Sam Metz / AP
This June 30, 2021, photo shows a sign for the town of Minden, Nev.
Wednesday, April 5, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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The sun may finally be setting on the last sundown siren in the United States. Today, the Senate Government Affairs committee will take up Senate Bill 391, which would prohibit counties, cities and unincorporated towns from sounding sirens, bells or alarms for any purpose other than alerting persons to an emergency, testing the alarm or celebrating a legal holiday.
It’s almost incomprehensible that in 2023, legislation is needed to silence noise-making relics designed to warn Indigenous people and other people of color that they had only 30 minutes to get out of town or face the prospect of arrest, or worse. Yet here we are.
The Nevada Legislature took action in 2021 by prohibiting sirens, bells or alarms historically used to alert people of color to leave town at a certain hour. Unfortunately, the bill failed to address instances in which local government claimed the sirens were used for a nonracist purpose.
In 1974, the Minden town council passed a retroactive ordinance declaring that its sundown siren wasn’t actually about warning non-white people to leave town. Instead, the council claimed it was meant to honor law enforcement and first responders. As a result, the Minden siren continues to wail every day.
But no retroactive ordinance can change the reality that the siren was installed and operated for decades under a “sundown ordinance” in Douglas County that required Native Americans to leave towns by 6:30 p.m.
Agreements with the Washoe Tribe have moved the time of the siren, but they don’t protect Indigenous people from hearing a daily reminder that for decades, they were not welcome, did not belong and could lose their rights simply for existing in town. It’s an audible symbol of trauma and racism.
By passing SB391, the Legislature has the opportunity to reserve the Minden siren for emergency use exclusively in instances where it might save lives rather than take them. They should take advantage of the opportunity and put an end to sundown sirens once and for all.
