The Walker River Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation

Indian reservation

An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

 located in central Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is located along the Walker River

Walker River (Nevada)

The Walker River is a river in west central Nevada in the United States, approximately long. It drains an arid portion of the Great Basin southeast of Reno, with a watershed that extends into the Sierra Nevada mountains. It flows within an enclosed basin, providing the principal inflow of Walker...

 between Yerington

Yerington, Nevada

Yerington is a city in Lyon County, located in western Nevada, USA. The population was 2,883 at the 2000 census. It is named after Henry M. Yerington, Superintendent of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad from 1868 to 1910. It is the county seat of Lyon County....

 and Walker Lake

Walker Lake (Nevada)

Walker Lake is a natural lake, 50.3 mi² in area, in the Great Basin in western Nevada in the United States. It is 18 mi long and 7 mi wide, located in northwestern Mineral County along the eastern side of the Wassuk Range, approximately 75 mi southeast of Reno...

. At the current lake level, the reservation has only a small frontage on Walker Lake. The bulk of the reservation (72.68%) is in Mineral County

Mineral County, Nevada

Mineral County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the population was 5,071. In 2009, it was estimated to have dropped to 4,662. Its county seat is Hawthorne.-History:...

; however portions are in Lyon County

Lyon County, Nevada

Lyon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2010 census, the population was 51,980. Its county seat is Yerington.-History:...

 (14.37%) and Churchill County

Churchill County, Nevada

Churchill County is a county located in the western U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2000 census, the population was 23,982. As of July 1, 2007, the population of Churchill County was estimated at 27,190. The county, named after Mexican-American War hero brevet Brigadier General Sylvester Churchill,...

 (12.95%).

The reservation's land area is 529.970 square miles (1,372.616 km²) and a population of 853 persons was reported at the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

. Schurz

Schurz, Nevada

Schurz is a census-designated place in Mineral County, Nevada, United States. The population was 721 at the 2000 census. It is located on the Walker River Indian Reservation. It is the burial place of Wovoka, the Paiute messiah who originated the Ghost Dance movement...

 is the only town on the reservation. Weber Reservoir, an impoundment of the Walker River, is located upstream of Schurz and provides irrigation

Irrigation

Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...

 water for farms on the reservation. Most of the reservation is cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

 range

Rangeland

Rangelands are vast natural landscapes in the form of grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals, steppes, and tundras...

.

The reservation belongs to the Walker River Paiute Tribe, a Northern Paiute tribe. Their Paiute name is Agai-Ticutta. The English translation means "Trout Eaters."

Wovoka

Wovoka

Wovoka , also known as Jack Wilson, was the Northern Paiute religious leader who founded the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "cutter" or "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language.-Biography:...

, creator of the Ghost Dance

Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance was a new religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. The traditional ritual used in the Ghost Dance, the circle dance, has been used by many Native Americans since prehistoric times...

, is buried in Schurz.