KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasNo Man's Land - Part 2

No Man's Land - Part 2

Click here to read No Man's Land - Part 1.

(Feb. 8) -- A 60-year-old paperwork snafu could mean that a Native American family will soon be homeless.

The Sharpe family has lived on 160 acres of homesteaded land in the Pahrump valley since the 1940s. But the BLM recently informed the family that the land doesn't belong to them, even though they've been paying taxes on it all these years. The property could end up in the hands of developers instead.

"It's wrong. It's very, very wrong," states Ed Sharpe. His family has lived on the parcel in the Pahrump valley since homesteading the land in the mid 1940s. Although it's been tough to make ends meet, they've been paying thousands of dollars in property taxes each year for more than half a century.

Nye County has listed the Sharpe's as the owners for decades. But the Bureau of Land Management has decided the land does not belong to the Sharpe's because of a paperwork oversight.

Louie Sharpe, who filed the original homestead, failed to get a final signature from a designated official. The Sharpe's say that's not true.

"I think my dad did sign but they lost it, you know," said Fred Sharpe.

The BLM sent a letter to the Sharpe's in 1957 to tell them about the missing signature, but never communicated again. Now, with explosive growth in the Pahrump valley, a developer named Richard Hafen sparked an inquiry into the status of the Sharpe land, which sits on Hafen Ranch Road, next door to Hafen Elementary.

The inquiry prompted the BLM to determine that the land belongs to the government. Already, maps show the land is on the BLM's list of disposable property and presumably will be up for grabs by developers.

Daron Cox, friend to the Sharpe family, says, "It's just ridiculous. I can't believe anyone taking something like this."

Daron Cox thinks taking away the Sharpe's land is all the more poignant since this family is directly descended from Chief Tecopa, the Paiute peacemaker who helped pave the way for white settlement of the entire region.

The family thinks there are holes in the BLM's story. For one thing, in 1981, the BLM installed property markers there, but reported that no one was living there.

Ridiculous, the family says. "Nobody living on the property? Look at these trees. Somebody's been living out here quite awhile," Fred Sharpe commented. Generations of the Sharpe family, in fact, have lived there. The family photo album proves it.

BLM told the I-Team that it's hands are tied, and it can't return the land to the Sharpe's, yet it's own land expert is quoted in a letter as saying it shouldn't be difficult to do exactly that.

"They should be given the patent the same way they were doing back in 1949. Just sign it and give it to them," Daron Cox stated.

BLM told the I-Team that it offered to let the Sharpe's buy the land at fair market value -- $10 million or more, which considering their financial position, is like telling them they have an option to buy some acreage on the Las Vegas Strip. It's not very realistic.

Unless something dramatic happens, the Sharpe family will lose its land, a position not exactly unfamiliar to Native Americans.

As Ed Sharpe puts it, "It's happened before."

"The clock is ticking, I guess," were Fred Sharpe's words.

The Sharpe's have contacted Senator Harry Reid, whose office told the I-Team the senator wants to help but isn't quite sure how to do it. An act of Congress might be needed, and that could take a few years.

The BLM says it has no immediate plans to put the land up for sale, but admits there is nothing in the law to prevent such a sale either.

Georke Knapp and the I-Team will keep you informed as the story progresses.

Click here to contact I-Team Investigative Reporter George Knapp.