It is the primary town of the federally recognized Shoshone-Paiute tribe's Duck Valley Indian Reservation, which covers portions of northern Nevada and southern Idaho, and the majority of its population are Native American.

Owyhee, along with the rest of Nevada except for the city of West Wendover, is legally in the Pacific Time Zone.

[6] The Tribes once freely occupied the land in the tri-state area of what is now Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon.

Descendants of the Western Shoshone and the Northern Paiute occupy the Duck Valley Indian Reservation of Idaho and Nevada.

Various bands of the two closely related tribes have jointly used the area for seasonal hunting and gathering from time immemorial.

On April 16, 1877, United States President Rutherford B. Hayes established the reservation for the Western Shoshone.

In the early days of the Duck Valley reservation, the people built and lived in their traditional earthen, willow and sagebrush huts.

Bands of Western Shoshone occupied and revolved on and off the reservation, depending on their survival needs and because of the unfulfilled promises of food and supplies from the federal government.

After their defeat by the United States, survivors were relocated as prisoners to an Indian reservation in Yakima, Washington.

In 1884, local settlers tried to get the Western Shoshone removed to the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, in order to open up Duck Valley lands for non-Indian homesteads, but the chiefs successfully resisted this effort.

In July 1937 the native stone hospital was completed with a 20-bed ward, X-ray and laboratory facilities.

The native stone hospital was closed in 1976 when the modern Owyhee Community Health Facility was completed.

The Duck Valley Reservation is composed of 289,819 acres (117,286 ha) held in trust by the United States government for the use and occupancy of the Shoshone-Paiute tribes.

[4] Nevada State Route 225 leads south from Owyhee 97 miles (156 km) to Elko, the county seat.

After crossing the border, it becomes Idaho State Highway 51, which continues north to Mountain Home.