Inspiring social change through print, spoken word, and live performance.

Interview with Carrie Dann - conducted while driving to the
airport in Seattle WA in spring 1998

Greg Bennick: Are you tired after the last four days of running around? I’m exhausted and was just wondering how you were feeling…

Carrie Dann: I’m not really physically tired but I do want to go home. 

Bennick: What are your memories of what Newe Segobia [note: this is the Shoshone term for their homeland in Nevada and surrounding area] was like for you when you were a girl, in terms of the way that the land was before the mining. Was the land healthier? What was it like then? What changes have come about? 

Dann: I do think we had a lot more water in those days. It rained more and we had more snow-pack. As far as the grass on the land, we probably have more grass today than we had at that time, from my memory anyway. 

Bennick: I’ve heard a lot about, and admittedly know very little about, Hopi prophecy and earth changes. I think about he fact that it’s raining less now, and remember that all of the things that are coming about have been prophesized to come about. It seems like something’s upset the balance of the ecosystem. 

Dann: Well, I really can’t say, but it all points in that direction. And I think the prophecies, not only of the Hopis, but all of the Western Shoshone people, it’s coming, you know? They talked about the contamination of the outer space, which we see today with all these things that they’re putting up into outer space. They did talk about that and I do think that a lot of this has a lot to do with the conditions here and of course the reason why I think we’re not really as healthy: the land is not as healthy as it used to be. Because in those days we had lots and lots of trees and now you’ve got more people and less trees, less to clean up the air for the breathing animals and humans. 

Bennick: I wasn’t actually aware that there were Western Shoshone prophecies about the future. 

Dann: There are some prophecies about the future, but it just talks something similar…the prophecies across the United States are basically similar among the Indian nations. One thing I can say is that it’s definitely a lot hotter in the summer time than it used to be. 

Bennick: There are so many people I know who look up to you as a guiding light in terms of activism and in the terms of your determination and your will. You and the Shoshones are standing against what many would assume is an all-powerful force in terms of the United States government, the United States Army, and whatever else you face. I know there are a lot of people who find it very admirable that you stand up against these things. I was wondering if there’s anybody that you admire for their steadfastness in terms of the struggle for the rights of indigenous people? Is there anyone you look up to, or respect as an equal and in whom you find inspiration? 

Dann: I think there’s a lot of people that I look up to. Some of them are my own Western Shoshone people, people that guided us, guided my parents. My grandmother and also my two aunts and my mom...they told us a lot of things about the times in which we’re going to live and the things that we’re going to see. And of course I met Thomas, probably around 1961 or ’63 somewhere in there. I guess another person that I really admire…well there’s a lot of people I admire. One is Janet McCloud here in Washington. I think she’s a great woman. During the night of the fish-ins, her and her family, and others, did a real great part in that. Then there’s Leon Shenandoah…there’s a lot of people gone to the spirit world already. Leon, and a lot of others that I admire because of their teachings. We are told right is right and wrong is wrong, and you cannot make a wrong right by doing wrong things. So that’s basically what we learned. We learned to live in the right way. You have to stand up for what is right. 

Bennick: Meeting Janet McCloud the other day, it was really excellent to see the two of you talking because you’re both very similar in that everything you say is geared towards standing up for what is right. The whole conversation was geared towards that and it was really wonderful just to listen to the two of you talk to each other, because everything you say is so deeply rooted in a determined effort to pursue what is right. It was…I don’t want to say 'inspiring', but it was in a way. It was very excellent to be able to listen.

Dann: Well a lot of the things we do are based on the traditional religion of the indigenous people, and those are the laws we believe that were given to us by the Creator and those are the only laws which we really must follow. Man’s laws we can break. The creator’s laws, or the laws of nature, we can’t break those because we have to live with it and it’s part of all life. And if you believe in all life, then you’ve got to live with each other and understand that there is a connection between all parts of life, from plant-life to human-life. From childhood we learned how to respect; I guess that’s one of those things that is the reason we are that way too, because we have to, we have to teach our children how to respect. And I think it’s the most important thing that we teach our young people today to respect, not to dominate but to respect. 

Bennick: Speaking of children, I know that a lot of your talks focus on future unborn generations. Where do you hope to see the status of the Western Shoshone nation, the Western Shoshone Defense Project, your own struggles that the Dann family faces, in maybe 5 years, 10 years, 20 years. What do you hope comes about in the near future from the work that's going on right now? 

Dann: Well, I’d really like to see the Western Shoshone people participate in taking care of the land. If the government would just let us take care of our land the way it’s supposed to be taken care of. I think that’s one of the great things that I would like to see. Even if we participated together, the government and the Western Shoshones, I think that would be a step in the right direction. And, I’d like to see us have jurisdiction, if not over all of the land, but at least jurisdiction over some parts of the land. 

Bennick: By jurisdiction… 

Dann: The right to make a decision as how to what will happen on the land and different things like that. 

Bennick: How effective is the help of people writing letters and people volunteering on the small scale…how effective is that in terms of the struggle as a whole? 

Dann: I think it’s pretty effective because otherwise, if it were just us out there, they wouldn’t listen to us. People’s awareness and people’s letter-writing are very effective. 

Bennick: Is there anything else you’d like to add? 

Dann: The only thing I can say is that I myself, my family, and the Western Shoshone people, they’re traditional people who appreciate all of the work and time people are devoting and giving to us, even if it’s just the support of prayer or just the support of letter-writing. It’s very important and it’s really important for future generations, not only to the Western Shoshone people, but to the future generations of all species of life. Because I feel that we only have one earth and we must take care of her, and it’s very important that we do take care of her. If we don’t take care of her, we as a species will all die, but the earth will still continue to go on. We must always remember that we are children of the earth, and we always must look after the future generations that aren’t here yet.

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