 Skull Valley Band of
Goshute Indians
The Skull Valley Band of Goshute
Indians, a sovereign nation under federal law, agreed to lease
820 acres of their 18,000-acre reservation in Skull Valley, Utah
to Private Fuel Storage, LLC (PFS) for a safe, clean, temporary
facility to store spent nuclear fuel rods.
The confidential lease agreement,
which was approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is conditioned
on the environmental review process and granting of a license
by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) (see
Licensing Process).
For the Skull Valley Band, the
PFS project is a much needed economic development opportunity
that will provide the tribal government and its members many
benefits (see The PFS Project Benefits
The Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians). Because their
reservation is located in Utah's remote west desert and is surrounded
by hazardous waste industries and military installations, other
options for economic development are limited.
The Tribe's Research
The Skull Valley Band studied
nuclear waste storage for about six years before PFS even existed.
In 1990, they received a grant from the federal government to
investigate the feasibility of hosting a federal facility for
temporary nuclear waste storage. (To learn more about the Tribe's
research visit their Web site: www.skullvalleygoshutes.org.)
The federal grant allowed them
to travel to Japan, France, Sweden, Great Britain and many parts
of the U.S. to see nuclear plants and storage facilities in operation.
When funding for the federal
program was cancelled, the Skull Valley Band continued to study
options for pursuing the storage project, including privatization.
In 1996, they met representatives of PFS and began negotiating
a formal lease agreement.
History of the Skull Valley
Band of Goshute Indians
The Goshute Indians inhabited
the western U.S. for thousands of years. At their peak population,
the Goshutes numbered about 20,000.
In 1863, the Skull Valley Band
of Goshute Indians signed the treaty of Tooele Valley with the
U.S. government. The Tribe's 18,000-acre reservation was granted
by executive orders with U.S. government in 1917 and 1918.
Today there are about 560 Goshutes,
and 114 belong to the Skull Valley Band. The remainder are part
of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, a separate
and distinct tribe with its own tribal government and reservation
on the Utah-Nevada border.
Read more about the Skull
Valley Band's partner, Private Fuel
Storage, LLC.
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