Tribal Trust Land Status in Washoe County, Nevada

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe has HEARTH Act authority -- a real, documented streamlining most Nevada tribes lack

Under the federal HEARTH Act of 2012, a tribe can obtain its own Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)-approved tribal leasing regulations and then negotiate and execute business leases of its trust land -- with an initial term up to 25 years and up to two 25-year renewal terms -- without a separate, lease-by-lease Department of the Interior approval. The BIA approved the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of the Pyramid Lake Reservation's own Tribal Lands Leasing Ordinance under the HEARTH Act on December 22, 2021, with the approval published in the Federal Register on January 31, 2022. That gives the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe genuine, documented authority to negotiate and finalize its own trust-land business leases internally, without the added federal review step that applies where a tribe lacks HEARTH Act approval.

That distinction matters concretely if you're comparing lease opportunities across Nevada counties on this site: Elko County's Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone, for instance, does not appear on BIA's published list of HEARTH Act-approved tribes, meaning any lease of Te-Moak trust land still runs through standard, case-by-case federal review under 25 CFR Part 162. A prospective lessee of Pyramid Lake Paiute trust land in Washoe County should generally expect a faster, tribally administered leasing process as a result of the tribe's HEARTH Act status -- though the specific terms, application process, and any tribal council approval requirements are still set by the tribe's own leasing ordinance and should be confirmed directly with the tribe, not assumed from the HEARTH Act's general framework alone.

Reno-Sparks Indian Colony's 2014 trust expansion in Hungry Valley

The hub notes the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony's Hungry Valley land base at roughly 15,300 acres; what's worth adding is how a meaningful share of that land came to be trust land in the first place. Roughly 13,434 acres of BLM-managed land adjacent to the existing Reno-Sparks Indian Colony reservation were taken into trust for the Colony's benefit and made part of the reservation, following a mapped 2014 boundary expansion. This was part of a broader wave of Nevada tribal land-into-trust action around the same period -- the 2014 Nevada Native Nations Land Act separately added trust land for several other northern Nevada tribes, including a smaller Elko-area addition for the Te-Moak Tribe covered on this site's Elko County tribal-land page.

For a land buyer, the practical takeaway is the same one that applies near any Nevada reservation boundary: a parcel's status near Hungry Valley can reflect a relatively recent federal trust action rather than a long-static boundary, so don't assume an older map, plat, or informal understanding of where the reservation ends is still accurate. Confirm current boundary and trust status directly with the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony or BIA before relying on a parcel's proximity to Hungry Valley as either an opportunity or a constraint.

What this means for evaluating tribal-adjacent land or a trust-land lease in Washoe County

1. For a proposed lease of Pyramid Lake Paiute trust land, confirm current details of the tribe's own HEARTH Act leasing ordinance directly with the tribe -- HEARTH Act approval streamlines federal review, but the tribe's own process, terms, and approval steps still govern the deal.
2. Don't assume the same streamlined leasing process applies to trust land held by a different Nevada tribe -- confirm each tribe's individual HEARTH Act status with BIA's published approved-regulations list rather than generalizing from Pyramid Lake Paiute's status.
3. Near Hungry Valley or the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony's other holdings, confirm current reservation and trust-land boundaries directly with the Colony or BIA -- boundaries here have changed within the last dozen years and an older source may not reflect the current line.
4. Remember that county offices are not the relevant land-use or leasing authority for trust land itself -- for any parcel within or bordering either reservation, go directly to the tribal government (or BIA for federal-process questions) rather than Washoe County Planning.
5. For fee land (privately or non-tribally held land within or near a reservation boundary), confirm access, easement, and right-of-way arrangements specifically, since a fee parcel surrounded by trust land can face access considerations an ordinary rural Washoe County parcel wouldn't.