Timbisha Shoshone Tribe

A nation today

Salt-flat polygons of Badwater Basin stretching to Telescope Peak across Death Valley.
Ken Lund, Wikimedia Commons / Flickr (15082539624) · CC BY-SA 2.0

Background

The Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act of 2000 returned nearly 7,800 acres to the Tribe, including over 300 acres at Furnace Creek, and created a tribal reservation inside Death Valley National Park. NPS records that this made Death Valley the first and only U.S. park to return lands and create an Indian reservation within its boundaries. The Tribe is a federally recognized tribe, and the Act also allows modest residential and commercial development at Furnace Creek.

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Visit and learn

Timbisha Shoshone Tribe's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Salt-flat polygons of Badwater Basin stretching to Telescope Peak across Death Valley.Death Valley National Park

The Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act of 2000 transferred nearly 7,800 acres back to the Tribe, including over 300 acres at Furnace Creek, and made Death Valley the first and only U.S. park to return land and create an Indian reservation inside its boundaries. Since the law passed, NPS has used Homeland of the Timbisha Shoshone on the park's entrance signs. Source

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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