Assemblymember Watts Works with Indigenous Leaders to Pass Suite of Laws
The Nevada Independent summarized the gains made by the Indigenous Peoples of Nevada during the 2021 Legislature. Assemblymember Watts spearheaded four of the bills mentioned - AB 88, AB 95, AB 171, and AJR4:
Watts said the goal of the measure is to continue promoting awareness about the injustices of the past in order to move forward.
“That's really what Assembly Bill 88 tries to do is help educate people about some of the racially discriminatory aspects of our history, from our school mascots, to the names that we've given to places, places that were named first by Indigenous peoples, and then renamed when settlers arrived, and also addressing the issue of sundowner sirens,” he said during the bill-signing event. “I believe that by confronting these issues, and working together to address them, we can all move forward together and have a brighter future for the state.”
The bill also prohibits Nevada counties, cities and unincorporated towns from sounding sirens, bells or alarms historically used to alert people of color to leave town at a certain hour, known as a “sundown ordinance.” The bill specifically applies to Minden in Douglas County, which repealed the sundown ordinance in 1974 but continues to sound the siren at 6 p.m. each day. Tribal leaders have asked for years that the siren be removed, or at least changed to a different hour of the day.
More on the sundown siren issue from the BBC:
Historians estimate there were as many as 10,000 so-called sundown towns across the US during their peak in the 1970s. Roughly 44 of the 89 counties along Route 66 - stretching from Illinois to California - were sundown towns, some posting signs that read "Don't Let the Sun Set on You Here", accompanied by a racist slur.
Speaking last August, Serrell Smokey, the chairman of the local Washoe Nation, called Minden's siren a "living piece of historical trauma".
"This is something that has been a fight for the Washoe Tribe for a long time," he said.