It is an area is an enormously rich cultural and spiritual locus for the Western Shoshone people since time immemorial. Mt Tenabo Is a significant landmark on an important north south trail, Dinabo is a place of food and medicine gathering, a place for refuge and spiritual guidance, a place whose springs feed the wildlife that feed the people.

Mt. Tenabo is located in central Nevada, approximately 20 miles south and a little west of the town of Crescent Valley. It stands at the intersection of three valleys, a familiar land mark along major Newe trails, one coming up Grass Valley from the south and another coming from the west through Carico Lake Valley and Reese River Valley.

There is abundant archaeological evidence of Newe occupation since "prehistoric" times, this evidence of Newe occupation extends through the historic mining period from 1863 to the 1940's, with several historic camps documented containing both grinding stones and more modern "trash." A map of Nevada from the late 1860's identifies the area of Cortez as Shoshone wells, and the natural spring at this site was later developed by Chinese workers, whose camp was adjacent to this area. Another Chinese camp is buried beneath arsenic laden tailings near the Cortez ghost town.

Like all mountains it catches the clouds whose snow and rain feed the groundwater table and various creeks and streams. The sole spring at Shoshone wells is the only water source on the west side but several creeks flow off of its east side into Pine Valley including Horse Canyon creek, Willow Creek and Four Mile Canyon Creek (flowing off of Mt Tenabo's unnamed neighbor to the east). Medicine and food plants are found around the mountain and include doza, Indian tobacco, water cress, and yomba. Plants also provide for abundant wildlife including mule dear (over a dozen of which came within a 1/4 mile of the Shoshone camp during the April 2003 Spring Gathering.) ya-ha, rabbits, bobcats, mountain lions, and many species of hawks, eagles and birds. An active sage hen (hucha) dancing ground (lek) is on the eastern flank of the mountain and I believe there is another in Grass Valley towards Mt Tenabo's southern end.

Pinion trees and juniper have long been sources of food, fuel and medicine for the Newe. Pine trees close to the "Shoshone well" are known to local Shoshone as a place where pitch was gathered to waterproof baskets and for other uses. Gathering of these things by local Newe continues to the present day. Hunting, trapping, and gathering of food and medicine occur throughout the area of Mt Tenabo. Pine forests around the mountain were almost entirely cut down in the 1870's to make charcoal for the mine smelters, but historic miners burrowed underground with shafts, leaving the soil covering the ground intact. Over time mother earth healed the damage and the pinion forest has grown back and matured. What will the trees grow on if the new mine is created?

When Cortez proposed a new mine in the early 1990's, the Danns and the Western Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP) opposed this because of both the unresolved land title issue and the fact that this mine would require dewatering, threatening the most precious resource out there, the water. In order to operate, the Pipeline mine must drop the water table over 800 ft at the mine site, pumping anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of water per minute, 24 hours a day from wells over 1000 feet deep. This deep groundwater meets drinking water quality standards, with slightly elevated levels of fluoride as it is warm geothermal water. The mine then pumps it to a series of shallow ponds and trenches laid out in an arc several miles from the mine where it soaks this water back into the valley floor. Unfortunately the soil in the valley floor is full of salts, leftover from the evaporation of inland lakes and seas. When the clean water is filtered through the salty soils it is contaminated and no longer meets drinking water standards when it reaches the water table. The WSDP and its allies in Great Basin Resource Watch predicted this would happen, but the State and the BLM have allowed it to continue to this very day.

In addition to water contamination as a result of dewatering, we continue to be concerned that pumping at the Pipeline mine is affecting groundwater in the Cortez mountains. Computer modeling done by Cortez indicated that there would be no waters affected by the pumping farther then a few miles from the mine site, no surface springs of creeks were predicted to be affected. However as soon as the pumps were turned on at Pipeline in September 1996, the old pit lake 7 miles across the valley at the older Cortez mine began to dry out until finally disappearing after remaining at a static level for a decade. Initial studies indicated the water table in the bedrock around Cortez was dropping. The WSDP and Minewatch pressured the BLM and mine to look into this. Cortez commissioned a study in 1998 to study this. Its conclusion was that pumping at Pipeline might be affecting the water table but it was one of several different scenarios the report discussed. Its final conclusion was that they needed a lot more data to understand what was going on. A follow up study conducted in 1999 reached the same conclusion that they needed more information. Unfortunately we know of no additional studies after 1999. This is especially important because in analyzing the impacts of the Pipeline Mine, the BLM relied upon these models to state that no surface waters and especially the springs around the flanks of Mt Tenabo and its adjacent mountains would not be affected by the pumping. If indeed the pumping is draining the bedrock in the Cortez mountains, that means many springs and creeks are at risk and that their computer model was fatally flawed. Of course this would be inconvenient information for Cortez so it is no surprise that aren't looking for the answers.