"The Legal Effect of the Judgment": Indian Land Claims, Ecological Anthropology, Social Impact Assessment, and the Public Domain

Abstract

The legal, cultural, and ecological issues surrounding Western Shoshone Indians’ claim to and use of the public domain in Nevada are examined through discussion of three cases of contested uses: plans for a mine in a proposed World Heritage Site; plans for a dam at a sacred site; and economic use of the public domain for stock grazing by a Western Shoshone family. Results of a research project aimed at documenting historic and contemporary uses of the area as well as Shoshone land claims reveal a challenge for anthropologists and other social scientists to include the political impact of institutional power on ecosystems in environmental studies.