Distribution bill for Western Shoshone
is genocide
By Brenda Norrell
Flagstaff, Arizona, Mar. 19— Western Shoshone Carrie Dann
said a proposed US 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 US Senate and is now in the US 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-RI, 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 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,” said Dann. She said water is being
used for gold mining, and is being poisoned by nuclear testing.
Newe (Western Shoshone) are struggling to protect their Newe Sogobia
(homelands) for future generations. “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.”
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 two 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 smallpox.
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 US justice system
and the deceit of the US Interior, which 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 people.
“Multinationals 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 US 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 United States doesn’t want to face international probes
because it seized use of Western Shoshone land illegally and never paid
to use it 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, which was 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.”
Source: Indian Country Today
