MARCH 20th, 2002

From: Carrie Dann wsdp@igc.org

* * * ACTION ALERT * * *

Your Help Is Needed
To Ensure Western Shoshone Representation
at Upcoming Senate Hearing

 

Call or Fax the Senate Indian Affairs Committee Monday March 11th-Friday March 18th!

 Dear Friends and Supporters of the Western Shoshone Nation,

A Hearing before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on S 958 The Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act, has been scheduled for 10AM March 21 in Washington DC. We are asking all of our supporters and concerned Americans to contact the Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye and Vice-Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell and respectfully request that Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone elder and spokeswoman for the Dann Band of the Western Shoshone Nation, be invited to testify at this hearing.

This proposed legislation threatens to finalize extinguishment of Western Shoshone land title by distributing over $130 million dollars in a one time cash payment to individual Shoshone. This payment was the result of the discriminatory Indian Claims Commission proceedings which denied the Western Shoshone due process and ignored the evidence of existing Shoshone land title. As a result of the US denial to recognize Western Shoshone land rights, the Western Shoshone Nation is threatened with the imminent confiscation of its horses and cows, continued nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site, transport and storage of the nations high level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, and the continued destruction of cultural sites and water resources by multinational mining interests. Senator Reid of Nevada is promoting the bill and is making every effort to see that Western Shoshone opposed to the bill are not invited to the hearing, especially Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone elder and outspoken defender of Western Shoshone rights.

Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone elder has been involved in Western Shoshone land issues since the 1950's. Carrie and her sister Mary carried this issue all the way to U.S. Supreme Court who ruled against them based on the proceedings the Indian Claims Commission, the very issue at stake before this Senate hearing! Carrie Dann has been honored by the U.S. Congress with the receipt of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor was created in 1986 to honor the many ancestral groups who through struggle, sacrifice and success, helped build this great nation. In 1993 Carrie and her sister Mary received the international Right Livelihood Award for "their exemplary courage and perseverance in asserting the rights of indigenous peoples to their land." The Right Livelihood Award, widely know as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", was established in 1980 to honor and support to those offering practical and exemplary answers to the crucial problems facing the world today. In light of these honors and out of respect for her life's work, it is essential that the Senate Indian Affairs Committee have the benefit of Carrie Dann's testimony at the hearing on March 21st and her participation in related meetings in regard to the proposed legislation.

Western Shoshone leaders can be heard on national radio show Monday March 11th. Please Tune In!

Carrie Dann and Chief Raymond Yowell of the Western Shoshone National Council will appear with U. Mass Professor Peter d'Errico on the Nationally syndicated Native American radio talk show Native America Calling (http://www.airos.org/) hosted by Harlan McKosato at 10AM Pacific Time, Monday March 11th. Please tune in and join the discussion. Native America Calling is carried by many NPR and community radio stations across the country. Check their web site at www.nativecalling.org to find a station near you, or listen to the broadcast over the web.

We have included an upcoming Indian Country Today editorial about the Western Shoshone Claims to provide further information on the issues at stake during this hearing. Further information can be obtained by calling the Western Shoshone Defense Project at 775-468-0230 email wsdp@igc.org or consulting the following webpages:

http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/shoshone/testimonyw.html

Thanks for all your help!!!

Christopher Sewall
Program Director, Western Shoshone Defense Project

INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY EDITORIAL

If Nevada's Senator Reid has his way, the final curtain may soon fall in the long, sad saga of Western Shoshone land rights. In defiance of long-standing Congressional policy, Reid's S.958 will distribute every cent of the Western Shoshone Judgment Fund on a per capita basis. The distribution will not benefit Western Shoshone tribal governments in any way. It will disinherit all future generations. And, it will cast a final pall of shame on the Indian Claims Commission, the United States Court of Federal Claims and the Article III constitutional courts that adjudicated the Western Shoshone claims and the notorious case of U.S. v. Dann.

The Indian Claims Commission Act was passed on August 13, 1946 amidst pious pronouncements that it would at long last provide a remedy for "ancient wrongs" done to America's indigenous peoples. The Commission had broad jurisdiction to award money judgments for Indian claims, but it could not return land, even when the Indian title was unextinguished. In fact, it was an integral part of then dominant federal policies of termination and assimilation, and it became a giant engine of extinguishment of hundreds of millions of acres of otherwise good Indian title outside existing reservation boundaries. After making 274 awards totaling $818,000,000, most without interest from an often fictional Nineteenth Century "date of taking," Congress terminated the Claims Commission in 1978 and transferred its remaining caseload to the Court of Claims, where some dockets still remain unfinished. While the awards totaled nearly $1 billion, that sum was a small fraction of the actual value at the time of the awards of the lost Indian assets.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in U. S. v. Santa Fe Pacific Railroad in 1941 that aboriginal Indian title can be extinguished in only two ways - by act of Congress or by voluntary cession. Nonetheless, the Claims court (now the United States Court of Federal Claims) and the attorneys who represented Indian plaintiffs and the U.S. before those judicial forums proceeded to destroy the priceless doctrine of aboriginal Indian title with stipulated findings of extinguishment based on "events" that were utterly inconsistent with the Constitution and the rule of Santa Fe. The Claims Commission found that "by gradual encroachment of whites, settlers and others, ...the [Western Shoshones] were deprived of their lands." Never mind how trespasses and treaty violations by individual whites could possibly have given the Government title, especially since the Shoshones ceded no land in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. In the Gila River case, the Claims Court actually said that although nothing had happened that could constitute a taking, "in a fit of absentmindedness [by the U.S. trustee], the deed was somehow done." This is not law. It is racism and political expediency cloaked in the false majesty of law.

A major problem with proceedings under the Claims Commission Act was that they didn't provide minimum standards of constitutional due process of law. Claims attorneys, who in the final analysis purported to represent eight individuals responsible to no community or tribal government, were allowed to litigate on behalf of the "Western Shoshone Identifiable Group," an as yet unidentified plaintiff apparently intended to encompass all Western Shoshones and federally-recognized Shoshone tribal governments. A nominal tribal plaintiff, the Temoak Bands Council, was not allowed to control the case or the attorneys. When the Temoak Council fired the claims attorneys, the Interior Department approved an extension of their attorney contract to allow the lawyers time to take the case to final judgment and obtain their contingent fee, over the objections of their supposed client. In 1979 the claims attorneys obtained fifteen cents an acre (the 1872 value), without interest, for sixteen million acres of otherwise unextinguished Shoshone Indian title land worth billions today. The lawyers claimed victory. The Shoshones' government trustee somehow got the land. A great many Shoshones are understandably convinced that they actually lost. The courts have treated this disastrous outcome as binding on all Western Shoshone tribal governments and individuals, virtually none of whom were parties or had legally sufficient notice of the proceedings. In the absence of a land settlement, Western Shoshone tribal governments have unanimously opposed a naked money distribution for nearly 25 years, and some have turned to the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for relief.

Followed from beginning to end, through over fifteen reported court decisions, the Western Shoshone land litigation literally does not make sense, except in terms of the political imperative that Indians must lose their lands. It can't be reconciled with Anglo-American property law. Lewis Carroll wrote this script. It is an Alice in Wonderland World where racism is enshrined as law. I advise curious lawyers and law students that the only thing to understand about this litigation is that even the best legal scholars can't understand it.

The Western Shoshone judgment fund has been held by the Interior Department since its award in 1979. No Western Shoshone has ever received a penny. Nonetheless, the U.S. Supreme Court held in 1985 that when the U.S. handed a check from its left hand, as judgment debtor, to its right hand, as judgment creditor and trustee, the Western Shoshones were paid. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently held that this "payment" precludes the Shoshones from asserting title, even as a defense by Shoshones in actual possession since time immemorial to trespass claims brought by the U.S., as in U.S. v. Dann.

The Claims Court twice advised Shoshones who attempted to prevent the loss of their land by intervening or seeking a stay that their remedy was in Congress, not the courts. While Senator Reid's money distribution "remedy" will make the fictional payment a reality, it will do nothing to provide a land base and a future for the Western Shoshones. It will, however, allow the Government to announce that the matter has been resolved.

Rather than providing an example of "that distributive justice which is the glory of a nation" (President Washington's Secretary of War, Henry Knox, describing the federal government's solicitude for Indian land rights), the proceedings of the Claims Commission and the Claims Court in many Indian land cases, most notably Western Shoshone Identifiable Group v. U.S., illustrate a profound glitch in the American character. We claim to be the finest example in human history of a political system that provides justice and equality for all. However, almost without exception, when the Government and the courts have been faced with the prospect of acknowledging original Indian ownership of substantial tracts of land, and the equality of Indian title under the Constitution, they have blanched and shamelessly resorted to the exercise of raw political and judicial power in the absence of any principled and reasoned basis in law for the Indians' loss of their homelands. The white man continues to covet Indian land and racist and politically expedient "doctrines" of law continue to poison American jurisprudence.

Thomas E. Luebben, Director of Litigation
Native Lands Institute

Partner Luebben, Johnson & Young

May 24th, 2002

From: Carrie Dann wsdp@igc.org

On Friday morning May 24th, 2002 before sunrise armed BLM agents assisted by several Nevada State officials raided the tribal grazing allotment of the South Fork Reservation and seized 136 head of cows belonging to Western Shoshone ranchers, including Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council. We are asking for your immediate assistance in expressing the public’s outrage at this clear violation of Western Shoshone rights and the 1863 Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed at Ruby Valley! Other Western Shoshone livestock under the care of Mary and Carrie Dann remain at large grazing upon Shoshone land in the Crescent Valley area. These will most likely be the next target of BLM confiscation.

1.     Please call the following U.S. officials immediately and ask them to cease and desist from their efforts to punish Western Shoshone citizens by fines and confiscation for the act of grazing on ancestral lands. Ask for the immediate release of livestock confiscated from the W Shoshone living on the South Fork Reservation. Ask why grazing lands were never included as part of the various W. Shoshone reservations.

-Elko BLM Field Manager Helen Hankins      (775)-753-0200 -Nevada State BLM Director Robert Abbey      (775)-861-6400 -Secretary of Interior Gale Norton      202)-208-3100

2.    Contact (call or fax) your Congressional representatives in both the House and Senate to voice your concerns about this roundup, U.S treatment of the Western Shoshone and pending legislation before the Congress that does nothing to resolve the lack of recognized land rights for the W. Shoshone. Legislation (S958 Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act) is currently pending in the Congress which would individually distribute the claims money, which is the entire legal basis of the U.S. claim that it has extinguished land title. The legislation was crafted by Nevada Senator Harry Reid without the consent or participation of any Western Shoshone Tribal councils, either Federally recognized or Traditional; and includes no provisions to provide for an adequate land base for Western Shoshone communities or the recognition of any resource rights, such as hunting, gathering , and fishing!

It is especially important to communicate ASAP to members of Congress on the present and impending danger of confiscations and because of the pending Shoshone Claims Distribution Legislation. If you have the time, try setting up a meeting with them or their staff. As the bill currently is sitting before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, it is especially important to communicate with your Senators if they sit on this committee.

Offices for all Congressional members can be reached through the capital switchboard at 202-224-3121
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
838 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
202-224-2251 http://www.senate.gov/

Some suggested points to make include:

*      The ongoing confiscations clearly demonstrate why S 958 will not provide relief to the Western Shoshone because it does nothing to resolve the need for an adequate land base for all W. Shoshone communities. In the Treaty of Ruby Valley , the Shoshone agreed to become agriculturists and herdsmen, yet the government will not recognize any land for these purposes.

*      Any legislation concerning the Western Shoshone must be developed with the consent and participation of Western Shoshone leadership, both Traditional and Federally Recognized Councils.

*      Any legislation concerning distribution of Claims money must make clear the money is for past damages which do not include title or rights to the land. Language in any bill should explicitly override the provision of the Indian Claims Commission Act which precludes the exercise of rights connected to lands being compensated for.

*      A one time cash payment suggests that only the current generation of Western Shoshone is important and leaves nothing for the future generations. ·Cash payments do nothing to change the conditions which have left the Western Shoshone without land or resources. Any legislative solution must provide an adequate land base for the cultural and economic survival of all Western Shoshone communities. Legislation should reaffirm the Treaty of Peace and Friendship.

3.     Contact the WSDP to get on the Alert List in the Event that the BLM continues with the planned confiscation of Shoshone livestock. People willing to participate in non-violent, direct action, as well as documentation (photo, audio, and video) are needed. We are not asking for you to come here now, but would like to know who could come out to Northeast Nevada in the unhappy event of a confrontation. Remember, the Western Shoshone remain committed to the Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Firearms, Drugs, and Alcohol are strictly forbidden!

May 25th, 2002

From: Carrie Dann wsdp@igc.org

    South Fork community, Newe Sogobia, (Nevada) In blatant defiance of the 1863 Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed in Ruby Valley, Federal agents with the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, assisted by Nevada State officials, seized 136 head of Western Shoshone livestock belonging to Western Shoshone citizens from the community of South Fork. The cows were grazing in a tribal grazing allotment. Arriving before sunrise on the Friday morning beginning the Memorial Day holiday weekend, armed BLM agents, and several State of Nevada officials from the Agricultural Department working in concert with contract cowboys believed to be from the Vernal, Utah area, seized the cows and had them on the road to a BLM holding facility in Palomino Valley, NV by 10:30AM. Non-Indian ranchers affiliated with the Nevada Livestock Association, noted cowboy poet Waddi Mitchell, and local politician John Carpenter R-Elko appeared during the roundup to express their opposition to the BLM’s actions against the Western Shoshone.

The Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed in 1863 at Ruby Valley between representatives of the Western Shoshone Nation and the United States was essentially an agreement by the Shoshone to share their lands with the white people, yet nothing in the Treaty indicates a transfer of title was intended. Under Article 6 of the Treaty, the Western Shoshone agreed to “become agriculturists and herdsman” and the President was to “make such reservations for their use as he may deem necessary…” Ignoring the Treaty, the lands set aside in trust for the Western Shoshone during the early 1900s and Great Depression did not include areas for grazing; instead grazing lands surrounding these tiny reservations were claimed to be under the control of the BLM and subject to BLM, not tribal jurisdiction. Recent tribal appeals documenting the fact that these lands were intended to be part of the reservation have been stonewalled by the BLM which cancelled a November 2000 hearing and never rescheduled. “We have always proceeded in a lawful and peaceful fashion. We have repeatedly requested the U.S. government demonstrate to us how they acquired our land. Under what law did they take our land? They have yet to provide an answer.” states Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, and among Western Shoshone who lost cattle in yesterdays roundup.

The BLM alleges the seized cows were in trespass, because according to the Federal government the Western Shoshone have no legal rights to these lands and had failed to pay proper grazing fees. The BLM has based its decision on a Supreme Court case which ruled against Western Shoshone sisters Mary and Carrie Dann in their attempts to assert Western Shoshone land rights. The ruling stated that the Western Shoshone have no judicial recourse to protect their land rights because the Secretary of Interior accepted a 26 million dollar monetary award on their behalf as compensation for the alleged extinguishment of Shoshone land title to over 24 millions of ancestral territory.

The basis of this supposed extinguishment was a 1962 finding by the Indian Claims Commission, a quasi-judicial entity established by Congress in 1946, that the land in question had been lost by the Shoshone due to a process of “gradual encroachment by white settlers and others.” Western Shoshone people assert that the Commission never considered the evidence that they still used and retained title to their land. Many scholars consider the Claims Commission a stacked deck against the Indian people, as the lawyers representing the Shoshone before the Claims Commission would only be paid if an extinguishment of title had been found to have occurred. Compensation for these lawyers was based on a 10% of the total monetary award granted to the Shoshone. Not surprisingly, the firm of Wilkinson, Cragun, and Barker, the same firm representing the Western Shoshone, was responsible for drafting the Indian Claims Commission Act.

The lack of due process and the clear denial of Western Shoshone rights to self identification and self representation before the Claims Committee form part of the international complaints filed by the Dann Band and other Shoshone communities. These complaints are currently before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Organization of American State’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has issued a confidential report to the U.S. State Department finding the U.S has violated the human rights of Western Shoshone people, specifically denying their rights to property and due process, according to documents released by the BLM.

Recent legislation introduced by Nevada Senator Harry Reid, which calls for a 100% individual distribution of the claims award, has provoked controversy across Indian Country. The legislation was developed without the consent or participation of any Western Shoshone tribal councils, and has no provisions protecting the Treaty or establishing an adequate land base for the Shoshone communities. A recent hearing scheduled at the end of March in Washington DC was cancelled with less than days notice despite the fact over 20 Western Shoshone representatives had traveled to DC to participate. The Senator did not even have the courtesy to meet with any of the representatives and has yet to actually visit any Shoshone community to explain his legislation. Many have speculated that this legislation is designed to appease the State government of Nevada. An April 2001 letter from Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa to Senator Reid made clear the State believes the Shoshone have no rights to their land and does not want to see any legislation which may recognize Shoshone land or rights.

At a 1980 Hearing of Record, the majority of Western Shoshone people rejected the monetary award until the U.S. could provide proof of ownership over the Treaty territory. Subsequently Western Shoshone ranchers from the communities of South Fork, Odgers Ranch, Dann Ranch, Duckwater and Yomba began refusing to pay grazing fees for the use of ancestral lands surrounding their communities. Facing millions of dollars in fines and fees and the threat of cattle seizure, the Duckwater and Yomba communities have settled their alleged “trespass” under protest, however the majority of Shoshone ranchers at South Fork, Odgers Ranch, and the Dann Ranch have remained adamant in their refusal to pay the Federal government for the use of their own land. “This has always been about the land, our rights to continue to use and occupy our lands for the benefit of our families and the future generations. Its never been about money, or grazing or overgrazing.” states Western Shoshone elder Carrie Dann.

For more information please contact:
Lois Whitney or Christopher Sewall at the W. Shoshone Defense Project 775-468-0230
Raymond Yowell at 775-744-4381.

MAY 31st, 2002

From: Carrie Dann wsdp@igc.org

Between 8:00 and 9:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, the Nevada State BLM, office located in Reno, will be attempting to conduct an auction to sell the livestock seized by the BLM from Western Shoshone ranchers grazing under the 1863 Treaty of Peace and Friendship (Ruby Valley Treaty) Please call and fax the BLM between these hours to express your opposition to these actions against the Western Shoshone.

Under the 1863 Treaty of Peace and Friendship the W Shoshone Nation agreed to accommodate newcomers on to their land, in part by agreeing to become "agriculturalists and herdsmen." As part of the Treaty the U.S. agreed top establish reservations for that purpose. Like so many Treaties with Indian peoples, the U.S has refused to honor its commitment and the tiny reservations which were created in the early 1900's did not include lands for these purposes. Despite the fact the U.S. cannot provide the documentation of how it has acquired title to Western Shoshone homelands, it now declares that the Shoshone have no rights to these lands, despite the continuous occupation and use by the Shoshone fro 10,000+ years. This is a disgrace for the U.S to continue its trail of broken treaties while claiming to be the world's defender of democracy and human rights. Please act to hold the United States accountable for this shameful act of theft.

Letters of protest can be faxed to auction at the Reno BLM

Fax # 775-861-6712

Phone calls of protest should be directed to the following Reno BLM phone numbers 775-861-6587, or 775-861-6464.

please act now, we are sorry for the short notice but circumstances out here have prevented an earlier request for action.

For more information contact Lois Whitney or Christopher Sewall at the Western Shoshone Defense Project 775-468-0230.

JULY 24th, 2002

From: Carrie Dann wsdp@igc.org

Decision on Senate Hearing Undermines Decades of U.S Indian Policy and Represents Return to the Paternalistic and Genocidal Past. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Reschedules Hearing on Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act for August 2nd, 2002.

With less than 12 business days notice, Western Shoshone communities have learned that Senator Reid and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs have rescheduled a hearing on the Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act (S958). The legislation being promoted by Senator Reid was developed without the consent or participation of either the Western Shoshone Federally recognized Tribal Councils or the Traditional Government. The bill would provide a one time individual cash payment to all Western Shoshone in compensation for the extinguishment of title to their ancestral lands and all rights attached to those lands. In what can only be interpreted as an attempt to railroad this legislation through committee without a full discussion of the issues at stake, Senator Reid's staff have informed the Western Shoshone that only three representatives chosen by Senator Reid himself will be invited to speak before the committee. According to staff at the Senate Indian Committee, as August 2nd is the last day of the session before recess, it is likely that only the Chair (Senator Daniel Inouye) and Vice-Chair (Senator Ben Nighthorse-Campbell) of the Senate Committee will be present for the hearing along with Senator Reid. This is outrageous act of disrespect on the part of Senator Reid and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and an affront to the many generations of Western Shoshone people who have struggled to have their Treaty and rights respected.

Please Contact The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Senator Reid and your own Senators!!!!

Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs
838 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-2251
http://indian.senate.gov

Chairman
Daniel K. Inouye
Hawaii
(202) 224-3934

Vice Chairman
Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Colorado
(202) 224-5852

Reid, Harry (D - NV)
528 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3542
http://www.senate.gov/~reid/email_form.cfm?lowsrc=1

To reach any member of Congress you can contact the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121

Important Points and Background:

Several international human rights bodies have recently raised concerns about the United States policy towards Native American Nations in general and the Western Shoshone in particular. At a time when the U.S. has an active and expanding role internationally, it is extremely important that we retain the respect and trust of the international community. Flagrant disregard for the international institutions we have helped created can only weaken us and undermine the credibility of the United States as a defender of human rights. The current efforts of Senator Reid and the Senate Indian Committee directly contradict the issues raised by several human rights bodies. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted specifically in its 2001 report reviewing the United States:

"The Committee notes with concern that treaties signed by the Government and Indian tribes, described as "domestic dependent nations" under national law, can be abrogated unilaterally by Congress and that the land they possess or use can be taken without compensation by a decision of the Government. It further expresses concern with regard to information on plans for the expansion of mining and nuclear waste storage on Western Shoshone ancestral land, for placing their land to auction for private sale and other actions affecting the rights of indigenous peoples. The Committee recommends that the State party should ensure effective participation by indigenous communities in decisions affecting them, including those on their land rights, as required under article 5(c) of the Convention, and draws the attention of the State party to General Recommendation XXIII(51) on Indigenous Peoples which stresses the importance of securing the "informed consent" of indigenous communities and calls, inter alia, for recognition and compensation for loss. The State party is also encouraged to use as guidance the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States (OAS), has issued a confidential report to the U.S. after investigating the case of the Western Shoshone. It is understood that the Commission does not issue reports unless a human rights violation has been found. This Shoshone complaint focuses on the Indian Claims commission proceedings and their subsequent use by the Federal government in extinguishing all land rights. The Senate Indian Committee had been asked to delay any hearing on Western Shoshone issues until the report became public. They have refused to do so.

Representatives from all affected Western Shoshone communities should be allowed to testify before a fully represented Committee on Indian Affairs. This includes Chairmen from the Federally recognized councils, Traditional leadership and representatives from communities not under the Federal recognition system (ie. the Dann Band) and Western Shoshone organizations. What right does a U.S. Senator have to choose who will represent the Western Shoshone people? The Federal government has recognized the Western Shoshone as a self-governing Nation through the 1863 Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed in Ruby Valley. It has since recognized most of the Western Shoshone communities as self-governing independent tribes each with their own councils and leadership under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The witness list for the March hearing included 15 Western Shoshone invited to testify, some of whom were Chairpeople or representatives of their communities and others whose only reason for being on the list was their affiliation with the Claims Steering Committee. Other Western Shoshone non-governmental organizations such as the Western Shoshone Defense Project who have worked on the issues for 10 years were left off the invitation list as well as communities with Western Shoshone membership such as the Winnemucca Indian Colony. Now the Senator and the Senate Committee proposes to reduce the inconsistent representation even further by having only three invited witness's, two "for" the legislation and one "against", however these names and how they were reached has not been explained.

Scheduling the hearing with less than 12 business days notice, in the afternoon on the last day of the session is an insult to all the Western Shoshone and the U.S. public who expect the U.S to treat Native Americans in an honorable fashion. In March the hearing was cancelled the day before it was scheduled, without any attempt to contact Tribal leadership who were flying to Washington DC. The dozen Western Shoshone witnesses were offered no compensation for the expenses incurred in getting to DC for the March hearing, and not a single Senator on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (Senator Reid, the bill sponsor included) could find the time to meet with any of the Western Shoshone representatives who had made the trip. The hearing should be scheduled to insure the attendance of the full committee as well as a fully represented Western Shoshone Nation

Senator Reid has ignored repeated communications from various Western Shoshone councils, organizations and concerned tribal members, and has instead only communicated with associates of the Western Shoshone Claims Steering Committee, the non-governmental tribal organization who developed and promotes the legislation. He is now attempting to limit the scope of the hearing by limiting and hand picking those who will testify before him. This follows a long pattern of treatment set by the Indian Claims Commission when they consistently refused to allow various tribal governments and organizations from intervening in the claims process, finally refusing to let the Western Shoshone fire the lawyer who was supposed to represent them. The discriminatory and racially biased Claims proceedings were then finalized when the Secretary of the Interior, acting as the "trustee" of the Western Shoshone. The claims proceedings have been the entire legal basis for the U.S. to deny Western Shoshone rights, yet the Supreme Court has ruled that because the Claims Commission "found" that title had been extinguished, the Federal Courts no longer have to consider any Western Shoshone cases based on rights or land title.

For more information contact the Western Shoshone Defense Project at 775-468-0230, fax 775-468-0237 email wsdp@igc.org

SEPTEMBER 20th, 2002

From: Carrie Dann wsdp@igc.org

Crescent Valley, Newe Sogobia (Nevada) The morning after a round of intercontinental missile testing overhead, Mary and Carrie Dann prepare for the threat of fully armed federal agents -aided by helicopters overhead and rented cowboys on horseback - swarming into their ancestral grazing lands and rounding up their livelihood. The Danns are Western Shoshone grandmothers who have been engaged in a decades long struggle with the federal government over access to and use of their lands, lands recognized in an 1863 Treaty with the United States. The U.S. claims the lands are “public lands” and has engaged in continuous threats and enforcement actions against the Dann sisters and other Western Shoshone as they attempt to survive as cattle grazers and native people in the vast valleys and mountain ranges stretching across present day Nevada. The Western Shoshone have been barred from judicial relief in the U.S. Courts, but received confirmation of their land claims in July of this year when the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States affirmed the Danns’ argument that the U.S. is using illegitimate means to claim ownership and control of Western Shoshone land and called upon the U.S. to take action to remedy the situation of the Western Shoshone and their land rights.<

The U.S. is choosing to ignore reasonable solutions for these people, instead, the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs now is pushing forward Senate Bill 958 with an alleged “pay off” to the Indians of approximately $0.15 per acre for land (the same area which encompassed the Carlin gold trend – with a mined value of $20 billion dollars and rising). Senator Reid, the sponsor of the bill, has bypassed tribal and traditional governments in pushing the meager distribution through. Senator Reid’s office now ignores repeated calls and proposals to consider a process to resolve the land issues and establish an adequate homeland for the Western Shoshone people. The failure of Senator Reid to reasonably address the issue of land rights is especially questionable in light of another bill he has sponsored, Senate Bill 719, the Northern Nevada Public Lands Management Act.   That bill would open up all “public lands” in Nevada (approximately 87% of the State) to privatization and sale to the highest bidder – multinational corporations have already begun exploration activities.

After receiving news of the pending raid through an anonymous call, Mary Dann, now in her early seventies, appeared tired, “We have repeatedly asked the federal government for Western Shoshone land transfer documents. If our ancestors agreed to give up or sell this land we would respect that agreement.   But the federal agencies have never shown us such documents and our own Shoshone history does not talk about any agreement or document giving away the land.”   In fact, legal scholars and the Report of the Inter-American Commission agree that U.S. history contains no cession or abandonment by the Western Shoshone people, and the 1863 Treaty stands untouched.   Carrie Dann’s only public statement was to term the current federal action as “domestic terrorism”.

For more information, contact the Western Shoshone Defense Project
at 775-468-0230, e-mail: wsdp@igc.org or
Deborah Schaaf at the Indian Law Resource Center at 406-449-2006.

SEPTEMBER 21st, 2002

From: Carrie Dann wsdp@igc.org

UPDATE ON THREATENED SHOSHONE CATTLE SEIZURE

Crescent Valley (Newe Sogobia), Nevada The Danns remain on high alert. After receiving news Thursday night that the Bureau of Land Management would be moving in to impound their livestock, Mary and Carrie Dann, their family and their supporters have been working nonstop to prepare for the federal raid.

Early this morning, while riding out to gather up saddlehorses to bring the cattle in, Carrie Dann's grandchildren, Tyson, age 24 and Stephanie, age 10 were met by a helicopter as they approached a group of 15-20 horses on the range. The helicopter swooped down on the herd and scattered the horses as the two riders approached. The helicopter was yellow and white and suspected to have been hired by the BLM. Fortunately, neither rider was injured. A complaint based on the reckless endangerment of the two grandchildren was filed with the Eureka County Sheriff's Department by Carrie Dann immediately after the incident.

Western Shoshone Defense Project staff member, Christopher Sewall received additional information late Saturday night that the federal agents were planning to commence round up activities on Sunday. Only four days before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs prepares to move Senate Bill 958 allegedly paying off the Shoshone for their land rights. The Danns continue to challenge Senator Reid and other members of the Committee to live up to the values this Country was founded upon justice, honesty and integrity The Treaty between the U.S. and the Western Shoshone was a treaty of peace and friendship, at a minimum Senator Reid should require the addition of a provision calling for binding negotiations to secure a Western Shoshone homeland adequate for the survival of future generations.

For more information, please contact
the Western Shoshone Defense Project at 775-468-0230;
e-mail wsdp@igc.org.

SEPTEMBER 23rd, 2002

CRESCENT VALLY, NEWE SOGOBIA, Nev. -- Western Shoshone Indians and sympathetic Nevada stockmen are bracing for the next stage in federal raids on the herds of the elderly sisters and Shoshone traditionalists Mary and Carrie Dann, after a pre-dawn convoy Sept. 22 carried off more than 200 head of cattle for auction.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) agents staged the Sunday morning roundup as the latest move in a long-standing attempt to collect grazing fees from the Danns and other Shoshone ranchers for the use of what the federal government maintains is "public land." The Western Shoshone traditionalists have refused to pay for decades, maintaining that the rangelands were never legally ceded by their tribe. The raid came just days before the U. S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee is scheduled to meet to "mark up" a bill introduced by U. S. Sen. Harry Reid, D. - Nev., to extinguish the Shoshone land claims.

An anonymous tip on the night of Sept. 19 alerted the Danns that federal agents were planning another raid on their livestock.

The elderly sisters and their family waited on edge for two days before the next siege came in their 30-year struggle with the federal government over their right to graze cattle on Shoshone homelands.

The Danns, now in their 70s, immediately put out a call to supporters to help them bring cattle off the vast remote rangelands of northern Nevada where many Shoshone graze livestock.

Supporters and ranchers, Indian and non-Indian alike, began to arrive on the Dann Ranch, including a group of Shoshone cowboys from the Yomba Shoshone reservation and Chief Raymond Yowell who suffered a $100,000 loss when BLM confiscated and sold his cattle in May.

"It's domestic terrorism," said Carrie Dann of the ongoing federal raids. "The mightiest nation in the world sent its paramilitary to steal our livestock and force us off our land. How can a country that professes to value democracy and human rights act like this? It's morally and ethically wrong."

Throughout Friday and Saturday, the Danns and other ranchers rounded up as many cows as they could locate and herd onto private land before BLM agents and hired wranglers arrived in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 22.

Meanwhile, other Western Shoshone people planned to stage demonstrations at BLM offices in Elko to protest the raid on the Dann sisters. At press time, the Danns were awaiting the return of federal agents for day two of the siege, which may last through Sept. 25, according to the anonymous tip that initially warned of the raid.

"When they came, it was just after 4 a.m.," said Mary Gibson, a Shoshone woman who had camped out with a group of 11 men, women and children in the rocky canyons near Pine Valley. "We saw a convoy of about 20 vehicles with flashing lights roaring up the valley.

"As I was waiting and praying to the Creator to help us, I could not help but think of how this is how our ancestors felt when they saw the cavalry coming. So many of my people were killed on this land and now it's happening again. The Indian wars are not over."

Gibson said about 40 uniformed federal agents -- all armed with guns -- told them to evacuate the area or they would be arrested. The group was escorted out of the area and told not to return.

"These are Western Shoshone homelands where our people lived and died, where we raise our children and conduct ceremonies. This is our land, and we were driven off at gunpoint," she said.

Along with the caravan of sport utility vehicles came six or seven semi-trucks for hauling livestock off to auction, helicopters used to drive cattle, an airplane, about 20 all-terrain vehicles and more than 50 armed federal agents, Dann said.

As the roundup began, the Danns and others were told to stay off public land while the operation was going on or they would be arrested.

Two county roads leading into Cottonwood Canyon were closed and the entire area was sealed off to people trying to enter the valley.

"We were scared and very worried about what might happen to the Danns and their supporters," said Julie Fischel, an attorney working with the Western Shoshone Defense Project at headquarters in Crescent Valley. "We saw what happened at Waco, so we had people camped out there to witness their actions. We are always peaceful and unarmed in our resistance, but you never know how these kinds of assaults will unfold."

By Sunday night, BLM reported they had seized 227 head of cattle and were loading them onto stock trucks when Carrie Dann insisted on driving down the mountain to the holding pens where her cattle had been taken.

"A BLM vehicle got in front of me and another behind me on that narrow dirt road and drove about 10 miles per hour. It was a delay tactic I'm sure and by the time we got to the holding pens, I could only see the last of my cattle being loaded. I wanted to check the condition of the cattle because when you drive them with helicopters, it makes them panic.

"I tried to go over there, but they told me if I went one inch off the county road, they would arrest me. For what? They were the ones stealing cattle," Dann said.

BLM officials said the livestock would be taken to a holding facility north of Reno, about a six-hour drive from Crescent Valley and auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Nevada Livestock Association chairman David Holmgren and his wife, who also were on the scene, called the situation "further cattle rustling" by the BLM.

"We're the cattlemen's voice against the unlawful seizures of cattle in Nevada," Holmgren said. "Our brand law has been violated, grand larceny of the Dann cattle is being committed and the right to due process of law is a joke right now. We plan to stand against this threat to our liberty with the Western Shoshone people."

Many traditional Western Shoshone people and their legal counsel hold firm that the land is still Western Shoshone land according to the Treaty of Ruby Valley. The treaty granted access and rights of passage to settlers, but never relinquished ownership.

The BLM insists -- but cannot prove to the Shoshones' satisfaction -- that the land is "public land" taken by gradual encroachment over the years.

"If they took it by gradual encroachment, where are all those people who encroached?" asked Carrie Dann. "The only people living out here are Indians. What they are doing now is actually the gradual encroachment they talked about 100 years ago."

Dann said the motive for harassing them is to "beat down" the traditional Shoshone leaders and make an example of them to show other Indian people what will happen if they stand up for their rights.

"Senator Harry Reid has legislation in Congress to pay off the Indians for 15 cents an acre and destroy our claim to the land. Then with Senate bill 719, he wants to privatize the land and sell it to the highest bidders which will be the multi-national gold mining companies. But this is our land and we are going to fight for it."

Mary Dann said, "We've repeatedly asked the federal government for Western Shoshone land transfer documents. If our ancestors agreed to give up or sell this land, we would respect the government. But the federal agencies have never been able to show us any document giving away the land. This is still our homeland."

A recent report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, of which the U.S. is a member, found that the United States is violating the human and civil rights of Western Shoshone people.

The report noted that the U.S. is using illegitimate means to claim ownership and control of Western Shoshone land. It recommended a remedy that will respect the Western Shoshone's rights to the land.

OCTOBER 31st, 2002

CRESCENT VALLEY, Nev. - The Dann sisters are rough, elderly, hidebound ranchers who live without electricity, hot water or furnace. Though Carrie Dann is nearly 70 and her sister Mary is nearly 80, they still break their own horses and mend their own fences. This is how their Shoshone Indian ancestors lived, and the bones of those ancestors are among the Danns' closest neighbors.

Their wish is to be left alone, and to graze their cattle freely on land they claim as their birthright.

The federal government's wish is for the Danns to stop fattening their livestock at taxpayers' expense.

This battle has gone on for 30 years, and the Danns have not given up yet, even though the government has seized hundreds of their cattle, sold the animals at auction, charged the sisters nearly $50,000 in fees and fined them $3 million for willful trespass.

"Trespass? Who the hell gave them the land anyway?" Mary Dann asked as she mended a fence on a windswept desert morning. "When I trespass, it's when I wander into Paiute territory."

Her sister Carrie said: "I was indigenous and in one single evening they made me indigent. If you think the Indian wars are over, then think again."

The dispute is rooted in the refusal by the sisters and some other Shoshone ranchers to pay grazing fees on traditional Western Shoshone land - nearly 26 million acres in Nevada, roughly two-thirds of the state.

The government considers it public land, and to drive the point home, 40 agents from the Bureau of Land Management descended on the Danns' ranch in September, heavily armed and fortified with helicopters, and confiscated 232 cattle, which were later sold.

The sisters and their supporters argue that their tribe never legally ceded these range lands. Though the federal government controls 85 percent of Nevada, they contend that it has no legitimate title to the land - or the gold, water, oil and geothermal energy beneath it.

The whole convoluted conflict is wending its way through the United States Senate, where a bill recently made its way out of committee that would allot a one-time payment of $20,000 to each of the 5,000 enrolled members of the Western Shoshone tribe. The $100 million in the bill, sponsored by Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, would be one of the largest Indian land settlements in history.

Tessa Hafen, a spokeswoman for Senator Reid, said the bill was a response to a request for help.

"The tribe came to the senator and asked them to help them out," Ms. Hafen said. "Tribal members overwhelmingly supported it. They want their payments."

The price is set at 15 cents an acre, using a formula based on land prices in 1872. The now-defunct Indian Claims Commission ruled in 1962 that the Shoshones had lost possession by gradual encroachment by settlers.

"Encroach what?" Carrie Dann wanted to know. "There isn't anybody living out here. Look around."

Indeed. The vista of Crescent Valley includes a few sun-whipped shacks and aluminum trailers. Broken beer bottles litter the county road, but one would be hard pressed to call this land settled.

Depending on who is asked, the Danns are either modern-day Geronimos, common rabble-rousers or scofflaws.

Once before, in 1992, federal agents came and confiscated Dann family livestock. A six-day standoff ensued, ending with their brother Clifford dousing himself in gasoline and threatening to light it. Clifford went to prison and went deaf, and 250 horses went to auction.

Now half the family herd is gone and a $3 million note hangs over their heads, multiplying problems in an already bad year for the sisters. They are perhaps five feet tall, with worn knees, thick hands and good humor. Mary is quiet and Carrie can leap into language so caustic it could wear the enamel off teeth.

There has been no moisture to speak of this year. Grasshoppers swarming down from the mountains ate what greenery there was. Then the government took the cattle.

"They want us to give up and go away to the city," Carrie said over a lunch of Spam sandwiches in her ramshackle house tucked in the shade of cottonwood trees. "I'd die in the city."

Today, the value of this land ranges from $250 an acre to $1,000. In the valley here, two mines operating on government leases are extracting gold worth billions of dollars.

"Fifteen cents an acre?" shouted Carrie Dann, getting heated. "Dumb Indians. They shouldn't take the deal for $20 million an acre."

For nearly 40 years, the Shoshones refused to accept the money when the government first offered a payment. The Danns, representing their people, took their case to the Supreme Court, which ruled in the early 1980's that the payments did constitute a settlement.

"You refuse it and they stick it in your back pocket," is how Carrie Dann put it.

Times change, and many Shoshones are tired of the dispute. They want the money. Most live in the cities, work 9-to-5 jobs or have no jobs at all. A payday would go a long way.

"I asked one of the ancients what she was going to do with the money and she told me she was going to buy a mattress," said Nancy Stewart, a retired teacher who wants to take the money. "But she may never see the money because of the Danns. They're hardliners who want two-thirds of the state back. That's never going to happen."

Others agree with the sisters.

"I know my people, and that money would be spent in no time," said Lois Whitney, a Shoshone who lives in Elko, an hour's drive from here. "The people are just living for today. Thinking about a new truck and beer. It's greed."

The bill gained momentum after Felix Ike, chairman of the Te-Moak Tribe, which includes the Shoshone people in areas around the Nevadan towns of Wells, South Fork, Elko and Battle Mountain, conducted what he calls a binding vote in June.

In the end, the people voted to take the money: 1,647 in favor, 156 against. But then Mr. Ike's tribal council did not recognize the vote.

Still, the process rolls toward an end.

"Once the money is paid, it is very clear in my mind that the cloud over their claim is clear," said Chief Raymond Yowell of the Western Shoshone National Traditional Council - who had 88 head of cattle confiscated in May - referring to the government. "They can then say to the world that they bought it."

A recent report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States found that the federal government was using illegitimate means to claim ownership and control of the Western Shoshone lands.

Moreover, an independent auditor hired by the Bureau of Land Management to evaluate its land exchange policies stated in a report this month that the agency had colluded with private developers to trade away government land at below-market prices.

Many of those trades occurred in Nevada, and the auditor suggested a 90-day moratorium on such land transfers.

JoLynn Worely, a spokeswoman for the bureau, said the confiscation was an effort to apply the laws equally - laws, Ms. Worely said, that the Dann sisters think they are above.

"They grazed their own land to dust and then they want to graze public land for free," Ms. Worely said. "Times are bad for everyone, and the white ranchers want to know why they pay and the Indians graze their animals for free."

The Danns were grazing 1,500 cattle and horses on drought-stricken land that should only support 200 animals, Ms. Worely said.

Carrie Dann admitted her land was overgrazed, but said she was not environmentally reckless.

"The rains will come again and the grass will grow back," she said. "But when the Shoshone people are gone from this land, we are dead."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/31/national/31SIST.html?ex=1037074730&ei= 1&en=d8682feca1e7662a