The Nevada State Legislature building in Carson City, NV Friday, April 2, 2021.
Friday, May 26, 2023 | 3:05 p.m.
A bill to make the Nevada Indian Commission a larger, standalone state department easily passed the Assembly Ways and Means Committee today.
“This is a huge step forward to modernizing and prioritizing our relationship between the state government and the sovereign tribal governments of the state of Nevada,” Assemblywoman Sarah Peters, D-Reno, said.
Assembly Bill 516 passed out of the committee unanimously and now awaits votes of the full Assembly. If signed into law, the bill would make the Nevada Indian Commission, a division of the state Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, and its small staff the Nevada Department of Native American Affairs as soon as July 2024.
The move would incur startup costs of close to $600,000 in state general funds to add three staffers and replace room tax revenues that the office gets by way of the tourism department, the committee heard today.
The Nevada Indian Commission serves as a liaison between the state government and Nevada’s Indigenous residents who live on and off reservations. The division includes an executive director, five-person commission appointed by the governor and a four-person administrative staff.
Among other duties, the commission and its staff have oversight of the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum in Carson City. The commission was created in 1965.
AB516 transfers all responsibilities of the commission to the proposed department and renames them accordingly. The proposed department would otherwise generally maintain its current structure, including the five-member commission body.
The commission, under the reconstituted department, would “provide recommendations and advice to the Executive Director concerning the administration of the Department and on any other matter affecting the social and economic welfare and well-being of American Indians residing in Nevada,” according to the bill.
Assemblywoman and Ways and Means Chair Daniele Monroe-Moreno, D-North Las Vegas, called elevating the division to a department “necessary.”
Representatives from the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, and the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe gave their support for the change.
Teresa Melendez, an Indigenous organizer, said it is exciting to see Nevada following the trend of racial justice for Indigenous people.
She said she has worked with Nevada Indian Commission Executive Director Stacey Montooth for years and that the office is understaffed and underfunded.
“For her and her team to do their job effectively, they need support from you all,” Melendez told the committee. “In order for the office to do their work, we have to give them the tools.”
Census data estimates that close to 19,000 Nevadans identify as Native American. A map maintained by the Nevada Indian Commission shows 32 reservations and colonies throughout the state.
