Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe working through plan for $100 million fund

Many members of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe are focused on Point B: The potential of thousands of dollars in economic stimulus payments to individuals and the creation of millions of dollars in funding for economic development of the tribe's 466,607-acre reservation.

The tribal leadership, meanwhile, is trying to keep the tribe focused instead on Point A.

That's no easy task, and the tribe's plans for economic development that leaves a soft footprint on the earth depends on the ongoing work of the Tribal Council.

The work that was dubbed "Point A" by former Tribal Chairman Wayne Burke before his death in October requires painstaking resolution of innumerable issues that balance the demands from groups that use the Truckee River the river that provides drinking water in Reno and Sparks, the river whose waters ultimately fill Pyramid Lake and provide a home for fish such as the cui-cui, found only in Pyramid Lake.

The Truckee River Operating Agreement, which ended years of legal wrangling, directs the use of the river in Nevada and California, including municipal uses in Reno and Sparks.

As part of the agreement, Congress in 1990 gave the tribe $40 million to pay for economic development.

Since then, while the tribe's leaders painstakingly worked through seven attempts to create an economic development plan, the fund has grown to $100 million.

Now the plan is in place, but nothing can happen until the agreement on the use of Truckee River water is fully implemented. That, in the conversation of tribal leaders, is Point A.

To get Point A accomplished so that the tribe can move on to Point B, tribal leaders have opened formal and informal communications channels with other water users to get the process moving.

But no one should expect large-scale economic development on the tribal lands even once the Truckee River agreement is fully implemented. The lands extend from Wadsworth along Interstate 80 just west of Fernley to the northern-most shores of Pyramid Lake.

"We don't want to be Lake Tahoe," Burke often said before his death, noting that the shores of the lake are entirely open for use by tribal members and visitors who buy permits.

Rather than intense lakeside development, the tribe is focused on modest development of its tourism infrastructure. For instance, even without tapping into the $40 million economic development fund, the Tribal Council approved a $500,000 investment from permit fees and other tribal resources for dock and restroom facilities around the lake.

The tribe also has high hopes for eco-tourism, visitors who are drawn by the environmental and cultural attractions of Pyramid Lake.

International tourists and travelers interested in the tribe's culture as well as the stark beauty of the Pyramid Lake region, may be particularly important to the area's tourism future.

"Instead of the guys who throw beer cans in the lake, we want the guys who pick them up," has been one of the recent mantras of the tribe's leadership.

The focus on tourism is paying benefits. The past couple of years have seen record numbers of visitors, and Pyramid Lake was voted as one of Nevada's treasures by participants in a Nevada Commission on Tourism event.

Pyramid Lake also received an honorable mention award as a tribal destination from the American Indian Alaskan Native Tourism Association.

One bit of economic development that leaves a light footprint, meanwhile, came with the tribe's decision to sell fireworks at its stores at Nixon and Wadsworth.

Although use of fireworks is banned at most locations in northern Nevada, the Pyramid Lake Tribe in 2011 designated a handful of locations along the lake where fireworks use is allowed.

The upshot: Surprisingly strong fireworks sales, with business that extended for weeks after the Fourth of July holiday.

Along with the stores in Nixon and Wadsworth, the tribe's businesses include two RV parks at Wadsworth and an RV park at Sutcliffe. Those enterprises, along with the tribal government, account for a majority of the employment on the reservation.

A nationally recognized economic development document overseen by Tribal Planner Scott Carey foresees the development of entrepreneurial businesses by individual tribal members. (The plan, written without the help of outside consultants, won state and national awards from the American Planning Association.)

A big step in the direction of entrepreneurial development came this autumn with the installation of a broadband network that linked tribal businesses and offices in Wadsworth, Nixon and Sutcliffe.

The 40 miles of fiber optic line also might someday provide high-speed access for home-based businesses, Carey says.

Dubbed "Natukwena Nagwesenoo," in Paiute that translates as "To Weave Communities Together" the $9.5 million project was funded by an American Reinvestment & Recovery Act grant from the Department of Commerce.

The broadband service also establishes some of the basic infrastructure for development of an industrial park and a travel center along I-80 at Wadsworth.

That development, however, remains well in the future, Carey says.

In the short-term, the tribe is focused on education as a base for economic development. A point of community pride: From the 2011 graduating class of 11 seniors at Pyramid Lake, nine headed for college.