Distribution bill for Western Shoshone is genocide
The fight for land and dignity
March 19, 2004
by: Brenda Norrell, Southwest Staff Reporter
http://IndianCountry.com/?1079714945
Indian Country Today
Steven Newcomb stands with Western Shoshone Carrie Dann who is
carrying on the legacy of the struggle for her people's land and
liberty. (Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today)
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Western Shoshone Carrie Dann said a proposed
U.S. distribution bill for payments of ancestral land is genocide
and warned non-Indians that they would be the next ones that the
United States strips of their rights.
"What is going on today is genocide of our spiritual and cultural
ways. You should not let this genocide happen because you might
be the next one in line," Dann said during an address in downtown
Flagstaff. "What happened to us will happen to you someday. There
is already one act against you, it is called the Patriot Act."
Delivering a fiery speech, Dann said the Western Shoshone Distribution
Bill (H.R. 884) has passed the U.S. Senate and is now in the U.S.
House of Representatives.
"They want to pay 15 cents an acre to legitimize the theft against
us. We are facing genocide in the Senate and the House."
Naming Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., as the leader of the assault on
Western Shoshone, she said, "He represents the big corporations."
While the United States attempts to seize Western Shoshone land
for corporate greed, Dann said Mother Earth has given everything
to sustain life, even the tiny creatures like the bugs have been
nurtured at the breast of Mother Earth.
Yet, to non-Indians, she said, "I am characterized as a pagan,
a savage."
Dann said the United States seized Western Shoshone land for the
Nevada Test Site and the Nuclear Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain.
Now corporations are proceeding with open pit cyanide leach gold
mining. The largest vein of gold in the United States has been discovered
on the Western Shoshone's sacred mountain, the place of Creation.
"They are pumping out the essence of life so the multi-national
corporations can get richer." She said water is being used for gold
mining and nuclear testing is poisoning water.
"Some of the springs I used to drink from say, ‘Do not drink
the water.' We need help to protect the babies still in the Earth
that haven't come out yet. If this degradation continues, there
will not be a future for anyone."
Newe (Western Shoshone) are struggling to protect their Newe Sogobia
(homelands) for future generations.
Dann said what was done to American Indians, was also done in
Iraq. "They don' t tell you how many children they have killed;
they don't tell you how many innocent people they have killed."
Drawing a parallel with the slaughter of American Indians, Dann
said between 1492 and the present day, acts of genocide against
American Indians resulted in the death of all but 2 percent of the
American Indian population.
"That is a bad history," Dann said.
She said neither Indians nor non-Indians are taught the history
of genocide in schools. The history books do not tell about the
smallpox.
Dann, however, remembers when she was young, hearing the old ones
talk about the time when the people died of small pox.
Now, she said their land is seized and sold as federal land to
corporations for $2.50 an acre to mine gold. This land is worth
billions.
Dann's niece Mary Gibson, and Julie Fishel, attorney for the Western
Shoshone Defense Project, joined Dann to make the presentation.
Gibson said there have been three roundups and seizures of the
Dann's horses since 1992. "It was the modern-day Calvary, it was
very frightening."
Gibson said it created images of what her ancestors went through
when they were chased and murdered by the Calvary. "I feel these
corporations have a lot to do with the roundups of Carrie and Mary's
horses."
She said the United States does not care about Indian people,
but the people will endure.
"It is Indian country. There are many, many Indian people who
do not give up."
Fishel said the United States does not want the American public
or the international community to know that the Western Shoshone's
1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley is still in effect.
Fishel said the United States wants to conceal the fact that Western
Shoshone land was taken for nuclear testing, nuclear waste storage
and corporate gold mining by manipulations of the U.S. Justice system
and the deceit of the U.S. Interior who was complicit in the theft
of Shoshone land and violated its position as trustee.
The United States fears that the international community will
discover that it violated the same human rights it claims to uphold
by military force in other countries of the world. She said their
governments who work in concert with corporations abuse the rights
of indigenous. "Multi-nationals are repeating this pattern in other
parts of the world."
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Western
Shoshone and upheld their right to their land. Then, in order to
subvert justice, the Indian Claims Commission was used in an attempt
to do away with the high court's ruling.
Fishel said when the U.S. Interior, as trustee of the Western
Shoshone, received money for Western Shoshone land in 1979, it was
a violation.
"Who did they pay? They paid themselves."
Referring to the Indian Claims Commission, Dann said the Commission
attempted to diminish the Western Shoshone people. "They said we
are animals and migrate from place to place." Fishel pointed out
that federal Indian law is based on Christianity and the racism
that was set in place at the time of colonialism.
She said the U.S. doesn't want to face international probes because
it seized use of Western Shoshone illegally and never paid for the
use for nuclear testing.
Further, Fishel said the Dann's and Western Shoshone are entitled
to other damages. "They were subjected to psychological torture."
As gold companies seize Indian lands in South America, Fishel
said the public is kept in a fog.
Gibson added, "There is no justice for Indian people in the United
States." She said Indian people need an international legal forum.
Fishel pointed out that the United Nations is comprised of nation
member states that are also abusing indigenous peoples.
"They are all complicit in the same crime."
Fishel said the nations of the world need to turn to traditional
indigenous peoples for guidance.
Dann said the scenario of Western Shoshone land has been mirrored
in the seizure of Black Mesa for coal mining. Dann praised Navajos
for standing firm against forced relocation.
Danny Blackgoat, son of the late Roberta Blackgoat, and Marie
Gladue, both of Big Mountain, thanked Dann for her words. Gladue
said her family lives with the scars of fighting for justice. While
non-indigenous people think they live in a country of justice, she
said, "It is an illusion."
The presentation at the Federated Church community room in downtown
Flagstaff began with the documentary "To Defend Mother Earth," the
story of the Dann's struggle produced by Joel Freedman and narrated
by Robert Redford. The video includes scenes of the arrest of Tim
Dann, for shooting a mule deer to feed his family, and arrest of
Western Shoshone leaders and elders on ancestral land in protest
of nuclear testing.
"Who will speak for the land?" asks narrator Robert Redford.
Dann welcomed visitors to the Western Shoshone spring gathering
May 14 - 16.
Gibson said it is the traditional Indian elders that give her
strength. "They know their truth and they stand on their truth."
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Maya Aguirre protested during the Tonatierra Human Rights Conference in Phoenix in September 2003, giving support to farmers protesting the World Trade Organization in Cancun. The victorious fight to save Zuni Salt Lake is memoralized in the background. Tonatierra launched a weeklong indigenous rights campaign in Phoenix on March 7. (Photo courtesy Brenda Norrell) PHOENIX - Mayan, Lakota and Hopi women representing the strength and resolution of indigenous women everywhere, launched Tonatierra’s human rights campaign as they called for governments in the Americas to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples.