Bahsahwahbee

Bahsahwahbee
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
View of Wheeler Peak from Nevada State Route 893, looking southwest. Bahsahwahbee lies in the valley below.
Location	5 miles northeast of Majors Place, Nevada
Coordinates	39.14°N 114.45°W / 39.14; -114.45
Area	14,175 acres (57.36 km2)
NRHP reference No.	100000464
Added to NRHP	May 1, 2017

Bahsahwahbee is a grove of Rocky Mountain juniper trees, locally called swamp cedars, in White Pine County, Nevada, where multiple massacres of Western Shoshone people occurred in the 19th century, two by the U.S. Army and one by vigilantes. The name means "sacred water valley" in the Shoshoni language. The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is located eight miles northwest of Great Basin National Park and five miles northeast of Majors Place.

The grove was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017 as a traditional cultural property.

Ecology

Spring Valley is a north–south valley between the Snake Range and Schell Creek Range in the Great Basin region that covers much of Nevada. More than 100 springs are in the valley. The valley's abundance of water in the soil, trapped by a shallow layer of clay forming a perched water table, allows the Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum), also called swamp cedars, take root at ground level. This is the largest of three areas they grow in a valley rather than dry, rocky mountainsides. The cone-bearing evergreen trees reach up to 40 feet tall. The slender thelypody (Thelypodium sagittatum) is also endemic to this region of the Great Basin.

History

Western Shoshone and Goshute people (Newe) have their homeland in northern Nevada and have lived in the Bahsahwahbee area since time immemorial. Archaeological artifacts in Spring Valley date to at least 10,000 years ago. These peoples typically lived in small family groups, but Bahsahwahbee was the place where they came together to engage in ceremonial activities. At seasonal events, including the Round Dance in the fall and Grass Dance in the spring, they took part in giving thanks to Mother Nature, religious customs, gathering food and hunting, and meeting with other tribes.

Westward expansion of the United States accelerated in the late 1840s and 1850s as American setters sought gold in California and new lands and opportunities. The California Trail, one of the Emigrant Trails, and the Overland Trail passed through Newe lands in northern Nevada. The emigrants depleted the Indians' food and water supplies, causing the starvation of Newe, whose population had already suffered from smallpox epidemics. Conflict between Indians and white Americans continued as emigration increased, but an 1855 peace treaty with the Newe was not ratified by the United States, allowing for tensions and violence to worsen.

Spring Valley Massacre of 1859

Beginning in May 1859, Army Captain James H. Simpson surveyed a new route across the Great Basin to California, resulting in increased emigrant traffic through Newe territory and further disruption of their resources and lifestyles. Despite Simpson's instruction for friendly treatment of the Indians, in late summer or early autumn General Albert Sidney Johnston brought four companies of soldiers from Camp Floyd in Utah to Spring Valley to punish the Indians for a reported raid on an emigrant caravan. Johnston's scouts found two Indians and brought them back to the military camp and forced them to inform on a rendezvous of Indian warriors. Johnston's army found and surrounded the Indians' campsite and massacred every person there. The army's interpreter and guide Elijah Nicholas Wilson reported at least 350 men were killed; including women and children there were an estimated 525–700 deaths. Although it was one of the largest massacres of Indian people by the United States government, Johnston did not report it to the Secretary of War and is known only from Wilson's report and oral histories.

The massacre took place north of the Bahsahwahbee area, possibly near Yelland Dry Lake, but the Newe memorialize the event in the Swamp Cedars.

Swamp Cedars Massacre of 1863

The U.S. Army established Fort Ruby in White Pine County in 1862 to protect white emigrants. At this time the Newe faced severe starvation and resorted to eating grains given by the Overland Mail Company and even undigested barley from horses' manure. Stationed at Fort Ruby, Colonel Patrick Connor instructed his troops to "destroy every male Indian whom you may encounter."

On March 22, 1863, Goshute warriors attacked a stage station near Spring Valley, killing the company operator and taking stock animals. In retribution Captain S. P. Smith led a cavalry company to seek out those responsible. Discovering an Indian encampment at Duck Creek on May 3, they massacred 24 Indians in their sleep and five more who arrived at the camp the next day. Two days later the company attacked another Indian camp in the Bahsahwahbee area. Military records state they massacred another 23 Indians, though others were able to escape because some of the Army's horses became stuck in the swamp. Goshute oral history states "most of them" were killed.

Five months after this Goshute War, the Newe signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley that gave the United States significant rights to the use of their land.

Swamp Cedars Massacre of 1897

The third massacre at Bahsahwahbee, as reported through oral histories, was committed by vigilantes in 1897. False accusations that the Newe's gatherings were to prepare for war led settlers to target the Newe at their seasonal events. Self-appointed militia members are told to have followed Indians to the Swamp Cedars site where tribal members were gathered for a harvest festival. The attackers raped the women and killed almost everyone there, who were largely women, childen, and elders, as the men were away hunting. Only two young girls survived the massacre.

By the 1930s, 16 small villages remained in Spring Valley.

Modern use

Since the three massacres, the Newe have a spiritual connection to Bahsahwahbee as a place where their ancestors lived and died. The site went from being a place of celebration to a place of commemoration, where the swamp cedar trees each represent those killed. The site's waters and springs are considered sacred, and the Newe – now organized as the Ely Shoshone Tribe, the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation – also continue to use it for gathering of plants and hunting.

Designation and protection

The Bureau of Land Management designated 3,200 acres (13 km²) as the Swamp Cedar Area of Critical Environmental Concern in 2008, affording that portion protections including limits on off-road vehicle use, plant collection, cattle grazing, and surface mining.

In 2017, an area encompassing 14,175 acres (57.36 km²) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a traditional cultural property. It lies between White Pine County Road 893, White Pine County Road 37, U.S. Route 50, and the Spring Valley Wind Farm, entirely on Bureau of Land Management land.

The Swamp Cedar Natural Area is a historic resource of the Great Basin National Heritage Area.

Native American tribes opposed a water pipeline that would have brought groundwater from Spring Valley and others in the county to Las Vegas; the potential depletion of the aquifer could have affected the swamp cedars, and plans for the pipeline were canceled in 2020. A 2021 Nevada law made it illegal to cut or destroy any swamp cedars in the Bahsahwahbee area without a permit. The bill was requested by Native American advocates, though state agencies stated protection of the area is the responsibility of the Bureau of Land Management, rather than the State.

In 2021 the Nevada Legislature passed a resolution in support of federal protection of the area, the Senate doing so unanimously. Advocates have proposed the site, with a suggested area of 27,240 acres (110.2 km²) be added to Great Basin National Park or protected as a national monument managed by the National Park Service. In 2023, Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen called on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to support making the site a national monument.

See also

• List of Indian massacres in North America
• Bear River Massacre

External links

• Root for Swamp Cedars – Designate Bahsahwahbee National Monument