Not lightening, torrential rain or even an earthquake put a damp on the second annual sacred waters tour that began at Alamo Friday and ended at the Ibapah Goshute Reservation Monday, Memorial Day.
Organized by the radical environmental group, Deep Green Resistance the trek took place from May 23th to 25th.The Trek through eastern Nevada trip highlighted key fragile areas within the vast region, located on the ancestral lands of the Goshute and Shoshone people.
On the first day of the trek hikers found themselves at the epicenter of a moderate earthquake in Alamo.
According to the United States Geological Survey the temblor hit at around noon 11:47 a.m. PDT and measured 5.4 on the Richter Scale. No injuries or major damage was reported.
After being slightly shook up, the travelers will ventured east on remote dirt roads through the Delmar Valley, north and west through Cave Valley and into Ely, then on to Spring Valley. The tour end Monday at the site of two major massacres of Shoshone and Goshute peoples, where travelers may pay their respects.
This was the second year the tour has been organized to draw attention to the negative impacts of water and power development on communities of people, fragile ecosystems, and sacred lands. This year’s event added a poetry workshop and a visit to the sacred Swamp Cedars, as well as a focus on the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing.
Trip organizer, Max Wilbert, says the purpose of the tour was to get to know the land and people threatened by extraction.
For two days during the hike, trekkers suffered through unusually heavy rains. Yet they continued despite the hardship.
“Once you have built a relationship with the place, you’ll fight to protect it,” Wilbert said. “There is a lot of history here, a lot of stories in this land that are worth telling.”
A Local, Rick Spilsbury of the Ely-Shoshone Tribe, has been fighting the water grab for decades, and sees opposition as critical to the future.
“The Western Shoshone still hunt and gather here—right where the worst of the environmental damage will be.” said Spilsbury. “The mass killing of life in this area will not only be the final blow to Western Shoshone culture, it will be a serious threat to their long-term sustainability—and even viability.”
The $15 billion SNWA groundwater development project plans to extract water from mountain valleys in the Great Basin region and deliver it by pipeline to Las Vegas and the surrounding area. The embattled pipeline project faces mounting opposition from a growing network of organizations and individuals determined to ensure a sustainable supply of water for all needs within the Great Basin region.
