Dreams of the Timbisha Shoshone people for a homeland, a base for financial self-reliance, where they can preserve language and traditional culture and values, are sustained in a draft law before US Congress. The US Senate Committee in Indian Affairs heard testimony in March 21 on bill no. S.2102 which would give the Timbisha Shoshone a place they could legally call home. This, I can say, is a great day," said Senator Daniel Inoyue of Hawaii, who introduced the measure co-sponsored by California Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.
The bill would provide the Timbisha with a permanent land base within their aboriginal homeland, an area within Death Valley National Park and other areas of California and Nevada. Much of this land is administered by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. "I have waited all my life for the moment when my tribe could come before the U.S. Congress and ask the federal government to restore my people's ancestral land," said Pauline Esteves, tribal chairwoman.
Beginning in 1850, the Timbisha were driven from their land by homesteaders and ranchers, followed by mining interests. In 1933 President Herbert Hoover established the Death Valley National Monument, the largest National Park in the lower 48 states. However, the order creating the monument failed to address the legal status of Timbisha land. Since 1936, the tribe has lived and governed its affairs on approximately 40 acres of land near Furnace Creek in the park. In 1994, as part of the California Desert Protection Act, Congress recognized the Timbisha struggles by requiring the Secretary of the Interior to study and identify lands suitable for a reservation. As a result, a joint tribal-federal negotiating team drafted a comprehensive plan to establish a homeland for the tribe.
The bill would transfer five parcels of land with 7,540 acres in trust to the Timbisha. This includes 300 acres of Furnace Creek in the park and 7,240 acres of land close to the park in California and Nevada. According to bill language, since the tribe used and occupied the Furnace Creek area, its membership has grown. Tribal members have a desire and need for housing, government and administrative facilities, cultural facilities, and sustainable economic development to provide decent, safe, and healthy conditions for themselves and their families."
"We will have land where we can live our lives as a healthy self-governing and financially self-reliant community. We will once again have a homeland where we can teach our young people the Timbisha Shoshone language and the Timbisha Shoshone cultural
traditions and values. At last we can save our unique way of life from extinction," said Esteves.