The Duck Valley Indian Reservation, a 290,000-acre reservation that straddles the Nevada-Idaho border, is home to the Shoshone-Paiute people. On the Nevada side of the reservation, the tiny town of Owyhee offers residents few conveniences. It is a small town that attracts hardly any visitors from Nevada or Idaho much less people from outside the area. When Sho-Ban News reporter Wyatt Buchanan stopped in Owyhee in the summer of 2002, he wrote: "This is the middle of nowhere and 100 miles from any Interstate freeway or railroad track. The closest grocery store is 13 miles away. A bank and tribally owned fuel pump just recently came to town. Buying fresh meat means a two-hour drive to Mountain Home, Idaho."

"The middle of nowhere" is a phrase commonly used to describe reservations, whether the reservation is tucked inside the swampy Florida Everglades or deep...