Western Shoshone keep fighting for 1863 treaty pro

[blackcrowheart]

Western Shoshone keep fighting for 1863 treaty property rights

By KEN RITTER
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urce=rss
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LAS VEGAS -- The way Allen Moss sees it, most of the riches of Nevada -
from the Las Vegas Strip to the state's gold mines - belong to an
American Indian tribe.

Keep Las Vegas, he said. But the Western Shoshone tribal leader wants to
reclaim ancestral lands stretching from California through Nevada and
Utah to Idaho.

Time after time, in lawsuit after losing lawsuit, the Western Shoshone
National Council and its members have been turned aside as they try to
use a 19th-century treaty to win back what they say has been improperly
taken by the U.S. government.

"Las Vegas is on Shoshone land. The gold mines, that's all Shoshone,"
said Moss, Reno-area representative to the eight-member tribal council
in Nevada. "People don't understand how much money, how many resources
are coming out of Shoshone country."

The tribe never used lines on a map until the 1863 Treaty of Ruby
Valley, which the Shoshone say gave them to up to 93,750 square miles of
ancestral lands. Las Vegas would tuck into a notch on those lines.

Tribe members insist the treaty, ratified by Congress in 1866, grants
the Shoshone, not the federal Bureau of Land Management or other
agencies, royalties and final say over water, mineral and property
rights in an area the size of the state of Maine.

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s0107mr_1a.html/35333433333364303435396661323230> The hot, harsh desert
area bears small bounties of pine nuts and medicinal herbs. The rugged
hills have yielded $20 billion worth of gold over the years - third
behind Russia and South Africa in world gold production, a lawyer for
the tribe said.

Moss estimates the number of Shoshone at between 5,000 and 8,000 -
descendants of people who lived in lands from the Snake River Valley in
Idaho to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, across most of eastern and
central Nevada, and in Death Valley and the Mojave Desert in California.

To reclaim the lands and win some legal footing, the tribe has taken its
case to fence lines, courts, international tribunals and the public.

It sued to block the nation's nuclear waste from being stored in Nevada.
It succeeded in postponing government plans to explode a bomb that would
send the first mushroom cloud in decades over the desert. And the tribe
went all the way to Switzerland to ask the United Nations to intervene
in the land rights dispute.

The tribe keeps losing on most fronts, but also keeps appealing - and
some cases have notched a place in Western lore.

Tribal elder Carrie Dann and her late sister Mary became famous for
defying the government while losing a quarter-century battle to graze
cattle on federal lands next to their Crescent Valley ranch without
authorization.

The Supreme Court ruled against the tribe in another case in 1979,
saying the Treaty of Ruby Valley gave the U.S. trusteeship over the
tribal lands.

A Sept. 20 Court of Claims ruling in Washington, D.C., took the
government position that the treaty was "merely one of friendship and
that it conveyed no treaty rights."

Lawyer Bob Hager, who has been handling Western Shoshone cases for free
since 1983, maintains the tribe is losing on technicalities. He said the
tribal claim finally got traction - and attention - with the U.N.
Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination last year in
Geneva.

The panel cited concern about the privatization of Western Shoshone
ancestral lands for mining and energy developers and cited federal
efforts to open a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas.

"The thrust of our argument is that there has been no fair adjudication
of claims," said Hager, of Reno. "The Organization of American States in
2002 and the U.N. panel last year reached the same conclusion, that the
Western Shoshone were denied due process and equal protection."

Cynthia Magnuson, a U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman in
Washington, said the government would not comment on the lawsuits or on
the ruling by the U.N. panel. She noted that arguments in the Court of
Claims appeal were due this month.

"Generally, while things are pending, we do our talking in court,"
Magnuson said.

The government has offered tribal members money, arguing it isn't
realistic to expect the U.S. to give back lands acquired through
"gradual encroachment" and now dotted with cities, crisscrossed by
interstate highways and railroads, and used for mining, ranching and
recreation.

A law signed by President Bush in 2004 approved distribution to tribal
members of more than $145 million, including some $26 million the
federal Indian Claims Commission awarded in 1979 based on the 1872 value
of 24 million acres.

Some Shohones have said they would take the cash, but others balked.
Moss, who loads preprinted newspaper advertisements for a living, said
the distribution money won't be touched because to take it would concede
the government's position.

"Our land is not for sale," he said. The money continues to collect
interest.

Hager said he intends to appeal federal court dismissal of a lawsuit in
Nevada challenging the distribution plan. Tribal chief Raymond Yowell
claims Congress erred in approving the distribution, because lawmakers
were told the federal land claims had been decided and the Western
Shoshone had agreed to the amount.

Another case pending in federal court in Reno seeks to void the 19th
century transfer by the U.S. to the Union Pacific Railroad Co. and seven
other large landholders of land, minerals and water in a so-called
"checkerboard" pattern.

The Western Shoshone also are appealing a federal court ruling last year
that the court lacked jurisdiction and that too much time had passed
since a landmark 1951 ruling to decide the tribe's treaty rights claim.
The 1951 case, filed with the Indian Claims Commission, cut the size of
the Western Shoshone aboriginal land claim from 60 million to 24 million
acres.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dann case in 1985 that the tribe
lost title to the land when the $26 million was deposited as payment -
even though the money was never collected.

Hager said a court decision whether the Western Shoshone could invoke
aboriginal rights to block a planned non-nuclear "Divine Strake" weapons
explosion at the Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas could prove pivotal
to the tribal claim.

Moss isn't sure his sons, now 25 and 21, will take up the decades-long
fight.

"They can't believe how long the battle has taken," said Moss, 52. "They
were taught in school this is a land of laws. I sit here saying, 'This
is how the laws have been manipulated and twisted.'"

"The Indians look at the ground as being sacred, including the water,"
he said. "The whole thing boils down to, 'How many times can you break
the law or twist the law in your favor?' That's what the government has
done."

[blackcrowheart]

Shoshone tribe maintains claim to land
Despite legal setbacks, members say 1866 treaty entitles them to area that includes Las Vegas Strip
By Ken Ritter
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS - The way Allen Moss sees it, most of the riches of Nevada -- from the Vegas Strip to the state's gold mines -- belong to an American Indian tribe.

Keep Las Vegas, he said. But the Western Shoshone tribal leader wants to reclaim ancestral lands stretching from California through Nevada and Utah to Idaho.

Time after time, in lawsuit after losing lawsuit, the Western Shoshone National Council and its members have been turned aside as they try to use a 19th century treaty to win back what they say has been improperly taken by the government.

"Las Vegas is on Shoshone land. The gold mines, that's all Shoshone," said Moss, the Reno-area representative to the eight-member tribal council in Nevada. "People don't understand how much money, how many resources are coming out of Shoshone country."

The tribe never used lines on a map until the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, which the Shoshone say gave them as much as 93,750 square miles of ancestral lands. Las Vegas would tuck into a notch on those lines.

Tribe members insist the treaty, ratified by Congress in 1866, grants the Shoshone, not the federal Bureau of Land Management or other agencies, royalties and final say over water, mineral and property rights in an area the size of Maine.

The hot, harsh desert area bears small bounties of pine nuts and medicinal herbs. The rugged hills have yielded $20 billion worth of gold over the years -- third behind Russia and South Africa in world gold production, a lawyer for the tribe said.

Moss estimates the number of Shoshone at between 5,000 and 8,000 -- descendants of people who lived in lands from the Snake River Valley in Idaho to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, across most of eastern and central Nevada, and in Death Valley and the Mojave Desert in California.

To reclaim the lands and win some legal footing, the tribe has taken its case to fence lines, courts, international tribunals and the public.

It sued to block the nation's nuclear waste from being stored in Nevada. It succeeded in postponing government plans to explode a bomb that would send the first mushroom cloud in decades over the desert. And the tribe went all the way to Switzerland to ask the United Nations to intervene in the land rights dispute.

The tribe keeps losing on most fronts but also keeps appealing -- and some cases have notched a place in Western lore.

Tribal elder Carrie Dann and her sister, Mary, became famous for defying the government while losing a quarter-century battle to graze cattle on federal lands next to their Crescent Valley ranch without authorization.

The Supreme Court ruled against the tribe in another case in 1979, saying the Treaty of Ruby Valley gave the U.S. trusteeship over the tribal lands.

A Sept. 20 Court of Claims ruling in Washington took the government position that the treaty was "merely one of friendship and that it conveyed no treaty rights."

Reno lawyer Bob Hager, who has been handling Western Shoshone cases for free since 1983, maintains the tribe is losing on technicalities. He said the tribal claim finally got traction -- and attention -- with the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination last year in Geneva.

The panel cited concern about the privatization of Western Shoshone ancestral lands for mining and energy developers and cited federal efforts to open a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"The thrust of our argument is that there has been no fair adjudication of claims," said Hager. "The Organization of American States in 2002 and the U.N. panel last year reached the same conclusion, that the Western Shoshone were denied due process and equal protection."

Cynthia Magnuson, a U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman in Washington, said the government would not comment on the lawsuits or on the ruling by the U.N. panel. She noted that arguments in the Court of Claims appeal were due this month.

"Generally, while things are pending, we do our talking in court," Magnuson said.

The government has offered tribal members money, arguing it isn't realistic to expect the government to give back lands acquired through "gradual encroachment" and now dotted with cities, crisscrossed by interstate highways and railroads, and used for mining, ranching and recreation.

A law signed by President Bush in 2004 approved distribution to tribal members of more than $145 million, including about $26 million the federal Indian Claims Commission awarded in 1979 based on the 1872 value of 24 million acres.

Some Shoshones have said they would take the cash, but others balked. Moss, who loads preprinted newspaper advertisements for a living, said the distribution money won't be touched because to take it would concede the government's position.

"Our land is not for sale," he said. The money continues to collect interest.

[Okwes]

WESTERN SHOSHONE INDIANS: Tribe keeps up fight to reclaim land

Findings in recent years by international organizations buoys ongoing effort
in U.S. courts

The way Allen Moss sees it, most of the riches of Nevada -- from the Strip
to the state's gold mines -- belong to an American Indian tribe.

Keep Las Vegas, he says. But the Western Shoshone tribal leader wants to
reclaim ancestral lands stretching from California through Nevada and Utah to
Idaho.
Time after time, in lawsuit after losing lawsuit, the Western Shoshone
National Council and its members have been turned aside as they try to use a
19th-century treaty to win back what they say has been taken improperly by the
U.S. government.
"Las Vegas is on Shoshone land. The gold mines, that's all Shoshone," said
Moss, Reno-area representative to the eight-member tribal council in Nevada.
"People don't understand how much money, how many resources are coming out of
Shoshone country."
The tribe never used lines on a map until the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley,
which the Shoshone say gave them up to 93,750 square miles of ancestral lands.
Las Vegas would tuck into a notch on those lines.
Tribe members insist the treaty, ratified by Congress in 1866, grants the
Shoshone, not the federal Bureau of Land Management or other agencies, royalties
and final say over water, mineral and property rights in an area the size of
the state of Maine.
The hot, harsh desert area bears small bounties of pine nuts and medicinal
herbs. The rugged hills have yielded $20 billion worth of gold over the years,
third behind Russia and South Africa in world gold production, a lawyer for
the tribe said.
Moss estimates the number of Shoshone at between 5,000 and 8,000, all
descendants of people who lived in lands from the Snake River Valley in Idaho to
the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, across most of eastern and central Nevada, and in
Death Valley and the Mojave Desert in California.
To reclaim the lands and win some legal footing, the tribe has taken its case
to fence lines, courts, international tribunals and the public.
It sued to block the nation's nuclear waste from being stored in Nevada. It
succeeded in postponing government plans to explode a bomb that would send the
first mushroom cloud in decades over the desert. And it went all the way to
Switzerland to ask the United Nations to intervene in the land rights
dispute.
The tribe keeps losing on most fronts, but it also keeps appealing.
The Supreme Court ruled against the tribe in 1979, saying the Treaty of Ruby
Valley gave the United States trusteeship over the tribal lands.
A Sept. 20 Court of Claims ruling in Washington, D.C., took the government
position that the treaty was "merely one of friendship and that it conveyed no
treaty rights."
Lawyer Bob Hager, who has been handling Western Shoshone cases for free since
1983, maintains that the tribe is losing on technicalities. He said the
tribal claim finally got traction -- and attention -- with the U.N. Committee for
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination last year in Geneva.
The panel cited concern about the privatization of Western Shoshone ancestral
lands for mining and energy developers and cited federal efforts to open a
nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"The thrust of our argument is that there has been no fair adjudication of
claims," said Hager, of Reno.
"The Organization of American States in 2002 and the U.N. panel last year
reached the same conclusion, that the Western Shoshone were denied due process
and equal protection."
Cynthia Magnuson, a U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman in Washington,
said the government would not comment on the lawsuits or on the ruling by the
U.N. panel. She noted that arguments in the Court of Claims appeal were due
this month.
"Generally, while things are pending, we do our talking in court," Magnuson
said.
The government has offered tribal members money, arguing that it isn't
realistic to expect the United States to give back lands acquired through "gradual
encroachment" and now dotted with cities, crisscrossed by interstate
highways and railroads, and used for mining, ranching and recreation.
A law signed by President Bush in 2004 approved distribution to tribal
members of more than $145 million, including about $26 million that the federal
Indian Claims Commission awarded in 1979 based on the 1872 value of 24 million
acres.
Some Shohones have said they would take the cash, but others have balked.
Moss, who loads preprinted newspaper advertisements for a living, said the
distribution money won't be touched because to take it would concede the
government's position.
"Our land is not for sale," he said. The money continues to collect
interest.
Hager said he intends to appeal federal court dismissal of a lawsuit in
Nevada challenging the distribution plan. Tribal chief Raymond Yowell claims that
Congress erred in approving the distribution because lawmakers were told the
federal land claims had been decided and the Western Shoshone had agreed to
the amount.
Another case pending in federal court in Reno seeks to void the 19th-century
transfer of land, minerals and water by the United States to the Union
Pacific Railroad Co. and seven other large landholders in a so-called
"checkerboard" pattern.
The Western Shoshone also are appealing a federal court ruling last year that
the court lacked jurisdiction and that too much time had passed since a
landmark 1951 ruling to decide the tribe's treaty rights claim. The 1951 case,
filed with the Indian Claims Commission, cut the size of the Western Shoshone
aboriginal land claim from 60 million to 24 million acres.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that the tribe lost title to the land
when the $26 million was deposited as payment, even though the money never was
collected.
Hager said a court decision on whether the Western Shoshone could invoke
aboriginal rights to block a planned non-nuclear "Divine Strake" weapons
explosion at the Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas could prove pivotal to the tr
ibal claim.
Moss isn't sure that his sons, now 25 and 21, will take up the decades-long
fight.
"They can't believe how long the battle has taken," said Moss, 52.
"They were taught in school this is a land of laws. I sit here saying, 'This
is how the laws have been manipulated and twisted.'"