent. And just as the scarcity of wildlife out on the playa is not true, it’s belied by the richness, the fecundity of the surrounding hills, people have lived around the Black Rock Desert for like tens of thousands of years. They lived there long before it was a desert, when it was still one giant, fertile lakebed. And the descendants of those people are still here among us; they still live on this same land.

Maybe it’s because we thought of the playa as a destination, and everything else as a series of in-between-places seen outside the car window. And honestly, we’re not the first to fall for this con. To the Anglo-American mind the whole Great Basin, all of Nevada, has traditionally been more about getting somewhere than actually being somewhere. 

First, getting out to a new life on the Oregon Trail. And then to the big ka-ching of the California gold fields. And then the second ka-ching of the Nevada silver fields. And then maybe a ride on the transcontinental railroad, with a whistle-stop in Reno for a card game, or a quickie divorce, or if you’re Johnny Cash, to shoot a man “just to watch him die.”

It was already 1844 — think about that, 1844 — when John Fremont, the so-called “Pathfinder” of the old west came through, making this, seriously, one of the very last — if not the very last — first contact in North America. We’re talkin’ 250 years after Jamestown, and most of a decade after the Cherokee had already been ethnically-cleansed from their ancestral lands and driven down the Trail of Tears.

So this Fremont guy, who named a lot of the things around here, he comes down to us through the ages as kind of a little popinjay, an arrogant little fellow. He fancied himself a hero of Manifest Destiny. Now, to be fair, in his journals he writes pretty well of the people he found here. But he especially loved their fish. He just went on and on about the “salmon-trout” that he declared the tastiest he may have ever eaten. But, Jim, he got everything else wrong. He named the lake for one of its islands, a tufa formation that reminded him of woodcuts he’d seen of the pyramids of Egypt. 

Of course the lake already had a name for thousands of years, not Pyramid Lake, but the cu-yui pah.

And the people who were so nice to him were not the paviotso, as he wrote in his journals, but the Paiute. Or more accurately in their language, the Numa, which means simply, the people.” And they were part of a far-flung tribe that spanned the entire Great Basin, from California to Utah, from Oregon to Arizona. Connected, interrelated bands of hunter-gatherers, living off this land since western civilization was, was a gleam in the eye of some dirt farmer in the Indus River Valley. And still living here today.

DEAN: 

One time this place was covered in trees, grass, a lot of water. It was way different than today. Way back when they had water, it was a place to gather, fish, roots and berries, willows to make baskets with. 

STUART: 

Dean Barlese is a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe, a spiritual leader on the reservation, and a longtime Burner. 

DEAN: 

And it will always be a special place. Even before Black Rock City came, Burning Man came, we would take my dad, my uncles, out there. We’d do prayers out there because we knew the names of the people who survived out there. The ones that survived the massacres.

I would explain to our people that’s how our connection is to the land out there. 

In some of the teachings, the whirlwinds are the ancestors wandering, checking where they used to wander out again. It’s not a bad thing.

ALLIE:

Is it a blessing? Or is it a…

DEAN:

It’s kind of like a blessing. You just tell ’em, “You guys go on. We are okay here.”

STUART: 

After all those years of driving through Paiute country on the way to and from Burning Man, and seeing the towns of Wadsworth and Nixon through the windows as a series of in-between-places, I thought it was time to go to the Rez instead of through it, devote some real time to talking to the people who live there, the Pyramid Lake band of Paiutes.

I wanted to understand their history, their culture, their hopes, their dreams. And I very much wanted to hear how the Burning Man community can be better neighbors to these people. So my producer Allie and I hit the road to find out more.

ALLIE:

We figured that it really wasn’t the kind of story we could do on a Zoom call, so we went on a road trip. And on the course of this episode we’re going to stop at a few places on the reservation. 

We had super fascinating conversations, conversations that looked back to the ancient past and looked forward to hopes and plans for the tribe’s future. We also heard about interactions and feelings regarding Burning Man’s impact on the residents – and on the roads – of the Rez. 

At least some of you out there in listenerland are cueing up this podcast as you drive to Black Rock City. S ave this episode for the last leg of your playa drive. Switch it on when you make that turn onto Nevada State Route 447 and enter the ancestral land of the Pyramid Lake Paiute. We’re riding right along with you. 

STUART: 

Dateline: Nixon, Nevada. We’re here at the Pyramid Lake Museum and Visitor Center, where we’re going to meet with Director of the Museum Billie Jean Guerrero to learn about the long history of the Paiute people who live in these parts.

STUART: 

Let’s start at the beginning. I don’t know how we fit 15,000 years of history into a one hour show, but that’s about how long we know that people have been living in this area, right?

BILLIE JEAN: 

Yes, that’s correct. So one of the ways that we can confirm that is with our petroglyphs that are here, and they’re carbon dated at 14,800 years old. So that means that there were people around this area for at least that long.

STUART: 

So what are some of the other archeological finds of interest of the people who were here? 

BILLIE JEAN: 

Well, people, when the water was a lot higher, they lived in the caves. So over the years, there’ve been a lot of archeological digs where they’ve been able to locate some of the food sources or basketry, also sandals made out of sagebrush or other materials. 

STUART: 

So Pyramid Lake, I understand, is the last and deepest part of what used to be a very large lake in the Pleistocene, and I imagine the people have probably been living along that water since even longer.

BILLIE JEAN: 

Yes. So with the ancient Lake Lahontan, Pyramid Lake is the largest remnant of the ancient lake. Naturally, you know, for survival, wherever there were water sources that would be a place where people gathered, lived, and hunted and fished as well.

STUART: 

And it still is today?

BILLIE JEAN: 

Yes, it sure is.

STUART: 

The Pyramid Lake Reservation, tell me about how that was created or when.

BILLIE JEAN: 

It wasn’t declared a reservation until 1874, and that was by President Ulysses S. Grant. And at that time, reservations in Northern Nevada were established by Executive Order, which wasn’t the ordinary thing; normally, reservations had been established through treaty. And we’re not a treaty tribe, but we are set up as an Executive Order. What that means for us is that a President can come along and also diminish the tribe through Executive Order because it’s a piece of paper. They write their name on there. And it could be very detrimental. 

And so for the Pyramid Lake Paiute, it’s very important that we retain as much of our culture as we can, including the language, because that is our identity. In order to maintain as a tribal entity, then we need to also work on maintaining the culture.

STUART: 

Let’s talk about a few of those words, I mean, the word “Paiute” is a word applied by other people to your people, right?

BILLIE JEAN: 

Yeah. We normally refer to ourselves as the Numu, and that means “the people.” As in many tribes, they refer to their tribal, in their own languages as “the people.” 

One of the stories or backgrounds that I’ve heard is that when settlers first came to this area… So in 1844 was our first contact with the non-Indian. John C. Fremont. He was the first non-Indian to come through this way. And after that, there were a lot more settlers that came through, but normally people looking for water. And in the Paiute language water is referred to as ba. We would say, ba ute means “water this way.” Then that was interpreted to be as our name: ba ute, or Paiute, is how that evolved. And so that’s what we’re called as far as our tribal name in, I guess you would say English, but it’s not even English.

STUART: 

Well, in the larger world of the Numu, though, I understand different bands are associated with their primary foodstuff?

BILLIE JEAN: 

So the Pyramid Lake Paiute here within this area, we refer to ourselves as the Cui Ui Ticutta, meaning “the fish eaters.” So the Cui Ui is an ancient sucker fish only found here at Pyramid Lake. So as our primary food source then, we’re named after the fish, and obviously we’re the fish eaters. Further south where the Walker River Paiute tribe is, they’re referred to as the Agai Ticutta. And Agai is the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. Well, we have both fish here, the Cui Ui and Agai. But some of the other tribes in the local area, again named after some of their food sources; they might be called Cahmuh Ticutta, meaning the “rabbit eaters,” the Toi Ticutta are the “tuli eaters.” They may be named after animals that they eat, or could be plants and seeds that they’re familiar with eating as well.

STUART: 

The Numa language is under serious threat, with only around 20 surviving fluent speakers. But Billie Jean is part of the effort to keep the language alive. She’s even taking Numu classes herself, yay. We asked her to teach us a few words.

BILLIE JEAN:

In the Numu language there’s a lot of important words, and that’s one of the areas that we’re really working on is, you know, creating fluent speakers. So as students, which we’re all pretty much students still learning more of the language, try to be more conversant in the language and being able to hold conversation with somebody, so, it’s a whole learning process. And we do have active classes.

STUART: 

So how do I say “Hello”?

BILLIE JEAN: 

Hello. Generally we’ll say how uh, and it’s adapted after the English language. So traditionally greeting somebody, you know you would ask something more intimate about where they came from or what they might be doing. But nowadays we just say how uh meaning “How are you?”

ALLIE: 

How about, “Thank you?”

BILLIE JEAN: 

Thank you. We say pe-shah uh. Anytime we say pe-shah is a very positive word and reflecting, you know, good feelings. So pe-shah is good.

STUART: 

Was a lot of the language lost during the era of the boarding schools?

BILLIE JEAN: 

I would say yes. That’s probably the primary area where we lost language because, in the boarding school era, children were taken from their homes and taken to a boarding school where they would reside full time. Children would be as young as five years old and they were discouraged from practicing any of the culture, including speaking the language. So, in some boarding schools, they were very, very strict where they would punish the children for speaking the language, which in turn discouraged people from wanting to speak let alone teaching their children to speak the language. So the boarding schools were a big part in the loss of language.

STUART: 

Where were the children from here taken?

BILLIE JEAN: 

My dad went to school at boarding school as well as my aunts. My oldest aunt, she ran away about three times. And after that, then, they quit sending her back. Other children, you know, they travel long distance to go from the school to get back home. I think in this area the weather would allow that, but further north, like in Canada and up in those cold regions, the children didn’t always make it home.

ALLIE: 

Billie Jean also told us the Numu name for the pyramid in the lake’s current-day name.

BILLIE JEAN: 

So we call the pyramid Wono, which to us is a burden basket, but if you turn it upside down because it’s a cone shape, it looks like what is out there now. But Fremont with the pyramid shape, it reminded him of the pyramids of Egypt. So that’s how that name stuck there.

ALLIE: 

Are there other names of places like towns in this area that come from the Numu, like Winnemucca or any other names that people might not realize are associated with your tribe?

BILLIE JEAN: 

Yeah, like you mentioned, Winnemucca derives from the Paiute language or the Numu language. Truckee definitely is a Paiute name, and other places would be included as well.

STUART: 

I read that Truckee was the guide who showed Fremont where the pass was to get over the Sierras, and that he named the river after him, and the pass.

BILLIE JEAN: 

Yeah, so early contact with the non-Indian, and of course Fremont and his expedition party, they were treated very well by the Paiutes, and he was fed, and he loved the taste of the fish here, the trout, because it reminded him of salmon. You know, it was very positive when they came here. And the old leaders at that time wanted to maintain peace, so they became very friendly with Fremont. And as he was exploring further west and finding ways to get over the Sierra mountains, he used the Paiutes from here to help lead them over the hill. So not only Truckee, but Poncho and others even fought in the Mexican War with Fremont. 

STUART: 

Oh, wow. 

BILLIE JEAN:

And they were given medals, gold medals. When Truckee passed away and his medal, he made it very well known that he wanted to be buried with that medal. And so they buried him with it. Poncho’s medal we actually had here on display in the museum as a loaned item from the Poncho family, which was quite interesting.

STUART:

So intercultural relations seemed to go pretty well for a while – but then not so well.

BILLIE JEAN:

Yeah, so, in 1860, there were two Paiute girls that went missing from here. Of course everybody was out wanting to find them, including the family. But there was a, like a trading post called William Station south of here, that’s where they were. But they would not admit that the girls were there, they were hidden away. But when somebody had gone over, they heard the little girls down in a basement area and it was discovered that they were there. 

Well, what happened was the Williams Station got burned down, and some of the people were killed, and that created a panic from the people at Virginia City. So they formed a volunteer army and came out here in May of 1860. That was our first battle. 

They were defeated. They were led by Major Ormsby. But they were not trained, so they lost. When the few that returned again created a panic. And within a few weeks in June of 1860 an organized army came through. And they were held off so that the women, children, and elders could escape north. It was pretty much a draw. But you know, considering they had regiments from California and they were about 600 strong, we still had more manpower than they did.

STUART: 

The tale of the girls disappearing reminds me that some stories never change. Girls still disappear.

BILLIE JEAN:

That’s a current issue. So one of the things besides our historical information that we share with visitors, we have contemporary issues such as missing and murdered indigenous people. We do bring awareness. On May 5th of every year, which is Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Awareness Day, we have a march coming from our local high school, and then we march all the way around on the highway and come back to the museum. And we get about anywhere from a hundred to 200 people coming out because we have a number of families that do have missing relatives. We have people here that have murdered relatives as well. And some of the cases have received justice, whereas other cases they have not held anybody accountable.

ALLIE: 

The Paiute people have suffered a lot and had a lot of hardship, and also the Paiute people are forerunners and precedent setters in retaining water rights, and so nonetheless have had some major successes. Can you tell us about that?

BILLIE JEAN:

Yes. We’ve always been active in protecting our water because Pyramid Lake is a very spiritual lake. We use it, you know, for our healing and wellness. But wherever you go, especially in a desert environment, water is so precious. And a lot of that has to do with our fishery, with the Cui Ui and the trout, because that’s our food source, and that’s our namesake. It’s our interest to protect the water as much as we can for future generations. And when you consider how high the lake used to be, in fact, it had an overflow to a sister lake called the Winnemucca Lake, also known as Mud Lake. So we weren’t just one lake, we were two lakes here. And the Winnemucca Lake was another really important food source because that’s where the waterfowl would be found. That lake dried up about 1935. So after Derby Dam was built, within 35 years it completely dried up. 

Now we have Pyramid Lake left and the water continually goes down. And through litigation and various negotiations, we’ve always maintained that we need that water for the fishery. It’s an important feat, you know, for our ancestors who always maintain to never sell the water and to, you know, do what we can to fight for it. So over the years we’ve been through a lot, a lot of court cases, a lot of precedents that have been made, and finally to a point of being able to sit down at the table with all the major players, and being able to negotiate an agreement where, you know, water can be stored in reservoirs up river, so that in drought years there’ll be something flow to the lake specifically for the fish. 

It’s taken a lot, but the tribe’s been fortunate in that we’ve had good attorneys, we’ve had a good water team, with engineers, and people that fought for the interests of the tribe. So it’s been quite a feat.

ALLIE:

What do people passing through need to know about being respectful of the lake?

BILLIE JEAN:

I think first of all, recognizing that we acknowledge the lake as a very spiritual lake. It’s a living water, and when we talk about respect to the water, we acknowledge our relationship to the water through a prayer. So like when we go to the water, making sure we bless ourselves, wash ourselves off, and then we even talk to the water, you know, asking for a good blessing for our health and wellness and for our relatives, those that might not be feeling good. Other people can do that as well.

ALLIE: 

You may be laboring under the impression that Burning Man participants are the only people who come out this way, but Billie Jean corrected us on that.

BILLIE JEAN:

We get a lot of international visitors; so we’ve had groups here from Africa. You know, I think that’s really the most rewarding thing for me is to connect with other people, because other indigenous people, we find that we have a lot of commonalities, especially with basket work, because they’ll look around, they’ll say, “Hey, we have these at our home, too.” It’s good to make those connections that as human beings, we all have a role in responsibility and protecting the earth, the water, the land, and just having common respect for everyone. We’re more in common than we are different. And we all need to come together and work together to change what’s going on with the earth so that we don’t have all the disasters that are happening. We need to get that balance back and it will benefit everybody.

STUART: 

Relationships between the tribe and the Burning Man community are developing slowly, but healthily, steadily, and showing up in some interesting collaborations. When the Land Art Generator Initiative – LAGI – which you’ve heard about on this program before, held their design competition at Fly Ranch a few years back, one of the winning teams, the Ripple team, collaborated with the museum on an amazing project that Billie Jean told us more about.

BILLIE JEAN:

The Ripple team was responsible for designing a sustainability plan for Fly Ranch, which is property acquired by Burning Man. And they helped us install the garden. They did the research as far as what native plants should be put in there. And we started out with our first phase of mountain plants. Our next phase will be desert plants. And our final phase will be wetland plants, so they’ve been very instrumental in helping us through that collaboration. 

And then when we wanted to build a haba, a shade, the Burners Without Borders actually funded that, to be able to build the traditional shade, the haba, along with putting some picnic tables in there so that our visitors can sit and enjoy the medicine garden, and sit and have lunch. And it’s been a wonderful addition to the museum.

STUART:

Yeah, shade is definitely a shared interest.

BILLIE JEAN:

Yes, in this weather.

STUART:

For anyone who lives out here, right?

Yeah, the haba is beautiful. It actually reminds me a little bit of basket weaving, the way the top is put together.

BILLIE JEAN:

Yeah, and those are willows on top. We need to get some more, and so we need more volunteers.

STUART: 

If you were to give advice to all of the Burners who are passing through town, if you had their ear – you have their ear – what do you want to say to them?

BILLIE JEAN:

Well, be safe when you’re coming through. Follow the rules of the tribe so you don’t get stopped, for one. Just be a friendly coming through knowing that this is an area that we love and we want to take care of, and we want our visitors to take care of it, too.

And come visit the museum. 

STUART: 

So, if you’ve never stopped at the Pyramid Lake Visitor Center and Museum, it’s a must. 

ALLIE: 

Definitely agree. Big plus one. And, the museum gift shop has beautiful handiwork and crafts made by members of the tribe, so if you want to do some shopping there, that’s another way to support the Pyramid Lake Paiute. 

The museum, it’s in a very distinctive and beautiful building designed by the Hopi architect Dennis Numkena. It’s right off Highway 447 next to the high school with, you gotta notice that giant solar array installed by Black Rock Solar. And remember what Billie Jean said about needing help with the medicine garden and the haba? Check the show notes for more information about volunteering possibilities.

Our next stop is on the west side of the lake, a 20 minute drive from Nixon – the little waterside community of Sutcliffe, Nevada. We are still on the reservation, but there’s a different vibe here, far from the interstate with fantastic views of the water.

We’re here to meet with Mervin Wright, the tribe’s director of fisheries, to learn more about the lake and its ecology. Mervin is a former Tribal Chairman and a fierce advocate for the lake and the life it holds, the Cui Ui that gave the people their name, and the Agai or Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, which is a magnet for anglers, and incidentally, Nevada’s state fish. Mervin is an extremely knowledgeable guy. He’s got a Masters in Hydrology, and he talked at length about the complexities of water rights, federal government oversight, species management, and the guy was not pulling any punches in his critiques.

ALLIE: 

He was also kind enough to show us around the fishery and oriented us to the lake.

MERVIN: 

When you drive around Marble Bluff, you’ll see those watermarks at the top. Those terraces. And you see that all around here. You probably see it out there in the Black Rock, too. You’ll see those terraces up at these levels. That was the ancient lake, the sea hu high sten, they call it.

A food web study has been conducted. Utah State University has been conducting these population surveys. We do water quality samples. We do take a sample of the microorganisms, the plankton, try to identify the prevalence of what we’re seeing in the water column. The health of the lake is good. So, our operation, we’ve been raising fish, we’ve been producing trout since 1982. So for 50 years we’ve been raising fish here. And we have introduced Cutthroat Trout from Summit Lake and from other lakes, but they have evolved and adapted and adjusted to this system, becoming Pyramid Lake Cutthroat Trout.

We can produce over a million Cutthroat Trout and stock ’em into the lake. However, once we started looking at the food web, we don’t want to overstock Cutthroats into the lake and offset that balance of the food web. So the food web study is critically important with what we do with production. 

The target we have today is a target that’s based on maintaining the balance of our food web and the lake. Anglers were complaining at the conclusion of the fishing season that the fish weren’t hitting, fish weren’t biting. I mean, the fish were swimming right by their lures as they’re looking at them in the water. And a part of that is saying, okay, then there must be enough food out there for them to not be hungry to hit those lures and flies, or whatever they’re fishing, using to fish. So the economy, the revenue strain that the tribe receives, you know is based on our production, is based on the production of the lake. We want full access to the river for our fish. No restrictions. I mean, natural reproduction is the goal, is basically something that we want to see happen every year. And again, they were here before us. They should have access to the river. Who are we as human beings to stop that?

ALLIE:

So what do you think, or in your estimation, what do you feel the main mission is of the fishery in Pyramid Lake?

MERVIN: 

Well, it is about sustaining our fishery population. It’s both the Cui Ui fish, the Cutthroat Trout, Cui Ui chub. And I only say those three fish species, those are the natural. Now we have perch and carp, and there’s some channel cats, catfish that tend to be here, mostly at the mouth, at the delta. Our goal is to sustain a fishery, you know, that’s manageable, that is going to complement the food web, and be maintained to a point where the survival of the fish species is one that is going to take monitoring versus management. So we can monitor the health of the lake based on the natural reproduction. So that’s the goal.

There’s the pyramid. Okay. So you see that white line right there on that rock formation? That’s that 80 foot decline from when Newland’s project was constructed. Now the higher terrace I was telling you about, you could see it here, right about mid range in the mountain. You can see that terrace right there.

STUART:

So that’s like the 900 foot line, when the full lake was full? 30,000 years ago?

MERVIN:

10,000. 

STUART: 

Okay. 

MERVIN: 

And you could see it all the way. Wherever you look at the hillside, you could see that terrace, you know. And when you come up around Marble Bluff, you can see it right at the top. That’s where the high level of Lake Lahontan, our ancient lake, the Seehuhaistan, that’s where that was at. 

ALLIE:

And from where we are, where’s the stone mother?

MERVIN: 

It’s just to the right of the pyramid in that rock formation down there. 

ALLIE: 

What about this big island?

MERVIN:

Anaho Island?

ALLIE: 

That’s where the pelicans go?

MERVIN:

A lot of them do. Yeah, they, there’s a nesting area out there. Yeah, that’s probably where they’re at now, if not flying around down towards Stillwater, too.

What happened through this 10,000 year period, about 8000 years ago, there was a huge seismic event, a strike slip. The east side went north and the west side went south. And when that happened, that’s when the Truckee River turned north in Wadsworth. It used to flow out into the Carson Sink, as did the Walker. But when it happened, the Walker turned east and the Truckee turned north. And so the water levels then were causing the river to shift and turn. So, you know, 6,000 years later, here we are with the elevations where they are.

STUART: 

So while we were in Sutcliffe, we got a chance to visit with another former Chairman of the tribe. His name is James Phoenix, a retired cop and ex-Marine, and a pretty lovely fella.

ALLIE:

James is charming and very friendly. He actually jumped right in and started interviewing us. 

JAMES:

Have you seen the ups and downs and from the beginning to where you’re at today? Or how’s it going for you as far as that goes?

STUART: 

We did eventually get around to asking him some questions, starting with getting him to help us understand the big challenges facing the tribe, and how the Burning Man community can help. 

JAMES:

It’s tough to maintain the state highway plus our own highways. Some of our communities here just don’t have a lot of money to maintain as you would if you’re in town somewhere, or in Reno or something like that. So it makes it rough like that. 

And then we’re so far away, it’s not like a 10 minute drive, and here you are, you can go to work. Some of ’em, they have to drive all the way to Carson or have to drive to Reno or have to go to Fernley, and it’s kind of wear and tear on the ride. You know? It makes it tough to survive as far as trying to get ahead, like you would. 

So if you just take this community here, it’s relying a lot on grants and funding, and our federal government, so it kind of restricts us, but it also helps us. But we’re really trying to improve upon that, so we can kinda be like a county of our own. The government has set us up like that, but we haven’t been able to get over the hump to move that forward.

Some reservations have done great because they have external revenue coming in such as a casino where they make millions, and they can support social services programs, they can support victim services programs. Whereas some tribes, not just us, other 28 tribes in Nevada are even worse off than we are. And they rely on the federal government to provide them with funding, and it’s limited, and it’s restricted. And you know we don’t have much to deal with. 

A lot of, like myself, I was from that generation where I went away to go and work, and leave the reservation. And my dad and mom stayed here. I went away to do all that, to pursue a career, and do all those things. And I come back, and I’m here to give. But it’s… You know, a lot of the generations are not going to stick around because they gotta go to town to work. 

To work here on the Rez, as we call it, you don’t make a lot of money. The cost of living isn’t a whole lot, but still, it’s pretty rough. You get kind of bogged down. You got to try to fight through that to look forward. It’s not easy, ya know, because some folks don’t, it’s challenging for them as a whole. You know, there’s a few that’ll rise to the top, but there’s a few others. They’re pretty much done. And this is tough here for them.

But they love living out here and they love to claim this as their own, because you know as native people we’re very proud and this is our home, and we’re very proud of that. 

There’s those challenges that come along. Economically, we just haven’t been – this tribe, I could say as a chairman – we just haven’t been able to get over the top to bring in some external revenue to help support our programs. That’s the challenge. 

That’s why when the Burning Man community decides to help support some of our programs, that’s a big win. And that’s with something that one of the participants, she brought up yesterday, she was talking about, you know, some of the communities, the camps I guess they’re called, want to donate to tribes, specifically our tribe. Or even Gerlach is the same way, more than helpful because there’s not a lot of funds that come through there. So that makes it tough. 

ALLIE:

What are some good places where Burning Man participants could donate? I think a lot of people don’t know. I donate to the food bank. 

JAMES:

Yeah, there’s a food bank for people. You talked to Mervin already. So his program is hurting for certain, cause he relies on a grant that, you know the interest, and he tries to operate fisheries. There’s not a lot. He’s just barely scraping by. So donating to the fisheries program for science and research is a real big huge deal. 

The other is just like any other town township, you know you have victim services, you have domestic violence, you have social services, the clinic. There’s other places that you could contribute to each one of those programs that are in need, and help the tribe continue to thrive. 

ALLIE:

And it’s possible to donate to all of these? 

JAMES: 

Yes, you just have to get with the tribe, the administration. It’s a way forward for them. That kinda puts it in their hand, that we need to do something because someone wants to contribute to help the tribe.

STUART:

The Burning Man organization has…

JAMES:

Yes, too. Yes they have. They help support for lake maintenance. And then they help support the police department and EMS. So they help do that quite a bit. So this is really what everybody think, if you really want to do something. 

STUART:

That’s great. And Allie said, a lot of our community members want to.

JAMES:

Absolutely. And the museum. Again, you know we want to expand that thing. We want to make it… You’ve been down there, right? 

STUART:

Yeah. 

JAMES: So, again, it’s already cluttered and it is tight. They have that property over there so they can make it bigger and better.

STUART: 

We also asked James to tell us hopes and aspirations for the future of the tribe. He is a man with a vision. 

JAMES:

I envision us trying to have some type of external revenue that can bring in some funds, you know, besides grants ‘cause we just lived off grants for all these years. So moving forward, you asked me, we’re having some economic development that can create a good source of funds, and that it’s sustainable, now, and pretty much forever. You know, it’s there. We just have to be able to turn that over and make that happen. 

And we haven’t been able to get over that hump yet, you know, because once we can get past that and see it coming, then all the other things start to happen. You learn how to handle the big money, you learn how to handle the organizations, you to learn how to handle those big negotiations. You learn how to work it. And then you start bringing your people back, and educating them, and they start to get involved and they start learning. And then generations that come. 

You can see the same model in some other reservations. One good one is the Cherokee Eastern band in North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains there. They are a good example, historically, how they started, and where they’re going. They have their casino that really brings in a lot of funds, but they’ve been able to use that to create programs just like their own little township. And that’s the ultimate goal here.

STUART: 

James’s vision for the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe does not involve a casino. It’s all about the Wadsworth Bypass. Now this is a project that would move Interstate 80 traffic to good old State Route 477 skipping the Wadsworth township and the school crossings, and all of the complications of traffic there, and also creating a new commercial or industrial corridor on that little spur. He went on to explain how it could be a game-changer for the tribe.

JAMES: 

So in the future, that’s where the Burning Man traffic will go instead of passing through the township of Wadsworth.

STUART:

So more development down towards 80, where the…

JAMES:

Yeah. I think ideally everyone would say, let’s just leave this alone over here on this west side of the lake, and then leave the north and the east sides alone. We want to leave those nice areas alone. We want to have fishing. We want to have some recreation and beaching, and things like that, but we don’t want to make it so commercial where it’s out of control where having a bunch of things happening. But down south, let’s have it. There’s property there and it’s just a matter of making that commitment.

So one of the things that I saw was how busy the highway is. The Interstate 80 corridor is flooded with traffic during that time period. And good old 447, it is not well maintained, and it gets a ton of traffic. It’s flooded. People, they get kind of bent about that, because “It’s that time again, here they come. There are going to be vendors over at the Smoke Shop. There are gonna be vendors over here. We’re going to have a car wash over there. And cars are going to keep coming and coming and coming. And then they’re going to get where they’re going, and then the mass exodus.” “Here they come,” and then it’s going to flood for X number of hours, and then that’ll be that. 

So it’s really just, you know, it has its cause and effect like any community. Even in Reno, we used to say when the Burners come to town, they’re coming to town!” ya know. And they’re going to hit Wally, and they’re going to grab water, they’re going to do this, they’re going to park that, they’re going to leave this RV there. And I used to do all that stuff and I was just like, “Oh my goodness. So can you just take it with you?”

So last year the message was really “Work on your debris. Tie everything down. Please drive the speed limit. Don’t be in a hurry. You’re going to get there. Slow it down. On the way back be respectful when you come through Nixon” because it’s a quick jump and, “Slow down, man!”

And then the workers have to modify their schedule. So at the clinic they have to modify their schedule for patients that are coming in during that time period. So it does has its cause and effect and the traffic is pretty busy. 

And those who’re in Nixon and in Wadsworth it’s like, “Okay, we’re getting ready, here we go…” So they’re going to just kind of endure what’s happening. And so you just do the best you can to try to be respectful and do what you can to do what’s right. And as you all know, planning’s the most important thing and then the execution of it, and then seeing what you did wrong and try to do it better.

ALLIE: 

We left our chat with James having learned a ton, and we did end the interview with what became our signature kicker question.

STUART:

I like to imagine that a lot of people are going to be listening to this show as they’re driving to or from the event. So if you’ve got a captive audience of Burners in a car, is there anything else you want to tell them?

JAMES:

So hey, Burners in the car, when you’re on your way headed to Reno, Nevada, just think about the historical Reno, Nevada first, you know, as you’re passing through on the highway. Don’t just pass through to town. Think about, “Let me look up Reno, Nevada.” Get on the phone. “Oh, yeah. What happened in Reno, Nevada? Let’s do some trivia about what happened. Who fought here back in 1929? Okay, what happened here? Okay, blah, blah, blah. Alright, now we’re coming to historical Wadsworth, Nevada. Woo-Hoo. Alright, we just passed through there. Here’s a smoke shop,” you know. And then you’re just having some dialogue, and not just listening to the music yourselves. And you’re taking the opportunity to kind of expand your knowledge and history of the Great Basin area as you’re passing through. 

And then think about the Paiute people. And then think about the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, which is in Reno. Think about the reservation itself. And think about the battle at Pyramid Lake. You can look it up. You can find it on Wiki, you can listen to it on a YouTube video, and as you pass by and go, “Holy cow, that happened right there.” 

Same with going through the museum. You want to pass by, put some donations in there. Go ahead. Thinking about it. You asked me what to think about, you know, on your way there. 

STUART:

Yeah. Yeah. 

JAMES:

More importantly, you’re being respectful to the Great Basin, period. Not just us, but everybody. To me, when you pass through somebody’s house, you want to be kind and be polite and ask permission. So please do the same. You don’t want me to come to your house and do that, right? Because do it if you want me to!

STUART: 

After our sojourn in Sutcliffe, it was back in Nixon to buzz by the tribal headquarters to meet the current Pyramid Lake Paiute Chairman, Steven Wadsworth. 

ALLIE: 

I’m just going to chime in with a fun fact: Nixon is where the first Indian agency was established when the federal government formed the Pyramid Lake reservation, which is why the tribe’s headquartered there and not actually at the lake itself.

STUART: 

We sat down with Chairman Wadsworth to talk brass tacks – or more relevantly, steel chains – and to get even more understanding of the Burning Man community’s impact on the area. 

Well, what can people do to be better citizens passing through here? What advice would you give to people?

STEVE:

I would say tie down your loads, make sure nothing falls off your vehicle, and I literally mean nothing. We don’t want to see any trash along any of our roads. We don’t want to see – one of the big ones, is like with people dragging their chains from when they tow their vehicles, because those chains are running along the asphalt, damaging the road, creating sparks, which is in turn creating a fire hazard. This is a desert. Just because there’s water here, there’s very little trees, but when you look out into the desert, you see nothing but cheatgrass and that stuff is just a tinderbox waiting to go up. So when people are driving and they got their chains sparking along the road, it creates a very, very bad hazard. And if you’re in the local area, you know about the fires we’ve had and about how much damage it does all over the countryside, and we want to mitigate as much as possible with that. And that only helps with people tying down their loads, making sure nothing’s dragging. Don’t be throwing cigarette butts out the window ‘cause it’s just all waiting to go up.

STUART:

And I know some of those janky old RVs sometimes break down if there’s an accident. How should people respond to that?

STEVE:

We’ve got our law enforcement out there. We are going to have highway patrol out. They should respond by following what they say, because a lot of times what happens is, an accident will happen, especially during the early stages, and then they will try to go around. Nobody’s directing you to go around. You got traffic coming the opposite direction. It’s a very dangerous highway because it’s two-lane, one going north, one going south, for the entire trip out to Burning Man. You have two lanes total, and there is, for the majority of it, zero shoulder. Shoulders are very steep, and it is a very dangerous highway.

STUART: 

And I guess if you go off on one of those shoulders, you’re just damaging the road more, right?

STEVE: 

Yes. You’re just digging in a little deeper and making it more dangerous for everybody. That is a state of Nevada problem. It is a state highway, and we’ve told ’em about it repeatedly, but of course, like everybody else, they’re under their own budget constraints. But, our number one thing is that yes, it is a very dangerous highway.

Another thing too is, like I said, water is everything for Pyramid Lake. It’s one of those things where we don’t even need to list it anywhere on a strategic plan or anything. We wake up and that’s the first thing on just about everybody’s mind is: How much water is coming down the river and how much water’s staying in the lake? 

It’s trauma for us, I know when we’re driving out to Burning Man, because when you’re driving out to Burning Man and you pass the Nixon area, there’s that whole barren stretch of 25 miles where you see nothing but flat, dried up lake bed. And that only happened in the last 120 years. That’s why we fight so hard because we’ve seen what happens when they steal water upstream, and it’s literally stealing water upstream from, you know, a hundred plus years ago.

It’s very, very rare, but we have had people come and they hook up their RV hoses into the lake and start trying to pump water out cause they need water. Absolutely not. The water is not yours to take. That’s kind of a crazy thing to think about because it is water out in the middle of a desert. But again, you’re on somebody else’s land. You’re on somebody else’s property, and the water, just because it’s there, doesn’t mean you can take it. We fight to protect not only the water, but the reality of it is, for the fish that are in the water. Our ancestral name is Cui Yui Ticutta. And that means ‘fish eaters,’ pretty literal translation, because hundreds of years ago, that’s how we were known. We’re not so much fish eaters anymore, but we’re fish protectors. There’s really not really a Paiute word for protector, but that’s what we do now. That’s what we’ve evolved into.

The water is for nature. Because it’s not just us that rely on it. The animals rely on it, the deer, the antelope, the rabbits, the big horn sheep that we’ve reintroduced. That’s part of the job too, is to educate people because they just assume, “Oh, there’s water. We can use it.”

The one I do have to stress is the no nudity. We do not have nude beaches. It happens every Burning Man, we get so many visitors stop, and they’re out there in the buff. Sorry, guys. We just don’t offer that here.

We do have a couple of family beaches where we don’t allow alcohol. Of course, if anybody’s into fireworks, you can buy fireworks. We have spots along the lakes that are designated firework spots, so that’s always an option. 

STUART: 

Chairman Wadsworth also talked about something we’re all familiar with in Black Rock City: the importance of reading the signs. And he didn’t mean about woo woo signs from the Universe; he’s talking about literal signs posted by the side of the road.

STEVE: 

Everybody take your trash home. If you are dropping off your trash, all of the tribal approved vendors that will be allowed to take trash should have a sign. Man, we’re thankful for Burning Man. They actually gave us these signs that said that they are permitted by the tribe to take trash. 

STUART: 

Yeah. 

STEVE:

So if you’re not seeing that sign, you could be dropping off trash on the reservation with somebody that’s not approved to do so. So pay attention to the signs. Pay attention to all the signs. We have various areas along the lake where people aren’t allowed to go.

STUART: 

And now, we come to the last stop on our trip: the playa itself. (How could it be otherwise?) We were there of course to attend the Golden Spike ceremony. Every year, before Burning Man kicks off, a bunch of the people who build Black Rock City gather in the desert to hammer a little steel peg into the ground to mark the official kickoff of Survey, of city building, all of that. Now this is not just any spot, it is the center of the center of the Man, the exact center of where Black Rock City is gonna spring up, and where the survey is gonna be centered. 

Now this little ritual is kind of a big deal because it’s basically the starting gun for building the whole wild city. And it’s a sweet ritual, Dean Barlese, who you heard at the top of the show, is typically in attendance to give a Paiute blessing at the start of the ceremony. He was out of town this year, but he told us this is what he usually says: 

DEAN:

We’re always asking Di’nah, our creator, Paiute words here give us all a good blessing. And we always mention [Numu word], give us all a good blessing. And we always Piaute name, mention our mother Earth, we have a sacred water, or the sacredness of water and everything else, all of that is life. From the grass to the trees to the animal, basically. That’s a blessing for everything.

I pretty much say just asking for a good blessing, that nothing bad happens to the people that’s coming out, building, and that’s going to enjoy themselves out there, that nothing really tragic happens to them. 

ALLIE: 

Dean wasn’t there, but two other members of the tribe were, and both of them took turns and came up and hit the spike. And one of them was gracious enough to give me a quick interview on the fly about where her identities as a tribal member and as a Burner meet. 

DOUBLE D: 

My name is Double D. I’m a tribal member from the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe, and I am so enjoying this evening. These Black Rock people that make this happen are beautiful inside and out. I’m very honored to be here because they put three months every year of their lives out here. And I just want to say thank you all for taking care of Mother Earth as we are all caretakers. We have to take care of Mother Earth and these are the people to be around to do it.

ALLIE:

Have you been coming to the burn for a while?

DOUBLE D: 

I’ve been here, this will be my 17th year. I missed on two years because of passings and family issues, but other than that, I wouldn’t miss it again.

ALLIE:

And do you come out here with other members of the tribe?

DOUBLE D:

Yes, we do. There’s probably about 12 of us, 10, 12 of us, that come out in about three or four different trailers, and we all hang out, try to stay in the same vicinity. Come out here on Sunday morning, set it up, do the last minute shopping, and then come on back home.

As for Paiute traditions, we say our prayers in the morning to the east. We say our goodnights to the west. We do our nightly prayers, our morning prayers. But other than that, it’s just – it’s all about humans here.

If you have an opportunity, always have your door to, either your tent, your trailer, whatever, but always have it to the east. So that’s when you wake up with all the purest spirit that you can have.

STUART: 

And thus, our road trip comes to an end. This concludes our visit to the home of the Numu. It’s my sincere hope that we’ll all have at least slightly greater appreciation for the amazing people who’ve called this place home long before we ever showed up.

ALLIE: 

And remember we have all kinds of links in the show notes to help you donate, support, and get involved with the Pyramid Lake Paiute. 

And, for those headed to playa, Comfort & Joy is running its annual food drive for the tribe. You can drop off all your non-perishable leftovers at Bunny’s Tacos in Nixon. Look for the food drive signs and big dayglo flags. Google map directions in the show notes.

STUART: 

Please, and thank you, don’t forget about that “Leaving No Trace” part. It’s important, people! And on that note, here’s one more parting message from our friend, Dean.

DEAN:

[Speaking In Numu]

That white man’s thinking. Don’t leave it here.

STUART: 

That’s it for this time around. The next time you hear these voices, it’ll be in September, after the dust has settled from that dusty Black Rock City 2024. 

This podcast is just one example of the cultural work we do at Burning Man Project that is not supported by ticket sales to Black Rock City, but really made possible by donations to our 501c3. Help us continue to support community building around the world, to fund innovative art projects, foster learning and storytelling, and generally just keep the lights on and the fires burning year round, year after year. If you can make a gift of any size to support this work, just go to donate.burningman.org.

Thanks to everyone who made this one possible, our guests, Billie Jean Guerrero, Mervin Wright, James Phoenix, Chairman Steven Wadsworth, Dean Barlese, Double D, and the entire Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe for not just putting up with us, but welcoming us into your world. 

Thanks to my co-pilot, Allie Wollner, my flight engineer, Michael Vav, and the whole ground crew back at HQ, Tyler, kbot, Actiongrl, and DJ Toil. I’m Stuart Mangrum. 

Thanks, Larry.

 

---

more