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****For Immediate Release****
Federal Government Seizes Shoshone Livestock, Violating Treaty of Peace and Friendship
Saturday, May 25h, 2002
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
or Raymond Yowell at 775-744-4381.
