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Winter 1997 Update on the Danns Case Before the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
from the Indian Law Resource Center
Mary and Carrie Dann are actively prosecuting their complaint
before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The
Indian Law Resource Center filed the complaint in 1993 as part
of a campaign to help the Dann band and other Western Shoshone
bands to secure their aboriginal rights to their land. The
United States government has responded to the Dann's case with
a variety of legal tactics that include asking the Commission
to declare the case inadmissible. The United States refuses
even to acknowledge that it is bound by principles of
international human rights, and has refused to enter into
"friendly settlement" negotiations with the Danns.
In July 1997, the United States filed another submission in
support of its effort to have the case declared inadmissible,
this time alleging that the Danns' case was not timely filed.
The Center's reply, filed in September emphasized that the
actions of the United States that impede or threaten to impede
the Western Shoshone people from using and occupying lands
within their ancestral territory are ongoing. Those actions
prevent the Danns and other Western Shoshone from hunting and
grazing livestock and include United States complicity in gold
mining operations that with each passing day encroach more
onto lands they depend on for survival. Center attorneys met
with the Danns in October 1997 to document these ongoing
violations and to discuss the progress of the case.
return to Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American
States Inter-American
Commission Hears Dann Case
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