Tavicha impimu: To Catch the Sun: Large Scale Solar Energy Development in the Great Basin and the Cultural Implications for Numic-Speaking Peoples.

Transcription

1 Tavicha impimu: To Catch the Sun: Large Scale Solar Energy Development in the Great Basin and the Cultural Implications for Numic-Speaking Peoples. Item Type Presentation Authors Van Vlack, Kathleen A.; Stoffle, Richard W. Download date 10/07/ :50:43 Link to Item

2 CAPTURING THE SUN: Proposed Solar Energy Development in Southern Nevada and Threats to a Southern Paiute Cultural Landscape Dr. Kathleen Van Vlack Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology School of Anthropology University of Arizona SFAA 2013 Denver, Colorado

3 Solar Energy Technology

4 Proposed Solar Energy Locations

5 Cultural Affiliation Western Shoshone Southern Paiute

6 Southern Paiute Territory

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8 Southern Paiute Epistemology In Southern Paiute society, relationships and deep connections with their environment were formed during Creation. Southern Paiutes maintain that the Creator gave them the responsibility to manage their environment to promote environmental and social sustainability. They have developed numerous strategies and activities that maintain balance throughout their homeland. The basic tenants of Southern Paiute epistemology help forge the relationship they have with their environment. To Southern Paiutes, the universe is alive and everything is interconnected through all types of relations.

9 Puha, Topography, and Water Southern Paiute people believe that at Creation they and the entire world was made sentient and given a purpose by the Creator. Puha is the term used to describe the power (or energy) placed in all elements of the world that permits them have a human-like self that speaks, has emotions, and can selectively use its Puha. Normally Puha moves from the highest mountain tops and across the landscape Puha is similar to water. Like water, Puha flows downhill, but it concentrates; and where that occurs, other elements of the world are attracted. Volcano Creation place A Product of Volcanic Activity

10 Site Visits- Total Number of Interviews Involved Tribes Moapa Band of Paiute Indians Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah Pahrump Paiute Tribe Fieldwork Field Visits occurred in November 2010, March 2011, May 2011 and June 2011 In total 35 Interviews were conducted

11 Delamar Valley SEZ Study Area The Place to Call Down the Rain Delamar Valley was identified by tribal representatives as a ceremonial destination place where highly experienced medicine men, or Puha gants visited to acquire extremely powerful and dangerous spirit helpers, known as water babies. Water babies assist these powerful Puha gants in calling down the rain.

12 Complex Connections

13 Source: Van Vlack 2012 Southern Paiute Communitas People- Place Ceremonial Community Formation People- People People- Object

14 A Ceremonial Landscape Delamar Valley is a multicomponent ceremonial landscape linked to rainmaking, power acquisition and is linked to the Southern Paiute Trail to the Afterlife and to regional ceremonial areas. Evidence in this landscape suggests that Indian people have visited and used this area for at least 10,000 years. This landscape consists of five key components.

15 Delamar Valley Ceremonial Landscape MAP HERE Trail from Pahranagat Valley

16 Point of Rocks- Entrance When Puha gants enter Delamar Valley the first place they reach is an area called Point of Rocks. This site is located at the southernmost point of a long volcanic ridge. A pecking panel was identified as providing the ceremonial travelers who entered this area with directions and guidance to reach their destination place. Puha gants would have prayed at this spot and left offerings in order to prepare themselves to reach their destination point and to acquire a water baby spirit helper.

17 Preparation Rock Shelter After visiting Point of Rocks, the Puha gants visited the nearby rock shelter as part of their pilgrimage preparation. The rock shelter is located between Point of Rocks and the water baby peckings. Around the base of the rock shelter were a series of grinding slicks which were used in preparing medicines, lithics that were left as offerings.

18 Rain Making and Water Baby Acquisition The Delamar SEZ Study Area contains hundreds of water baby peckings. Tribal representatives believed this area was similar to neighboring Black Butte where Puha gants came to acquire water baby spirit helpers. One representative believed that since all the peckings overlook a small knoll and that the knoll was the place where a person would call the rain.

19 Water Baby Peckings Water babies are a recurrent theme among Numic groups from California to Wyoming. Contemporary ethnographic research with Numic speaking peoples have identified five major sites where water babies are prominent cultural features, such as the Grand Canyon; Coso Hot Springs, California; Black Butte in Pahranagant Valley, Nevada; Black Mountain-Thirsty Canyon, Nevada; and Thermopolis, Wyoming. Numic speaking peoples have interpreted these places to be areas where Puha gants visit to transition to the supernatural world to interact with and acquire water babies for ceremonial use.

20 Water Babies They are considered female entities and their physical descriptions vary widely. In general, though, they stand three feet high with long hair and a hard shell-like skin. Hoebel (MS: 13) offers another description, These are small females standing about twelve inches high. Some groups like the Washoe believe that water babies are their own society with members of different ages and sexes with women having a predominant role.

21 Water Babies and Associated Ceremonial Peckings

22 Delamar Valley Hydrological System Water babies travel back and forth between these two valleys. Water flows from Delamar Valley into Pahranagat Valley between Black Butte and the Red Tail Hawk Origin Site in Maynard Lake.

23 Ocean Woman s Net Ocean Woman is a Southern Paiute Creator Being and her net connects places to the time of Creation and Creation stories. Ocean Woman s Net was found on a volcanic rock over all the water baby peckings and overlooked the entire valley.

24 Turtle Butte- Vision Questing The power of the topography was also enhanced by the presence of a steep sided knoll located in the playa just east of the volcanic ridge, which was labeled as Turtle Butte by Indian representatives. Turtle Butte was also identified as a location for vision questing. Vision questing destinations are selectively marked and offerings and prayers are left for placation and gratitude. Both remain to indicate the meaning of the place as it was defined at Creation.

25 Turtle Butte Viewscapes Water Baby Peckings Ocean Woman s Net Preparation Rock Shelter Point of Rocks Flow of water

26 The panels that are going to be taking and essentially killing the sun, you know the sun can die. Astronomers talk about how it is a star that will eventually die out and we know that is in our stories, how powerful the sun is, how it can make things disappear, how it has the power to kill things, it can drain water, it can make animals and their habitats change, make the flows of weather change. Impacts The solar panels will reverse things. They will capture and drain the sun by trying to collect it and then transform it into power, another kind of power that it wasn t intended for, and then it shoots it across a landscape. As it s doing that, it s affecting the weather, people today talk about climate change, all of this is contributing to those types of activities. So when you start to drain the sun, you are capturing the sun, it s no difference then catching a light and holding it in your hand or a flashlight, so that s what will happen. It will change our world, our dimension. It will confuse the spirits it will confuse the animals, it will confuse the songs, it ll confuse the stories. A Southern Paiute Elder

27 Current Status of Solar Development in Delamar Valley On the basis of public comments received on the Draft Solar PEIS, review by the BLM, and continued review of potential impacts identified in the Draft Solar PEIS, the Delamar Valley SEZ was eliminated from further consideration and will not be identified as an SEZ in applicable land use plans. The potential impacts from solar development in the proposed Delamar Valley SEZ were considered sufficient reason to eliminate the area from further consideration. Although the area has been dropped from consideration as an SEZ, the lands that composed the proposed Delamar Valley SEZ will be retained as solar ROW variance areas, because the BLM expects that individual projects could be sited in this area to avoid and/or minimize impacts. Any solar development within this area in the future would require appropriate environmental analysis. - Solar Final PEIS July 24, 2012