In 1980, the United States held a hearing of record in the Western Shoshone Territory. At this meeting, numerous Western Shoshone asked the hearing officer a simple question. “By what U.S. law did the United States acquire Western Shoshone Territory.” They received no response to their question. To this day, 22 years later, the United States has yet to answer the Western Shoshone question.
Because the U.S. representative could not explain how the United States acquired Western Shoshone Territory, the Western Shoshone refused to accept any monies based on a supposed Indian Claims Commission “award.” They refused to accept the money because they understood that the United States had never acquired the Western Shoshone Territory. They said in the strongest possible way that the Western Shoshone homeland still belongs to them ? as confirmed in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley ? and it’s not for sale.
Today, however, U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada continues to move forward in an effort to get some Western Shoshone to vote to accept Indian Claims Commission Docket 326-K. With interest, the docket has grown from more than $26 million (about $1.05/acre) to around $130 million. If divided and distributed to every single one of the roughly 6,500 Western Shoshone, this would amount to approximately $20,000 each. But based on the language of the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, if the “award” money were paid out, the United States could then argue that it had paid the Western Shoshone for their homeland. The federal government could then argue that the Western Shoshone homeland no longer exists, and the Western Shoshone can make no further claims against the U.S.
Mr. Felix Ike, chairman of the Te-Moak Tribal Council, recently issued a letter saying that Senator Reid has asked the Western Shoshone to develop a new ballot. At a recent meeting in Elko, Nev., the vast majority of the Western Shoshone people present vocally declared that they did not want a vote at this time. They want to proceed slowly and take the time intelligently to build a unified position that does not jeopardize their rights. They want to retain their nation’s homeland as confirmed in their 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, while also proposing that they receive monetary compensation for trespass and damages (but not for any sale of their homeland).
Mr. Ike is apparently accomplished at brazen politics. His most recent tactic is to completely disregard what 90 percent of the people said at the meeting that he chaired in Elko. At the end of the meeting, his response to the overwhelming condemnation of another ballot was to say, “Thank you for coming,” while announcing that he (without any authorization from the Te-Moak Council) would be mailing out ballots in June. Apparently the aides of Senator Harry Reid are giving the senator bad advice by having him work so closely with a man who is willing to ignore vast majority opposition in his own community to another ballot.
On March 21st I attended an informal meeting between Senator Reid’s staff and Western Shoshone representatives in Washington, D.C. In an ornate room of the Capitol Building, near the floor of the Senate, Senator Reid’s staff heard the majority of Western Shoshone people say that they do not want to sell their homeland. They want to protect their treaty rights, retain their land and receive money compensation for trespass and damages. Yet a high-level aide to Senator Reid later told me in a telephone conversation, “we have no interest in revisiting the Ruby Valley Treaty.”
This frank admission means that the Senator has apparently decided that upholding and defending the human rights of the Western Shoshone people is not in the best interest of the State of Nevada. As I was also told in the telephone conversation, “The Western Shoshone are on one side of the issue, and the State of Nevada is on the other side.” Unfortunately, this means that, at best, the apparent alliance between Mr. Felix Ike and Senator Harry Reid’s office can only be viewed as nefarious.
Which brings me to the language of the “ballot.” The first ballot contained confusing and deceptive language. According to the ballot, a vote for or against a distribution of Docket 326-K would not prevent the Western Shoshone people from making future claims against the United States. However, this contradicts the Indian Claims Commission Act. According to Section 32(a) of the Indian Claims Commission Act, once a monetary “award” is distributed no further claims against the U.S. are permissible pursuant to U.S. law. The current “ballot” being floated by Mr. Ike does not clear up the deception. It simply wraps it in much more technical legalistic language.
Finally, there is the matter of the Inter-American Commission of the Organization of American States. The Commission has issued a preliminary finding regarding the charge that the United States is guilty of violating the human rights of the Western Shoshone people, specifically, of Mary and Carrie Dann, and the Dann family. In February Newsweek magazine reported that the Inter-American Commission sent its report to the White House. The U.S. response was recently sent back to the Commission, which is likely to issue a final report this fall. That any report was sent to the White House suggests a finding in favor of the Western Shoshone people.
Thus, Senator Reid is favoring legislation based upon a scheme that the Inter-American Commission has most likely found to be in violation of Western Shoshone human rights. Such a prospect is rich in irony. The United States constantly puts forth the image to the world community that it is a paragon of virtue when it comes to human rights. Yet the Western Shoshone represent a clear case where the United States is proving once again that it is perfectly willing to trample with impunity American Indian human rights.
Chief Raymond Yowell and the Western Shoshone National Council have always been willing to sit down and negotiate with the United States based upon the Treaty of Ruby Valley. Yet rather than negotiate, the United States has chosen a cowardly approach of paying itself for Western Shoshone land, and then claiming that the Western Shoshone have been paid for their homeland. In 1985, in U.S. v. Dann, the Supreme Court was perfectly willing to go along with this farce, based on a so-called “trust relationship.” Such an act of betrayal can be considered as based on “trust” only in the most cynical and Orwellian sense.
One thing remains to be seen in this ongoing saga. Is the United States ever going to rise to the challenge of answering the question that the Western Shoshone asked back in 1980, and have continued to ask ever since, “By what U.S. law did the United States acquire Western Shoshone Territory?” The only way that the U.S. can correctly answer the question is by candidly admitting that it never has acquired Western Shoshone Territory. And thus the Western Shoshone continue to fight on for the protection of their homeland on Mother Earth.
Steven T. Newcomb (Shawnee/Delaware) is director of the Indigenous Law Institute, and a Visiting Professor in Legal Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.