United States v. Then

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United States v. Then (English dt., .: The United States against then) was a court case in which the then-sisters , two Indian leaders, the US federal government sued because of the rights to their ancestral land. The case went to the last instance, the United States Supreme Court .

The then sisters

The Dann Sisters (English: The Dann Sisters ), Mary Dann (1923-2005) and Carrie Dann (born c. 1932) were elders of the Western Shoshone as well as spiritual leaders, ranchers and activists for cultural, spiritual and land rights.

In 1993 the sisters received the Right Livelihood Award . Her activities have been the subject of several film documentaries.

history

In 1863, during the American Civil War , the US government entered into a Treaty of Ruby Valley with the Western Shoshone that allowed US citizens safe passage through the territory, protected the Pony Express and other access, and included permits , gold to seek and to build railway lines. The US needed the gold to wage war against the Confederation. The treaty extended to the Shoshone territory, which is defined there with most of what is now the state of Nevada and four other US states , as well as to the rights to mineral resources and the Shoshone guarantees that they will never have to give up their land. The government promised to pay $ 5,000 annually in cash or in kind for twenty years . However, only the first installment was paid.

In the decades that followed, the United States acquired large parts of Shoshone land, largely through congressional decrees . Today, most of the area is administered by federal agencies responsible for resource management, such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the Department of Interior and the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The latter has carried out nuclear tests , especially 100 superficial tests, "more than in any other place in the world".

Decades ago the Shoshone sued to reclaim their land. In 1962 the Indian Claims Court (dissolved in 1978) ruled that the Shoshone had lost their land due to the activities of private settlers and therefore had no claim against the federal government. In 1979, after the process was reopened, the Indian Claims Commission granted the Shoshone $ 26 million in compensation . to. The Supreme Court ruled that the land claims were settled. However, the Shoshone refused to accept the money with the interest. The tribe voted with an 80% majority that the federal government should respect the Treaty of 1863.

Since 1973 the Dann-Sisters have been conducting civil litigation and farming, refusing to pay grazing fees to the Bureau of Land Management . They accused the United States of illegally appropriating the land and of violating the treaty.

In 1982 tribal members established the Western Shoshone National Council as a government organization; they elected Raymond Yowell as chief. In contrast to the governments of the Duckwater Indian Reservation and the Yomba Indian Reservations , which are recognized by the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), they urged not to accept the money offered (1998: $ 100 million).

In 1998, the Bureau of Land Management issued penalties against the Dann Sisters and Raymond Yowell asking them to remove hundreds of cattle and horses from state lands in Eureka County , Nevada . The Dann-Sisters filed an urgent complaint with the United Nations (Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) against it and convinced the UN of their case. The UN then ordered the US government to stop all actions against the Western Shoshone, but this was largely ignored.

On April 1, 2007, Carrie Dann was arrested along with 38 other activists at the Nevada Test Site for trespassing during a Nevada Desert Experience demonstration. In November 2008, Dann, along with employees of the Western Shoshone Defense Project and four other stakeholders , filed a lawsuit in federal court against the American-Canadian Barrick Gold to stop the Cortez Hills Expansion Project on Mount Tenabo , an area that the Western Shoshone considered Look at the Holy Land. In addition to the spiritual concerns, concerns about environmental pollution were also the main trigger.

Film documentaries

  • Newe Segobia is Not for Sale was produced by Jesse Drew in 1993 . The film documented the clashes between officials of the Federal Bureau of Land Management and the Dann Sisters.
  • American Outrage (2008) is a film documentary about the Dann-Sisters and their decades-long arguments with the US government over pastures and also documents the court hearings before the US Supreme Court and the United Nations.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Lisa J. Wolf: Shoshone Indians Sue to Stop Barrick's Nevada Gold Mine. In: Environment News Service , November 24, 2008.
  2. ↑ American Outrage , Bullfrog Films website, 2009.
  3. ↑ a b c Ed Vogel: Shoshones stake their claim. In: Las Vegas Review-Journal , April 5, 1998.
  4. ^ "More than anywhere else in the world." "Mary † and Carrie Dann of the Western Shoshone Nation (USA)" ( Memento from October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), The Right Livelihood Award, December 13, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b c d Charlie LeDuff: Range War in Nevada Pits US Against 2 Shoshone Sisters. In: The New York Times. October 31, 2002.
  6. ^ Martin Sheen protests Nevada test site. In: Eugene Register-Guard, April 2, 2007, Associated Press.
  7. ↑ Haider Rizvi: Native Americans Want 'Bunker Buster' Test Stopped. ( Memento from June 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Common Dreams, April 11, 2006.
  8. ↑ the "largest open pit cyanide heap leach gold mines in the United States - the Cortez Hills Expansion Project on Mt. Tenabo," Nevada.
  9. ^ Newe Segobia is Not for Sale.
  10. ↑ American Outrage. Human Rights Watch: International Film Festival February 17, 2015
  11. ↑ American Outrage (2008) IMDB February 17. 2015.

Web links