Western Shoshone Lands, where Gold is the Color of Genocide
by Brenda Norrell
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
NEWE SOGOBIA, Western Shoshone Nation, Nevada
On this sacred land of the Western Shoshone, there is no question now why the horses of Carrie and Mary Dann were brutally seized and the United States refuses to respond to a United Nations’ ruling to “cease and desist” from violating the rights of the Western Shoshone.
Like monsters, the heavy machinery grinds down the dirt roads and the gold mining companies spread, like the yellow scarves that were once placed around the necks of Western Shoshone women, yellow scarves that carried small pox.
The yellow scarves and the rape of the Western Shoshone women, memories recounted by her relatives, are what Carrie remembers today on Mount Tenabo.
With the raids on their livestock, seizure of their horses, ongoing intimidation by the US government and spread of gold mining, the Dann family lives through another loss, the death of Mary Dann in a ranching accident in 2005.
Nowhere has the struggle to survive been more intense than here. Clifford Dann doused himself with gasoline in an effort to halt the seizure of their livestock by the Bureau of Land Management in 1992. Bleeding after being assaulted by a federal officer, Clifford was arrested and sentenced to nine months in prison. When he was released, he had lost his hearing.
With the same intensity that the war raged against the Western Shoshone, the Western Shoshone attracted a special measure of love.
On this day at the sweatlodge on Mount Tenabo, Carrie is joined by Louise Benally, Navajo from Big Mountain, Ariz., among the Navajos resisting relocation. Surrounded by the ongoing destruction of gold mining here, Louise sees a scene she is all too familiar with, feels a pain she has known for 30 years.
Louise tells how Peabody Coal orchestrated the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute to remove Navajos from their homelands on Black Mesa to make way for coal mining and use their pristine aquifer water to transport coal. She remembers too the old ones, the Hopi elders who have now passed, who knew their sacred prophecies and supported the Navajos resisting relocation.
Between Carrie and Louise, there is a sad solace, a camaraderie based on pain and the relentless, never-ending, fight to protect the land.
“All of the land, our Mother Earth, is sacred”, Carrie says, looking out over the mountains of Western Shoshone territory, mountains soon to be sprinkled with snow, soon to be devoured and cored for gold extraction.
“We are the original people of this land”, Carrie says.
For Carrie, not all of the memories are bad. She remembers how the young people came and manned the support and resistance here for more than a decade; how one friend came regularly through the years with boxes of vegetables and short ribs.
On this weekend, Western Shoshone gather in nearby Elko, Nev., to talk and listen.
Western Shoshone Chet Stevens begins by encouraging the youth to follow the path of the spirit. Chet tells how it took the loss of his brother and sister for him to begin his life of sobriety and journey on the Sundance road.
With Chet’s prayers and songs, the conference begins as Katherine Blossom, Western Shoshone, sings the earth song and a song for the peoples of the world.
Western Shoshone arrive with huge pots of food, fresh deer meat, all kinds of salads, deserts and fresh baked rolls.
With Western Shoshone Larson Bill coordinating, the weekend meeting in Elko begins with Carrie remembering the air, water and earth. Steve Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, of the Indian Law Resource Center, shares research on the Papal Bulls and how the doctrine of discovery led to the seizure of Indian lands.
Western Shoshone leaders, including Raymond Yowell, speak of this struggle.
The delegation of Western Shoshone who went to the United Nations share the victory of the ruling for the United States to “cease and desist” violating their rights.
Judy Rojo, Western Shoshone, was among those who presented the facts to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva and received the ruling in March of 2006.
“When we got that decree, we decided to do a round dance and it was just the most glorious experience I’ve ever had”, Rojo said.
Western Shoshone tell those gathered that the whole world has been watching their struggle to defend their land. Louise Benally reminds them they have been an inspiration to Indian people everywhere.
The Western Shoshone and their lands have been, and continue to be, in the target scope of the United States’ ongoing genocide of American Indians.
Since the 1950s, the US government has used Western Shoshone lands to test hundreds of nuclear weapons, to dispose of thousands of metric tons of radioactive waste, and has spent billions of dollars to study Yucca Mountain as a nuclear dumpsite for the nuclear industry.
Now, corporate gold mining is coring out the mountains for gold. Western Shoshone territory ranks second in world gold production behind South Africa.
Using a method that involves grinding up whole mountains to extract minute particles of gold, this heap leach gold mining is resulting in the desecration of sacred places and destruction of air, water and land.
In 1973, following the discovery of minute particles of gold in the earth, the US charged Western Shoshone Mary and Carrie Dann ranchers with “trespass.” Claiming that these lands are public lands, the Bureau of Land Management began seizing their livestock.
Western Shoshone, however, were guaranteed their right to this land in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, with the agreement that Western Shoshone would use the land for ranching and allow non-Indians to pass through their lands. Western Shoshone did not cede their lands.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the United States to “freeze,” “desist” and “stop” actions violating the Western Shoshone’s human rights in March of 2006.
This decision challenges the US government’s assertion of federal ownership of nearly 90 percent of Western Shoshone lands. The land base covers about 60 million acres of what is now referred to as Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California.
The decision followed the military style seizures of Shoshone livestock, trespass fines in the millions of dollars and ongoing-armed surveillance of Western Shoshone who continue to assert their original and treaty rights.
The UN Committee’s decision urged the US to respect and protect the human rights of Western Shoshone peoples and enter into dialogue with Shoshone to find solutions, which upholds their rights.
Further, the UN Committee urged the US to freeze all efforts to privatize Western Shoshone ancestral lands and stop imposing grazing fees and halt livestock impoundments.
The United States has not responded.
By Brenda Norrell
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Continued in Part II
Please also see:
Western Shoshone and Navajo, Solidarity in Resistance, by Brenda Norrell
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2847&blz=1
Western Shoshone Keeping on the Pressure
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2375&blz=1
Western Shoshone Defense Project http://www.wsdp.org and the Western Shoshone series in our Economics section.
International Indian Treaty Council (IITC)
http://www.treatycouncil.org
American Indian Movement http://www.aimovement.org
Indigenous Peoples Literature http://www.indigenouspeople.net
by Brenda Norrell
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
NEWE SOGOBIA, Western Shoshone Nation, Nevada
On this sacred land of the Western Shoshone, there is no question now why the horses of Carrie and Mary Dann were brutally seized and the United States refuses to respond to a United Nations’ ruling to “cease and desist” from violating the rights of the Western Shoshone.
Like monsters, the heavy machinery grinds down the dirt roads and the gold mining companies spread, like the yellow scarves that were once placed around the necks of Western Shoshone women, yellow scarves that carried small pox.
The yellow scarves and the rape of the Western Shoshone women, memories recounted by her relatives, are what Carrie remembers today on Mount Tenabo.
With the raids on their livestock, seizure of their horses, ongoing intimidation by the US government and spread of gold mining, the Dann family lives through another loss, the death of Mary Dann in a ranching accident in 2005.
Nowhere has the struggle to survive been more intense than here. Clifford Dann doused himself with gasoline in an effort to halt the seizure of their livestock by the Bureau of Land Management in 1992. Bleeding after being assaulted by a federal officer, Clifford was arrested and sentenced to nine months in prison. When he was released, he had lost his hearing.
With the same intensity that the war raged against the Western Shoshone, the Western Shoshone attracted a special measure of love.
On this day at the sweatlodge on Mount Tenabo, Carrie is joined by Louise Benally, Navajo from Big Mountain, Ariz., among the Navajos resisting relocation. Surrounded by the ongoing destruction of gold mining here, Louise sees a scene she is all too familiar with, feels a pain she has known for 30 years.
Louise tells how Peabody Coal orchestrated the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute to remove Navajos from their homelands on Black Mesa to make way for coal mining and use their pristine aquifer water to transport coal. She remembers too the old ones, the Hopi elders who have now passed, who knew their sacred prophecies and supported the Navajos resisting relocation.
Between Carrie and Louise, there is a sad solace, a camaraderie based on pain and the relentless, never-ending, fight to protect the land.
“All of the land, our Mother Earth, is sacred”, Carrie says, looking out over the mountains of Western Shoshone territory, mountains soon to be sprinkled with snow, soon to be devoured and cored for gold extraction.
“We are the original people of this land”, Carrie says.
For Carrie, not all of the memories are bad. She remembers how the young people came and manned the support and resistance here for more than a decade; how one friend came regularly through the years with boxes of vegetables and short ribs.
On this weekend, Western Shoshone gather in nearby Elko, Nev., to talk and listen.
Western Shoshone Chet Stevens begins by encouraging the youth to follow the path of the spirit. Chet tells how it took the loss of his brother and sister for him to begin his life of sobriety and journey on the Sundance road.
With Chet’s prayers and songs, the conference begins as Katherine Blossom, Western Shoshone, sings the earth song and a song for the peoples of the world.
Western Shoshone arrive with huge pots of food, fresh deer meat, all kinds of salads, deserts and fresh baked rolls.
With Western Shoshone Larson Bill coordinating, the weekend meeting in Elko begins with Carrie remembering the air, water and earth. Steve Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, of the Indian Law Resource Center, shares research on the Papal Bulls and how the doctrine of discovery led to the seizure of Indian lands.
Western Shoshone leaders, including Raymond Yowell, speak of this struggle.
The delegation of Western Shoshone who went to the United Nations share the victory of the ruling for the United States to “cease and desist” violating their rights.
Judy Rojo, Western Shoshone, was among those who presented the facts to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva and received the ruling in March of 2006.
“When we got that decree, we decided to do a round dance and it was just the most glorious experience I’ve ever had”, Rojo said.
Western Shoshone tell those gathered that the whole world has been watching their struggle to defend their land. Louise Benally reminds them they have been an inspiration to Indian people everywhere.
The Western Shoshone and their lands have been, and continue to be, in the target scope of the United States’ ongoing genocide of American Indians.
Since the 1950s, the US government has used Western Shoshone lands to test hundreds of nuclear weapons, to dispose of thousands of metric tons of radioactive waste, and has spent billions of dollars to study Yucca Mountain as a nuclear dumpsite for the nuclear industry.
Now, corporate gold mining is coring out the mountains for gold. Western Shoshone territory ranks second in world gold production behind South Africa.
Using a method that involves grinding up whole mountains to extract minute particles of gold, this heap leach gold mining is resulting in the desecration of sacred places and destruction of air, water and land.
In 1973, following the discovery of minute particles of gold in the earth, the US charged Western Shoshone Mary and Carrie Dann ranchers with “trespass.” Claiming that these lands are public lands, the Bureau of Land Management began seizing their livestock.
Western Shoshone, however, were guaranteed their right to this land in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, with the agreement that Western Shoshone would use the land for ranching and allow non-Indians to pass through their lands. Western Shoshone did not cede their lands.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the United States to “freeze,” “desist” and “stop” actions violating the Western Shoshone’s human rights in March of 2006.
This decision challenges the US government’s assertion of federal ownership of nearly 90 percent of Western Shoshone lands. The land base covers about 60 million acres of what is now referred to as Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California.
The decision followed the military style seizures of Shoshone livestock, trespass fines in the millions of dollars and ongoing-armed surveillance of Western Shoshone who continue to assert their original and treaty rights.
The UN Committee’s decision urged the US to respect and protect the human rights of Western Shoshone peoples and enter into dialogue with Shoshone to find solutions, which upholds their rights.
Further, the UN Committee urged the US to freeze all efforts to privatize Western Shoshone ancestral lands and stop imposing grazing fees and halt livestock impoundments.
The United States has not responded.
By Brenda Norrell
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
Continued in Part II
Please also see:
Western Shoshone and Navajo, Solidarity in Resistance, by Brenda Norrell
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2847&blz=1
Western Shoshone Keeping on the Pressure
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2375&blz=1
Western Shoshone Defense Project http://www.wsdp.org and the Western Shoshone series in our Economics section.
International Indian Treaty Council (IITC)
http://www.treatycouncil.org
American Indian Movement http://www.aimovement.org
Indigenous Peoples Literature http://www.indigenouspeople.net