Skull Valley Indian Reservation - History

History

On October 12, 1863, the band first signed a treaty with the US federal government. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order established the reservation.

During the Dugway Sheep Incident on April 12, 1968, 6,000 sheep in Skull Valley were killed by VX gas released in a test from the nearby U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground. Dugway and Skull Valley have also been featured in Rage, The Andromeda Strain, Outbreak and Species.

The Dugway Proving Grounds lies just south of Skull Valley. To the east is a nerve gas storage facility and to the north is the Magnesium Corporation plant which has had severe environmental problems. The reservation was a proposed location for an 820 acre (3 km²) dry cask storage facility for the storage of 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. Only 120 acres (0.49 km2) are for the actual facility, and the rest of the land is a buffer area. Eight and a half years after application, this facility was licensed by the NRC.

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