Western Shoshone Land Rights

Human rights activists Mary and Carrie Dann on their Nevada ranch in 1979 (photo by Ilka Hartmann)

The injustice at a glance

Congress has never acted and nothing has ever occurred as a matter of law to “take” or “extinguish” Western Shoshone’s title to their ancestral lands.

1. The 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley (Nevada) did not cede any Western Shoshone land to the United States, nor did it purport to “take”or “extinguish” Western Shoshone aboriginal Indian title.
2. In 1962, the Indian Claims Commission (ICC) concluded that “by gradual encroachment of whites, settlers and others…the Western Shoshones were deprived of their lands.” This finding describes no more than an historical trespass–not a “taking,” “extinguishment” or condemnation of title as a matter of law.
3. Since the ICC identified no date when Western Shoshone lands were taken, the Indian “claims attorneys” stipulated July 1, 1872, as a “date of valuation” for the purpose of computing a money award as if the United States actually had “taken” Western Shoshone lands.
4. In December of 1979, the ICC awarded $26 million to the “Western Shoshone Identifiable Group” based on a valuation as if all Shoshone lands were “taken” on July 1, 1872. In fact, Shoshones were still in actual possession of most of their ancestral Indian title lands.
5. In 1980 the Nevada Federal District Court held that Western Shoshone title was good until December of 1979, the date of the ICC award. Western Shoshone livestock were therefore not in trespass on the public domain prior to that date.
6. In 1983 the NInth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Western Shoshone aboriginal Indian title was good at least until December of 1979.
7. In January of 1985, the United States Supreme Court held that the Western Shoshones were “paid” when the $26 million ICC award was placed into a “trust” account in the Interior Department. Western Shoshone tribal governments and individuals have consistently opposed distribution of the judgment fund and the Shoshone have never received any money.
8. In 1989, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that since the Supreme Court said the Western Shoshones were “paid” in 1979 (a legal fiction), Western Shoshone title must be deemed “extinguished” [retroactively] as of July 1, 1872, the stipulated valuation date.
9. Thus, according to a court in 1989, Western Shoshone title was extinguished in 1979 (five years after the government sued for trespass), as of 1872. If this proposition does not seem to make sense in logic or law, you have a clear understanding of the Western Shoshone land rights issue.

The government has spent millions of dollars in the last 25 years trying to remove Western Shoshones from their ancestral lands through litigation and armed coercion, and trying to distribute the ICC award, in order to turn the legal fiction of a nineteenth century “taking” into fact.

Above info from fact sheet prepared by Tom Luebben of the Native Lands Institute

Read about Western Shoshone elders Mary and Carrie Dann and their fight for their land

See the film “Our Land, Our Life” about Mary and Carrie Dann and their struggle which they’ve taken to the Supreme Court and the United Nations

Don’t buy gold. Western Shoshone ancestral land in Nevada is being extensively strip mined for gold, which is leached from the earth using cyanide. The groundwater is also being depleted because the earth that contains the gold is beneath the water table; thousands of gallons of water are pumped out daily–in a desert–so that the earth can be extracted. 80% of this gold is used in jewelry. The earth, indigenous peoples’ lives and rights are being violated for pretty trinkets. (Info from “Our Land, Our Life”)

Filed under: activism/organizing, media/culture criticism, racism by Amy's Brain Today