Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council (2021)

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

Post Office Box 256

Nixon, Nevada 89424

Telephone: (775) 574-1000

Fax (775) 574-1054

PYRAMID LAKE PAIUTE TRIBAL COUNCIL

REGULAR MEETING MINUTES

Tribal Chambers ~ Nixon, NV

March 5, 2021

Members Present:

Janet Davis, Chairwoman Steven Wadsworth, Vice Chairman

Harriet Brady, Councilmember Nathan Dunn, Councilmember

Edward Ely III, Councilmember Natalia Gonzales, Councilmember

Carolyn Harry, Councilmember Irwin Mix, Councilmember

James Phoenix Councilmember Georgina Wadsworth, Councilmember

Note: Due to COVID-19 Tribal Council meetings are closed to the public to ensure the health and safety of

attendees. Councilmembers attended in person, keeping to 6-foot distancing, and via audio conferencing.

CALL TO ORDER

Chairwoman Janet Davis called the March 5, 2021, Regular Tribal Council meeting of the Pyramid Lake Paiute

Tribal Council to order at 5:01 p.m.

ROLL CALL

Roll call was taken by Brenda A. Henry, Tribal Secretary. Councilmember Dunn connected a 5:07 pm and

Councilmember Harry connected at 5:52 pm. All other Tribal Councilmembers were present at roll call and

a quorum was established for this meeting.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

It was requested the presentation by the Food Bank Pantry Support be removed. They will reschedule for

the next meeting.

Councilmember Wadsworth made a motion to approve the agenda with the one removal. Councilmember

Phoenix seconded the motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions.

Motion carried.

Councilmember Dunn Connected to the meeting at 5:07 p.m.

EXECUTIVE SESSION Interview Social Service Director

Councilmember Ely made a motion to move into Executive Session. Councilmember Brady seconded the

motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried. Tribal

Council entered Executive Session at 5:07 p.m.

Councilmember Harry connected to the meeting at 5:52 p.m.

Councilmember Dunn disconnected from the meeting.

Councilmember Wadsworth made a motion to exit from Executive Session. Councilmember Harry seconded

the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried, Tribal

Council exited Executive Session at 6:42 p.m.

PUBLIC COMMENT

1. Leona Collins read her comment, “First of all, thank Janet Davis, Chairwoman, for bringing awareness our

Tribe is facing during the pandemic. Regarding your comment on the lack of broadband internet service on

our reservation. there are millions of dollars of fiber currently laying on Pyramid Lake land which I believe

is being underutilized. Why is the IT Department or appropriate Executive Team personnel not pursuing

getting internet service to all residents? Also, is the Business Officer looking into marketing some of the

fiber, seems a profit could be made. Thank You Leona. Collins.”

CONSENT AGENDA

Councilmember Brady requested to pull the minutes for discussion.

Following item was approved on the consent agenda:

1. Approval Enrollment Applications four (4) for Regular membership with Resolution.

Councilmember Harry made a motion to approve the Enrollment Applications on the consent agenda.

Councilmember Wadsworth seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero

(0) abstentions. Motion carried. RESOLUTION NO. PL 029-21 ENROLLMENT - REGULAR

MEMBERSHIP (4)

Chairwoman Davis welcomed the newly approved Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal members: Arriyanna Jaylynn

Cain, Justin-Lee Little Paw Lopez, Zander Joseph Riley, and Lex Cecilio Sarabia

Councilmember Brady had corrections to the January 15, 20201 Special meeting minutes. On page 17, there

is a capital “S” in the word modifications and on page 18, Chairwoman Davis is noted as asking about the

sani-huts at the Stone Mother, she thought she made that statement.

Councilmember Dunn connected to the meeting at 6:48 p.m.

Councilmember Dunn made a motion to approve the January 15, 2021, Special TC minutes. Councilmember

Harry seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions.

Motion carried.

PRESENTATION

1. Gambling Attitudes and Behaviors at the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Results of Survey. Ted

Hartwell, Research Scientist, Desert Research Institute (DRI) Las Vegas

Mr. Hartwell said he is a Research Scientist for the Desert Research Institute (DRI), and he is also a

consultant for the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling and served on the State Advisory Committee for

Problem Gambling for the last three (3) Governors. His co-investigator on this project is Sidney Smith, she

is a nationally certified gambling counselor, of Cherokee descent and someone whose family was affected

by problem gambling. This project was funded by DRI through its Lander Endowment. He has found most

studies that revolve around tribal gambling really focus on the economic benefit to tribes who have decided

to open gaming within their communities with very little studies of some of the potential adverse effects.

The few studies that exist suggests indigenous communities worldwide in situations may be more

adversely affected than general communities because of gambling. According to statistics of Problem

Gambling in Nevada, we do have one of the highest rates of problem gambling among our own citizens

across the state. The one and only prevalence study, conducted in 2000, showed about six and a half

percent of Nevada's adults suffer from a gambling problem. It is very much a public health and community

health issue. Their study included a 57-question survey for people to fill out while they were provided a

complimentary meal, it was entirely voluntary. They had the option to answer all the questions, or they

could skip questions if they felt uncomfortable answering one, and they provided a gift card to those

individuals to thank them for taking the time to complete the survey. For their part they showed a 15-

minute video called “damage done” that was produced by the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling and

showed the impact of problem gambling from the perspective of the family. The one person you never see

in the video is the person with the gambling problem, you see the effect that person is having on other

family members and to the community around them. After discussion it was followed by 20 minutes of

storytelling by both Sydney and he where they related aspects of their personal story, why this project was

important, how problem gambling affected them and how they both found healing from it. There were 19

people who attended the presentation from Pyramid Lake, they did collect general demographic

information, but nothing was tied to any personal identifying information like names. They collected age,

gender, employment status, whether they have been employed by the gaming industry, educational level,

and household income. They collected information on general attitudes about gambling. They asked

questions about depression, in the case of the people who attended at Pyramid Lake, six of the 19, people

indicated that within the past month, they had been bothered by feeling down, depressed, or hopeless.

They did the studies in 11 communities, one of the things he promised not to do is do comparisons between

communities, especially based on the overall low sample size, these rankings do not mean anything, but he

wanted to give a sense of where Pyramid Lake fell within the study they did. About 26% of the people who

responded showed signs of likely problem gambling, and those ranged anywhere from 3% to 50%.

Everybody who came to the presentation left with a lot of resources, brochures to connect them to the

problem gamblers helpline. The average treatment cost per case is about $140, and it is no cost to the

individual. The state problem gambling fund provides a free treatment to both individuals who are

suffering, as well as family members who are affected by somebody else's gambling, they can get free

counseling and therapy to learn how to protect themselves both emotionally and financially from the other

person's activities if they are not willing to stop yet. Some of the Tribal Problem Gambling conferences he is

attended in the Pacific Northwest seem to indicate that a connection to traditional culture can be both

preventative for all addictive disorders as well as reconnection being an effective part of treatment. All the

services are free to the community.

Chairwoman Davis said that is good to know, maybe the Tribe can get some resources to put in the tribal

administration lobby and around the community. Also, good to know the Tribe will have his contact

information for referral.

Mr. Hartwell said they can also do staff trainings for clinicians, either virtually or on site to give them some

brief screening tools that will be helpful in identifying issues.

Councilmember Harry asked if the state has funding for gambling, gambling addictions and support.

Mr. Hartwell said in his opinion, not nearly well enough, Nevada ranks 13th in the United States, among

states who even fund any awareness, education, and treatment for problem gambling. States that have

much less revenue from gambling do a lot more for their communities, for example, Oregon's budget, just

to have public awareness announcements for where people can get help exceeds Nevada's entire state

budget for everything, treatment, awareness prevention. This is a labor of love for him, he talks to kids in

the schools, he is talked to folks in sober living, to teach them about risk factors. They have been advocating

for several years, especially those of them that serve on the governor's advisory board. It is an uphill battle;

they have support largely from the gaming industry. It is a matter of getting buy-in across the legislature

for an issue that some people often see as a moral failing, rather than a true addiction and they know from

science the biochemistry is pretty much identical to the substance use disorders, even though there is no

substance being ingested.

2. 2021 Legislature Update. William Adler, Sarah Adler Silver and Ernie Adler. State Government

Relations.

Mr. Adler explained the Innovation Zones Project proposed by the Blockchains LLC Group through the

Governor's Office and representation with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. They are

dealing with a lot of different factors with this project because nobody knew about this project ahead of

time, it wasn't just that this project was not well vetted or explained, it sort of hit the state from the left side

and basically said they would like to make a new county and they would like to separate out everything

around the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) that runs next to the river into its own new designation.

Basically, take away all the zoning and current restrictions on how it is developed and make it an

unregistered Tech City or Innovation Zone. The proposal came out the first day of the legislature February

1st. He called Chairwoman Davis, the first day informing her of the situation. He knew it would be impactful

because of the nature of the project and how they are proposing it. They have the intent of having an

unregistered house development on the Truckee River. He felt they needed to be cognizant, needed to be

prepared to step forward and speak about and speak against it, because of the availability of water.

Innovation zones are run by the Blockchain Group. Currently, we were the first group to post opposition,

they wrote a letter to the governor's office February 4th. They jumped in right at the beginning and asked

for inclusion on further talks, drafting and declared it was a direct impact to the Tribe and resources,

because the Tribe is downriver of this project. Whether it is taking water out of the river, or trying to put

something new into the river, restricting limits on contaminants coming into the lake. It is all concerns to

the Tribe. This first engagement, he did reach out to the company, he reached out to our partners, the

lobbying firm representing them, and he asked a couple direct, impactful questions, but the biggest

question was where they are getting water. He was able to find a deed purchase by Blockchain LLC and

they had gone through the process back in November-December 2020, to get around 6000 to 8000,

groundwater rights. These water rights were already protested back in 2007, these are the Sonterra water

rights, this company bought the same water rights they already protested and successfully stopped a

change application for. Those water rights are 110 miles north of the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. He

asked the legislature a fair question, how would the water get to the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, that

question effects the Tribe directly, as a water holder in that basin. But if they were to pump it the 100 mile

south, they would have to build a pipeline. There are mountains all around both sides of the Tribe and he

has made it clear to the legislature, with the geographic features, the only feasible path to have any kind of

pipeline would have to take it through Pyramid Lake. He thought it was offensive for them not to talk to the

Tribe knowing it would have to go through the reservation. They have already told the legislature what

they intended to use it for, it had plenty of water and it should be fine. This was step one of the Innovation

Zones. Step Two was what are these Innovations Zones going to look like, what is a tech city and what is the

impact going to be? It looks like an unmanageable residential development; it is how they are structuring it.

He showed Council a map that he had to piece together and showed how Blockchains had purchased all

during the last year. They do not all say Blockchains, some say Red Rock Development, but they are the

same. There is an area called Painted Rock which is the key part in the north where they can justifiably say,

they can build residential property. That is about 1000 to 1800 acres of developable land. They said in their

public documentation how they have represented Innovation Zones, that their step one building of the

innovation Tech City will be 15,000 homes 36,000 residents. He does not see how those homes will fit

anywhere near the Truckee and how they are going to supply 36,000 people on the Truckee River when the

only water they know of is north of Pyramid Lake. Phase two is building out a city that builds for 50 or 70

years, that ends up being 400,000 people in their projections on their publicly available website innovation

facts claim. Pyramid Lake has been a key, a crucial player in this fight. We are the ones who have led the

charge, woke everybody up and engaged to the point where Story County has now come out in opposition.

Lyon County, Douglas County and Carson City have all come out in opposition as well, publicly to the

governor. The Tribe is no longer alone in opposition to this.

Chairwoman Davis said they will be coming to the Council at the next water team meeting in April.

Mr. Adler said they have been misrepresenting the Tribe. Lee Weiss, Vice President with Blockchain LLC,

declared Pyramid Lake was supportive of this project and found a way to a resolution for the water issues

that he identified. They have never had a meeting with him, the Tribal Council or anyone who represented

the Tribe. He made it clear to them to not contact the Tribal Council and for them to send all

correspondence to Chairwoman Davis because of their propensity to misrepresent situations or lie.

Councilmember Brady said she was wondering if they did a double escrow because he said it was not

labeled under them.

Mr. Adler said the water is under Blockchains Group, you can see it has a blockchains attached to the deed,

the land is through multiple buyers. If you look at the LLC, it is owned by the owners of Blockchains, Jeff

Burns, and his brother or their wives will own the LLC for the lands. He did have to hunt and peck a little

bit. It is owned by an LLC that was eventually owned by them. They do shell it a little bit, but they were able

to track it down to the original ownership.

Councilmember Harry asked since they are talking about water on the Truckee River and with Pyramid

Lake being one of the primary parties to the negotiated settlement and the four other big players were the

State of California, Reno, and Sierra Pacific power. Can they be allies with the Tribe since it has taken

decades to work through?

Mr. Adler said they have been assembling people to join the Tribe on this, one of the biggest watchdogs for

water on the river is Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA), he presented to their Council and their

lobbyists to get them up to speed on this. They did engage and got them immediately looking at this bill,

looking at the draft and they have taken a position of opposition to the draft as written.

Councilmember Harry asked where the pipeline is proposed? North of Gerlach.

Mr. Adler said he made a map since they have no details. They refuse to answer questions. They have

submitted questions to them in writing and they would not talk to him. When they did speak to him, they

just kept telling him about flying cars and how great the tech future would be, but he said they need

structural answers for the water and resources on the river. They could not get those answers. He thinks

the Tribe was wise to put this on a water meeting and put water questions in front of these guys because

they refuse to answer them in a real setting. They had no understanding of the river.

Chairwoman Davis said she received some maps of where it might be so she will forward to Tribal Council.

Councilmember Harry asked that she forward to the cultural committee also, because they were involved

when the Ruby Valley pipeline went through, and they mapped a lot of sacred sites.

Mr. Adler said they were scrambling to come up with any kind of paperwork on the infrastructure plan. He

is glad they sent something to Chairwoman Davis, but he is not sure if any plan would be a good plan. It

almost seems like a financially infeasible project, 6000-acre feet of water with 100 miles of pipeline.

Mr. Adler said this is a statewide bill, Innovation Zones must be a statewide law concept. But people have

asked how come this isn't in Southern Nevada? the requirements of the bill are you must have 50,000

square acres contiguously attached to each other. They have 67,000 square acres and they are all

contiguously attached. But look at Tesla, they are gigantic. The idea, theoretically, there could be more than

one of these. They are not even paving all the roads. It is being proposed as some sort of partnership

between the governor's office and this private group, Blockchains LLC. And it seems like a very half-baked

kind of proposal.

Vice Chairman Wadsworth said he had a suggestion to the rest of council. This was mentioned during an

Executive Team meeting. He thinks they need to have an executive session at the end or a little bit of

strategy about what was discussed.

Mr. Adler said he may ask for a more formal letter or something from Tribal Council to be written to the

Governor’s Office, they did one letter to the Governor’s Office in early February and did not get a direct

response. They acknowledged they got it, but they did not invite them into meetings. Like Storey County

and others, they can take a clear stance. Publicly, have something written that says the Tribe formally

opposes Innovation.

Chairwoman Davis said they will follow-up.

Mr. Adler said similar water bills get their attention in the legislator and they do engage on those. This year

AB-5 does have some direct impact, but mostly it messes with the legislative history for water law. Judicial

based upon a couple of rulings in the past, what is a formal notice? What isn't a formal notice? What is a

major impactful, impact on you? Standard things in Nevada, waterlogged today and this bill would change

those things. Essentially, it is not good for prior judgments and water loss. Pyramid Lake in general, our

Water Team told him to be opposed to this, and he made sure he was. AB-6 is similar, it is when they hold a

public meeting, but it is not a meeting the Tribe cares about. They acknowledge it engaged, but they did not

have a position. AB-146 is a big environmental based bill that could have great impacts on Pyramid Lake

and our ability to ask others to clean the water upriver from us. If this bill comes together and gets through,

it will say we could point to someone upriver from the Tribe and say you have a currently undetected

nonpoint like solution of pollution into the water, please eliminate that or clean it up in some degree. It is

not clear right now on how they would be implemented into a law if that comes together, it would be

something they can support. They are currently watching it. AJR-2 could be great, the best clause in it is it

recognizes the forest health and water quality are inexorably linked. Tahoe and other places do say it needs

to be preserved. We do need to have continual management of the entire structure not just the water

system itself. SB-149 could be an impactful bill, it could be a groundwater board bill, it is to take care of

more ground water wells, it is more of a southern Nevada issue. Not sure if the bill came together, but if it

does, they would be interested to see how the boards assembled and what members would be on it. Two

big bills that are not out yet are BDR-1090 and 1091, those are bill draft requests yet to be born. These are

coming from the State Water Engineer, there will be a lot of suspicion from environmentalist groups and

those who have long term water interests. The two bills basically do water conservation credits, which is

kind of a misnomer. It is conservation where you only must conserve 10% of it, but you can sell the rest. It

would create a weird dynamic in use of water and active use of water on the river. The worst is the water

banking bill which would create water markets where people could sell buy and trade, water rights more

freely, more leasable water rights into water banking, it creates a system where people are encouraged to

oversell what is it already over allocated. They are tracking over 75 bills at this point, but only half the bills

are out. The tracker has every link to every bill, anything catches your eye, just click on the link in the

tracker, and it will take you to the list of websites. AV-52, they support this bill, it is to add a tribal member

to the Land Use and Planning Advisory Council. They added an advisory member, which was a nonvoting

member, and they asked why it is not a voting member. They asked for it to become a voting member and it

will become a voting member now. For both bills that have a sort of a tribal addition to the board this year.

AB-88 is one they are asking Council to weigh in on tonight and give them direction on. It is a good bill with

its heart in the right place and good intent. The intent of the bill was to setup a process in the future for

naming a school, a public building, or a geographic landmark in the state and to assess current named

projects. If it does have an offensive name, or something that should be changed because it is insensitivity,

there is an application process for it to be changed. AV-103 is a revised bill and is same thing governing the

preservation of certain pre stored prehistoric sites, it addresses a lot of the Tribes direct concerns with

acknowledge of prehistoric sites, burial grounds, and landmarks. Another bill is the tribal tuition bill, ifyou

are a tribal member identified by a federally recognized Native American tribe in Nevada, and you graduate

high school, the State of Nevada will pay your tuition at any of the state institutes. Any institute that means

you can go TMCC, UNR, UNLV and other college, anywhere in the state, your tribal member graduate, the

State of Nevada will pay for you because there is the Millennium scholarship, but this acknowledgement is

long overdue. The State of Michigan has been doing this since 1978. There is a precedence, there is a need

for it. This is Nancy Anderson's bill, she reached out to him and said, please support this. She said she had

another bill for the acknowledgement of multiple points of view, as she put it, different cultural points of

view for social studies in early education, in middle school through high school. They are currently enrolled

in the education of Nevadans, and he told her to go to the Pyramid Lakes Museum.

Chairwoman Davis asked if he can you touch base working with Chief Parsons?

Mr, Adler told him, and Chief Parsons started over two years ago on a body cam bill back in the legislature

to fund body cams, they did it through the 911 caller line. It is basically any phone line; you pay a little extra

for the 911 caller services. They added it to fund body cameras. Sadly, they did not do a subcategorization

where people who could currently pull out the 911 caller pool, none of them were tribal police forces. Chief

Parson brought it to his attention. They added an amendment to the bill this year already, he sent it to the

members today and they approved it. They talked to the sponsor, Edgar Flores, he is the one who set up the

body cam bills and was apologetic for not getting it in the first time. They will fix it this year. Chief Parsons

is very thankful and says when they will get about $30,000 a year to help support the program.

3. JOIN Inc. Program Presentation. Bonnie Akaka Smith. Bonnie

Ms. Akaka-Smith, regional manager for Join Inc, in the Fallon and Fernley offices. They are a 501C-3 nonprofit; they are not an entitlement agency and not an employment agency. Join has been in Northern

Nevada for 48 years and provides services to career seekers and employers in urban, rural and frontier

communities across Nevada. They are a member of the American Job Center Network National One-Stop

System. One Stop in Reno is where people can go register for benefits as well as career training with Join.

They are funded through federal and state grants, private grants, and donations. They a career training

agency providing access to educational and occupational training for individuals seeking careers, financial

stability, and personal success. Their main values at Join, commitment to service stability, strong

partnerships, and solutions. Nobody leaves her office empty handed, if they are unable to provide services,

they can refer them to a different agency or entity that would be able to meet their needs. They walk with

their clients from beginning to end and following up. Their headquarters is in downtown Carson City. They

help provide solutions for people and are focused on individualized services. They have them do an

assessment test, to make sure what they are thinking they want to do falls in line with their natural abilities

because they want to make sure they set people up for success. They partner with programs under the

Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act for providing access to skilled and work ready candidates,

identifying unique training needs of each business, supporting development of sustainable workforce

pipelines, job listing service, in all seven regional locations, and 13, Northern Nevada counties, including

the Tahoe Basin, and they put a lot of emphasis on connecting businesses and local talent through targeted

training programs for employment success. They stick with the client through the whole process, the other

hand of it is they have something called the OJT program now, which is on the job training. They work with

businesses in the area and marry up the businesses with their clients for like a 13-to-16-week timeframe,

and they pay 50% of the wages during that time, while that client is learning the skills in that industry. And

while that industry is teaching the client the skills for their future. They assist businesses in building their

unique talent pipeline with a train and get reimbursed method, wage reimbursement. WebEx is for the

young adults 17 to 24 years old, and with the youth, they can do 100% wage reimbursement for up to 12

weeks. The OJT program is about adult work experience. This is for the 18 years and older 50% wage

reimbursement for up to 12 weeks. The career seekers 17 years and older, they go through career

exploration activities with them, figure out what their interests, abilities, aptitudes, and values are. They

provide comprehensive case management, put together an individualized employment plan and that

includes their training from the start of training to end of training. And then from there it the career path

and the job search for job placement. And then the follow up with the career training coordinator, coaches,

they help the clients with employability and life skills, resume development, interview technique and

securing full time employment. They assist with interviewing techniques; they will sit with clients and

rehearse interviews with them. Most of the trainings being requested are CDL, dental assistant, CNA,

medical assistant, those are the primary ones right now. We cover all costs associated with trading and

supportive services leaving participants debt free. There are exceptions to this for, for somebody who

wants cosmetology at Paul Mitchell, that is over $20,000. They are not able to cover the whole tuition. But

in a case like that they work with the school and the client. And they are usually able to get financial

assistance through the school or a Pell Grant or a scholarship, or loan. She touched on the industrial park

that is coming into Fernley over the next 10-15 years. There is also an industrial park that is going to be

built between Fernley and Fallon. They are looking at a lot of skill sets that needs to be addressed. Her

office is in Fernley across from the bowling alley.

Chairwoman Davis said they will forward her information to the Human Resources office.

Councilmember Gonzales asked if she did a presentation to the high school.

Ms. Akaka-Smith said when Principal Chapin was still there, she did address him and sent him materials.

She would be happy to provide materials and present there again.

Chairwoman Davis said that would be and she can perhaps connection with the Tribe’s TERO office.

Ms. Akaka-Smith said not everybody is geared for college, it is the truth. Rather than leaving the ones who

are not geared for college to fend for themselves, let us give them the tools they need to be able to make a

decent living.

Michele Smith, Transit Manager said the Pyramid Lake Transit does have a bus stop that stops near the Join —

office.

4. Natchez Elementary School. Jake Chapin, Principal

Mr. Chapin thanked the families for their grace and patience with them this year as they tried to navigate

the world of distance learning and in person learning. It was made a lot easier by the community rallying

around the school and making that as painless as possible. Distance Learning probably is not the best

choice for all students, he understands there is several safety considerations to take. But learning through

distance learning and being disciplined enough to stay on the computer and do all that stuff is a difficult

task for any of us. This is probably a prime example tonight of being on one of these meetings, it takes a lot

out of you to stay focused to pay attention. So even though the district has said that you had to choose one

way or the other distance or in person, they are still accepting students back in person, because they really

want to get them in the classroom because he thinks there is a lot of positives there. And for any families

that feel like that is not the safe option for them, totally understand that we encourage them to stay

distance and do their best. 100% of second grade is back in action in person. It is important for everybody

to know, next year there is no distance option at the school sites for any Washoe County Schools. So, any

students that want to be in a distance program will need to enroll in North Star. That is true for all our

families, the ones that go to Natchez, Mendive or Spanish Springs or Reed, there is no distance at the sites, it

will all be on North Star if you want to remain distance. Right now, they have schoo] registration. It is

important for every student to register at the schools as soon as possible. Many funding and staffing

decisions are based on the registration at each school. To ensure the most staffing resources at each school

level, get there for our kids, please encourage everybody to register in Washoe County Schools. | am at all

schools, Lyon County Schools, wherever your kids go register as soon as possible so that all schools can get

accurate counts. You can just log on to Infinite Campus. If you are a returning student it takes about five

minutes, 10-15 minutes if you are a new student, but it is important to get all those students in and

counted. As we all know, the State of Nevada and budgets are going to be kind of a tricky thing this year. It

is important to get every student counted as possible so that they can make sure they have the staffing and

funding that they can get. On the positive note this week, they got back on the playgrounds. It was crazy to

see they had students in tears, just genuine joy to run to the swings and run to the playground equipment

and get the play. It has been tough to stand around on the blacktop for recess. And so, they are excited.

They have basketball back in their hands, they have kickball going, so they are all excited. Thanks to Rolle

and Richard who, after each recess must go down and sanitize. They do not need to, but they spray it all

down with the disinfectant because they want to make sure it is all clean, and they have protocols for

students to go back in and wash their hands, trying to make recess, they want to keep doing it. They need to

be as safe as possible with it. And then on the playground news over the summer, they are adding a prekindergarten playground, they have received through some grant funding, about $50,000 structure going in

for the pre-k program. Their communities and school’s person are Christine Wang. Christine has food,

clothes, shoes, provides the school lunches for distance kids, has provided after school tutoring, she is

organized, organizes our parent meetings, home visits, she does a whole bunch of stuff for the school in the

community. If kids come and say they are hungry, or they need food, we send it home, if they say they need

clothes, or shoes, we just do it. And we really try and communicate and work with our parents, there is no

judgment, if the kids are tricking us, and they are bringing home extra food, or they are bringing home an

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extra pair of shoes, then we say like, you know, good for them. If they are going to trick them, that is what

we are glad they are tricking us about is extra shoes and food. If you have anybody that needs anything,

please just have them contact the school and get in contact with Christine and she will help them out. One

of the cool things because of the work they are doing, they will be presenting at the annual Communities in

Schools dinner at the Grand Sierra Resort in May. So that's kind of exciting. To get to talk about the good

stuff they do.

In early February, he met with Chairwoman Janet Davis. There is a lot of great things that came with that

meeting. One was resources available from Washoe County School District to the students of Pyramid Lake

Reservation. Historical, nobody was sure whose jurisdiction they fall under on the reservation, where do

they get resources, and have lost the opportunity to get some resources due to the uncertainty, they all

want to help but they are not sure who to go to. One of the things Chairwoman Davis did was met with the

district and said, let us break down all the barriers, all the services we can get for our families, let us make

this happen. She worked diligently with the district to make all the services available. He just had his first

meeting with the Washoe County reengagement team, for those students that might have not been enrolled

because of whatever reasons and to get them back into schools. So that is our first kind of resource that

sprung from that. And we will be doing some home visits here in the spring, trying to re-engage those

students and families. One thing I did want to mention as our chronic absenteeism rate, and that is going to

help us at the start of the year, they were around 60-70% through August, September, October, and they

put out the call to their families and said, hey, we have got to do much better, they are still a little under

30%, chronic absenteeism. But that is a drop of over 40%, believe it or not, there is still several schools in

the district in Reno Sparks area that have 70 to 80%, chronic absenteeism right now. So even though 30%

is far above where we want to be, they are proud of those numbers. They have been invited to a trauma

conference in the spring again, to present on the different things that they do with attendance to try and

bring those numbers down. It is all rooted in relationships with our families and communities. They are

trying to work hard to get to know their families and do home visits. If they have students that do not make

it, itis not uncommon for me and Christine or Christine and Brenda Harry, or whoever to jump in a car,

whoever is available, and we just drive and knock on the door. They say, hey, school time, get in the car, we

are going to school, because that is how important it is for us to get everybody in there so that we can

educate them. The second thing Chairwoman Davis and he talked about is what he is calling a community

education initiative, he thinks they have an opportunity for the elementary school and tribal leaders to get

together and do more to improve education in our community. One of the initial things he is thinking of is

parent nights where they will teach you to be a reading teacher, will teach you to be a math teacher. That is

hard for everybody, it is four years of college. They are putting together over the spring for summer will be

flashcards, so you do not have to be a reading teacher to hold flash cards that say What letter is this? What

sound does this make? What number is this? in third grade, it might be math facts, what is three times

three, it is just quick. 10 to 15 minutes at night, if you can do this over the summer, it is going to make a

huge difference for them if we have these small things in place when they hit the school running. They are

going to ask tribal leadership to help them in making these videos and pushing it out. He is picturing

Councilmember Davis on a Tuesday night popping up on Facebook, saying tonight well be working on math

facts. Their kickoff is going to be the Mustang story time. They are starting a YouTube page. Next week, they

have staff reading books, they are going to do a whole series of reading books on video. They will invite all

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tribal leaders and elders to eventually, when it is safer, in reading those same books at the school where

they will video them and put on their YouTube page.

The last thing he wanted to share is he loves Natchez Elementary School, loves the community. He has been

here for 10 years, at the high schoo] and now at Natchez. He has got at least 14 years left before retirement

eligible and would love for all 14 of those to be at Natchez. One thing that is super important is having that

consistent leadership and then having that consistent leadership that retains our staff, we know how

important it is for our kids to see the same adult faces year after year.

Councilmember Harry asked what the school population was.

Mr. Chapin said they are about 110 students., 80 in person and 25-30 distance learning.

Councilmember Harry asked if he would be able to provide the counsel a general profile of the school

academically?

Mr. Chapin said it will be skewed because maps was not done for any of their distance kids. And they were

optional for other stuff. Math is probably not the greatest measure to give if you are looking for a whole

picture, but I can try and find something and put it together.

Councilmember Harry said they can, at this level find ways to support. She had another question, one of

their big concerns last year, creating a strategies programs for our students with autism so that we no

longer mustbus them. Is there any progress in that movement?

Mr. Chapin said short answer No. They are all waiting to see what the budget brings in, what is going to be

allowed. They are hoping to keep programs that currently exist. I think the longer answer is that his intent

is for every student to be at Natchez. They probably have done not have programs that are not appropriate

for everybody. While they do not have an autism specific program, they certainly can put in strategies or

bring in professional development or do different things to make those work at schools.

Councilmember Harry said he is in a different position now, like a unique collaboration with other funding

sources? Let us say the tribe can work on grants that can provide the funding and support for autism

programs or with Washoe County.

Mr. Chapin said like Washoe County, is a monster. He is trying to wrap his head around a million different

things, one of the things he misses about Pyramid Lake is the access to grants and funding sources. Washoe

County has a grants department, and he is trying to learn all the systems because everything must run

through them. He is opens to anybody is help or assistance on it because that would be a great program.

Chairwoman Davis asked him to share what he came up with regarding early childhood.

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Mr. Chapin said with early childhood, he knows a lot of the difficulty is kind of being just breaking down the

initial communication barrier, and there is a disconnect. He has a one sheet that he is putting together for

head start. Essentially, it tells the parents everything they must do and encourages them to come to

Natchez so they can facilitate all the meetings that disconnect happens. If Natchez can be the facilitation

point, for Child Find for the community, they can make it happen. What used to happen is they would come

out and do all the testing and IEP and stuff in one day, but because of COVID and the restrictions in their

loss of staff. Child Find is a three-day process now. To bring all those staff members out and coordinating

them all for three days is not possible. They can help provide the dates and times and help arrange

assistance for transportation to get those families into child find if that is necessary. What he really wants

to offer the community and to the Head Start programs is just to send them to Natchez and let them be the

facilitator to make sure that none of those things get dropped. It is important to them to bridge so there is

no more disconnected child find.

Councilmember Gonzales said thank you for all the information he gave them, and reaching out to the

community, trying to get the students to school, it is important to get the students in class, they know it is a

lot better for their education. She is heard great things from the community regarding him, just his

involvement with the children in the community, and the families.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Selection Economic Development Committee (1 vacancy)

There were two (2) applicants for the Economic Development Committee: Cameron Smith and Shelly

Mayhugh Kinerson. By ballot, Tribal Council chose Shelley Mayhugh Kinerson to fill the vacancy.

3. Approval the Numu Project. Robert Hicks Jr.

Mr. Hicks explained he is a tribal member and a doctoral student at the University of Kansas in the Applied

Behavioral Science program. He is presenting a project that he is worked on for the last two years, a

participatory research project for the Pyramid Lake community. This project is a photo voice project which

is a process in which people, usually those with limited power due to poverty, language barriers, race, class,

ethnicity, gender, culture, or other circumstances, use vide and/or photo images to capture aspects of their

environment and experiences and share them with others. This project will not only bring about problems

in the community but also be a creative outlet for the community. It will help set a path for the Tribe to take

in these troubling times. With pictures and narrative, they can actively hear problems from each other and

further understand what can be done as a community to solve the problems. He has the equipment to do

the study and has already set up a secure website. All pictures and information he gets will be under the

control of the People and Tribal Council. The evaluation of the project will be done through a series of

webcam meetings hopefully with the Tribal Council and other members of the community.

Councilmember Harry made a motion to approve the participation in the project for the photovoice for the

NUMU Project. Councilmember Dunn seconded the motion. Votes were seven (7) for and two (2) opposed

(Phoenix, Wadsworth) with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried.

Councilmember Gonzales stated she approved but would like to see the project first before publishing.

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Councilmember Harry commended Mr. Hicks, she is proud of where he is going with this project and the

direction his work can provide to any tribe on any issue.

Mr. Hicks said these pictures become physical things of what we are talking about, what we are trying to

preserve and what we are trying to address. It becomes official qualitative research to back a proposal, or it

can be used for so many different things.

Councilmember Brady said she was thinking the same thing when he was giving his presentation. She

thought about the kids at the school and how they are feeling lonely. She knows some of them are dealing

with the loss of grandparents because of COVID and the loneliness, especially when you have multiple

deaths. She thinks that would be a really good way to assist students, to show them how to show their

emotion. To have their voice during this tough time.

Chairwoman Davis said she echoes what Councilmembers Harry and Brady both have stated. They support

whatever he is doing.

Mr. Hicks said this is one of his projects and part of his dissertation for his masters and part of his projects

for his doctorate.

Councilmember Brady asked about the necessary releases.

Mr. Hicks said the approval would basically be part of the IRB and he has those all filled out and turned in.

That is basically it right now. He will send the documentation to the Tribal Secretary.

Councilmember Ely asked if they would be able to see it before he presented it or use it.

Mr. Hicks said yes, because it is going to be under the control of the participants, the people, and the other

tribal council. If there's information out there that a participant does not want, he will gladly take it all out.

All information will be ona secure site.

Councilmember Wadsworth said she would prefer to see the documents before approving it.

Councilmember Harry asked about taking pictures and procedures.

Mr. Hicks said it would be who he recruits for the project, whoever wants to participate in it.

Councilmember Harry said with that respect it would not be necessary to go to IDT it would be upon the

approval of that individual person.

Councilmember Harry made a motion to approve the participation in the project for the photovoice for the

NUMU Project. Councilmember Dunn seconded the motion. Votes were seven (7) for and two (2) opposed

(Phoenix, Wadsworth) with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried.

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Councilmember Gonzales said she voted yes but would like to see the project first. Councilmembers

Phoenix and Wadsworth voted no because they would prefer to see the documents first.

Mr. Hicks said he will also provide a link in the chat for everyone.

3. Approval FY2022 NVDOT Federal Grant Application with Resolution. Michele Smith, Transit

Manager.

Ms. Smith said this is an annual grant application, the only difference is this year it is a two-year grant.

Councilmember Wadsworth asked where is the cash match coming from?

Ms. Smith said it is coming from the BIA, it is on the Grant Summary Sheet.

Councilmember Wadsworth asked about the documentation stating it is okay with BIA.

Ms. Smith it is on the TIP page showing they got funds obligated to transit.

Councilmember asked if that is the Indian Reservation Roads program. Ms. Smith confirmed yes.

Councilmember Brady had a correction to the resolution for the Chairwoman designation.

Councilmember Dunn made a motion to approve submission of the FY22 NVDOT Federal Grant Application

with Resolution. Councilmember Mix seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed

with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 030-21 FY22 NVDOT FEDERAL GRANT

Councilmember Wadsworth asked about the status of the new Transit facility?

Ms. Smith said they are still in the design phase. Currently they are going through all the necessary steps as

far as getting an environmental assessment done. Working with their engineers they are hoping by next

year they will have groundbreaking.

4. Approval Continuation of Funding for OVW FY21 Transitional Housing Assistance Grants for

Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking with Resolution. Mary

Dodd, Victim Services

Ms. Dodd said this grant came before Council last year, but there was a glitch, and their grant was not

looked at. It is for $500,000. There is no match involved. And it is for three years.

Councilmember Dunn made a motion to approve the submission of the Continuation of funding for OVW

FY21Transitional Housing Assistance Grants for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault

and Stalking with Resolution. Councilmember Wadsworth seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and

zero (0) opposed with one (1) abstention (Brady). Motion carried. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 031-21 OVW

FY21 TRANSITIONAL HOUSING ASSISTANCE GRANT

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Vice Chairman Wadsworth made a motion to move into Executive Session. Councilmember Brady seconded

the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried. Tribal

Council moved into Executive Session at 9:14 p.m.

Councilmember Mix left the meeting.

Councilmember Wadsworth made a motion to move out of Executive Session. Councilmember Phoenix

seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion

carried. Tribal Council moved out of Executive Session at 9:47 p.m.

ADJOURNMENT

With no further business before the Tribal Council, Vice Chairman Wadsworth made a motion to adjourn the

meeting. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Dunn. Votes taken were all in favor, motion carried.

The meeting adjourned at 9:48 p.m.

Submitted by,

Cyndall Henny.

Tribal Council Secretary

CERTIFICATION

The foregoing minutes were adopted by the Pyramid Lake Tribal Council, governing body of the Pyramid

Lake Paiute Tribe, at a meeting duly held on the 4 day of June, 2021, having nine (9) members present,

constituting a quorum, by the vote of seven (7) FOR and zero (0) OPPOSED, with one (1) ABSTENTIONS.

Minutes attested and concurred by: ON

Janet Davis} Tribal Chairwoman

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

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