Description

It was determined in the mid- 1990s that Highway 95 in southern Nevada had experienced a tremendous increase in traffic and increased safety hazards for motorists due to growth in population and commerce in the Southwest. Federal, state, and local governments worked to find a solution to the impacts of increased traffic and have chosen a number of alternatives related to highway expansion. This is an American Indian ethnographic study for the Big Springs Highway 95 Corridor Project. The study area included the Big Spring Complex and associated American Indian sites potentially impacted by the westward expansion of U.S. 95 north of its junction with U.S. 15. The study does not include an analysis of U.S. 95 impacts to the east of the Big Springs complex towards what is known as Lorenzi Park. This report is based on interviews with American Indian representatives from six Southern Paiute tribes and the Las Vegas Indian Center. Each tribe and organization chose to send one or more tribal members to evaluate the potential impacts to American Indian cultural resources that would occur if Highway 95 were to be expanded to incorporate a portion of the current Big Spring location. This report provides the Southern Paiute evaluations of the proposed expansion.