Shivwits Band of Paiute elects new chair who hopes members will call reservation home again

IVINS, Washington County — When Phillip Bushhead spends time at the Shivwits Band of Paiute Reservation he grew up on, he has hopes that one day, more people will call it home.

Bushhead is the newest elected member of the band's council, having been elected as band chair. The four-member council had an opening after former chair, council member Tina Gonzales, resigned earlier this year.

"I think I share the voice of a lot of the (Shivwits) people," Bushhead told KSL. "We need to at least understand what's happening on the inside. I want all of us to decide together because this is our land."

The band has about 300 members, with approximately half of those voting age, according to reports from some band members. In fact, Bushhead was one of four who ran for the position, and he won with 42 votes out of 117 total. He said he believes this election was a "very big deal right now."

"Things used to be really simple," he said. "Right now, I feel like the previous council has gotten us into a situation where we need to be able to understand what we got ourselves into."

Bushhead is talking specifically about planned development on the reservation through a land lease agreement. Part of that involves a partnership with Black Desert Resort to build a resort on roughly 1,250 acres of reservation land. He acknowledged that times have changed and said this also means that things on the reservation need to change. That change, he said, needs to include safety and security for people who live on the reservation and for those who hope to one day come home.

"I think right now is a time for housing," he said. "People need that and have a safe environment so we can at least all grow together — even our (elders) so they come back to the reservation and not worry about stuff like rent and we can take care of them and make it easily accessible for our tribe to come down and serve members."

The Shivwits reservation is on 28,000 acres west of Ivins. The band was recognized by the federal government in 1891, and then again in 1941 after being terminated in 1954 with other Paiute bands. It was named a sovereign nation, which means it can control its own affairs, including land leases and deciding to build on its own land.

Sovereignty is something that Bushhead said needs to be understood by all band members and by people with whom they do business.

"My opinion of sovereignty is that we live in a country within a country," he said. "We have the right to govern ourselves. We have the right to make certain decisions. We have to be able to come to an agreement and understand sovereignty. We have to look at that word. We have to be able to get that definition correct so that when someone wants to come lease some land, that we all understand the word and be on the same page. It's a word that can't just be thrown around."

In recent years, the band has been able to come to agreements on developing parts of their land. They built a gas station and soccer fields. The band manages Fire Lake Park at Ivins Reservoir. These things, Bushhead explained, were decided by the band, with all proceeds going directly to them.

"There is land for development," he said. "I believe it's time to re-look into that and to be able to understand what's happening in today's society and pick something that will benefit us all. The gas station is ours. We own that piece of property."

Bushhead said he loved growing up on the reservation and believes that taking care of the land — including having more housing and building parks for kids — will enable them to make it a place where band members will want to return.

"Me and my cousins would walk down to the Santa Clara River together and go fishing and catch crawdads. When we were younger, we were told, 'Don't live on the rez. Move away. Everything is better off the reservation.' Why not make the reservation a place the band wants to live?

"I would like more people from the Shivwits Band to be able to say, 'Yeah, I live on my rez,' and have no problem with that. ... I truly believe that those generations who moved away can come back."

Bushhead said that he is aware of the big impact the decisions made on the land have on the community at large, adding that he also wants to make sure his people aren't forgotten.

"Even though it's such a little, tiny place near St. George, this affects everybody who lives here," he said. "How much water is going to be sucked into a golf course and spit out with poison and go back into the Earth? That isn't good for anybody.

"This land proves that Native Americans – the Paiutes — are still here."

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