Western Shoshone appeal for United Nations intervention

[NVMojo]

August 19, 2005

GENEVA - In an urgent appeal to halt the assault on ancestral lands, the Western Shoshone Nation filed an urgent action request before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in August.

The request challenges the U.S. government's assertion of federal ownership of nearly 90 percent of Western Shoshone lands.

Joe Kennedy, Western Shoshone, was among those urging immediate action to halt the United States and gold and energy corporations.

''Our traditional laws tell us we were placed here as caretakers of the land,'' Kennedy said. ''As part of the Western Shoshone Nation, we will not stand idly by and allow the U.S. federal government to cement its hold on our ancestral land base.''

The Western Shoshone land base covers approximately 60 million acres, stretching across what is now referred to as the states of Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. The lands include the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste facility and lands targeted for expanded gold extraction.

more...

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096411425

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. good for them

I hope the UN intervenes.

[Cha]

2. Good Luck Dude,

you know those rapacious americans will strip your land and then your soul.

[0007]

30. ....gotta live on land that white man doesn't want and then,

you know the rest.

[Booster]

3. Wouldn't that be delicious if the UN stepped in and went against

the US government. I'm with the Western Shoshone's on this one.

[Waya]

4. Not holding much hope there.....

...we have tried this before with the Oneida Nation of New York while trying (still trying) to get rid of their own Dictator. Some Oneida Nation members hung out at the UN for weeks. Testified, etc, etc, - and nothing. No help from that quarter, at least not yet.
I hope the Shoshone have better luck!

[Theres-a]

12. Welcome to DU Waya!

:hi:

[Waya]

23. THANKS.....

...great place to be....:D

[Chipper Chat]

5. "Hi - I'm John Bolton."

"Watch my head explode."

[NVMojo]

9. If all else fails, there is victory in being "irrating" and causing Bolton

to have an exploded skull!

[tocqueville]

6. in the best case the UN could pass a resolution

which the US would veto

[nosmokes]

15. i dunno. we know the lengths * will go to uphold a UN res

maybe he'll redeploy the troops in the badlands to protect the gold from those extractive industries...


or not.

[Don1]

24. Yes, but how can the UN do that?

Seriously, there has been a lot of UN opposition against our history in Iraq. The most recent was the fact that the UN refused to support the Iraq war after Powell spoke there and the Secretary General, Annan, called the war "illegal."

What can they do aside from take hard speech? The US (read as: Bolton) can block them with the US vote and paid-for cronies' votes.

[wli]

7. time for UN HQ to move to Geneva n/t

[Mairead]

25. Agreed. It should never have been sited in the US. (nt)

[Hekate]

36. It was considered an honor then. Eleanor Roosevelt was instrumental

in founding the UN after WW II. We considered the UN to be one of the great hopes for world peace. Just because so much has gone sour in the past 5 years doesn't mean it has always been or will always be that way.

Saying it "never" should have been planted here in the US ignores a lot of relevant history.

Hekate

[bluestateguy]

8. I'm sure the UN will consider setting up a commission to study the issue

Sometimes I think people on our side of the aisle tend to overestimate the UN's capacity to resolve problems.

[JaneGat]

10. The * Admin never fails to exceed itself in its appalling acts

But this - seizing cattle, blowing off the Shoshone treaty like it's ok to do that. The nuclear facility doesn't even provide safety measures or protection to withstand an airplane accident: they forgot. This government and it's leaders are AWOL.

[Theres-a]

13. Welcome to DU Janegat!

:hi:

[JaneGat]

16. It's great to be here!

:hi: Thanks!

[Eloriel]

11. jeeze. You mean we're STILL stealing their land?

Unbelievable.

[NVMojo]

20. I work for a Western Shoshone tribe. There are a few others and

none of them really has land. They have allotments and they have little colonies here and there. I am sure by the time the US got to Nevada, after they'd done their damage to the California Indians, they only had a few more tribes left across a vast land that look useless in 1863, they just wanted to get across Nevada to get to California so they just did a blanket treaty of "friendship" to get it over with. Although there were small gold mines in Austin and Virginia City at the time, they had no idea what "microscopic" gold mining was and where it would go and how valuable this land was that they wanted to pass through ...hence, no settled land claims with the Western Shoshone: Te-Moak Tribe, Duckwater Tribe, Yomba Tribe and Timbisha (formerly Panamint)Tribe. Don't even get started on the Paiutes in the region and how they were almost completely exterminated.

The US marched members of the WS from around here up to Owyhee to a "rez" that they wanted to try and mix Shoshone and Paiutes together, you know one of those "assimilation" strategies. The majority of Shoshone walked away from it as it wasn't their territory.

http://www.wsdp.org/

And there are tragic stories all across this land and the problems our federal government created so long ago still reap grief ...

[Up2Late]

14. Well good luck to all of the Western Shoshone, with *, they'll need it.

Hey, what a great Newspaper that is, lot's of interesting articles there. Thanks for that too. :pals:

[sintax]

17. Shundahai

Shundahai Network
Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain

Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony with all Creation"

Emergency! Please Support Shundahai Network!

Shundahai Network was formed at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site 11 years ago in 1994, by a council of long-term nuclear disarmament activists, at the request of Corbin Harney, a Western Shoshone Spiritual Leader. We have evolved into an international network of activists and organizations bridging the gap between the environmental, peace and justice and indigenous land rights communities.

Our staff and volunteers (volunteers needed) work on a wide range of community outreach, education and public action campaigns. Through our events and campaigns, Shundahai Network helps train activists in community organizing and the use of nonviolent direct action to generate public awareness and apply political pressure on nuclear and indigenous rights issues.

Our Mission Statement "Shundahai Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to breaking the nuclear chain by building alliances with indigenous communities and environmental, peace and human rights movements. We seek to abolish all nuclear weapons and an end to nuclear testing. We advocate phasing out nuclear energy and ending the transportation and dumping of nuclear waste. We promote the principles of Environmental Justice and strive to insure that indigenous voices are heard in the movement to influence U.S. Nuclear and environmental policies. All of our campaigns and events incorporate the values of community building, education, spiritual ceremonies and nonviolent direct action."

It's in our back yard... it's in our front yard. This nuclear contamination is shortening all life. We are going to have to unite as a people and say no more! We, the people, are going to have to put our thoughts together to save our planet here. We only have One Water...One Air...One Mother Earth." Corbin Harney -Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual leader, Founder & Chairman of the Board of The Shundahai Network & 2003 Nuclear-Free Future Award Solutions Recipient

Shundahai Network
PO Box 1115
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
Office: 801.533.0128
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]

Subscribe Action Alerts

http://www.shundahai.org/


Nominated

Stop Stealing the Lightning oh Man of the West

[SlowDownFast]

18. I have protested alongside the Shundahai Network

(Western Shoshone) at the Nevada test site 2 times, and have met Corbin Harney.

Did a sweat with them too, there.

Powerful medicine...

Reality really sets in when you realize your bedroll is on radioactive desert.

Last info I had was that there is still protests that happen there a coupla times a year (Easter is one, I think) with the Shundahai and various international anti-nuke groups. I would contact Shundahai for info if interested.

Very powerful experience.

[OKthatsIT]

19. Well someody's got to do something!

I dont care who or how but we have to stop this madness.

If Shoshone choose to act from their hearts and do what compells them to save the land from more abuse...I completely understand the choice to act.

And maybe we should begin here and stand behind them. Maybe here is where the heart beats for the environmental movement. If we can't stop them, maybe the Shoshone can pull some legal moves to reclaim the land. At this point, I say more power to them.

[OKthatsIT]

29. Look at what these monsters did to this Conservationist

August 20, 2005 latimes.com
A CONSERVATIONIST'S SUICIDE
Suicide Casts a Shadow on Conservation Battle
National monument official was distraught at shift she said favored grazing over grasslands.

By Julie Cart and Maria L. La Ganga, Times Staff Writers


CARRIZO PLAIN NATIONAL MONUMENT, Calif. — First she killed her dogs, shot them in the head with a .38-caliber revolver and covered the two bodies with a quilt. Then Marlene Braun leveled the blue steel muzzle three inches above her right ear and pulled the trigger.

"I can't face what appears to be required to continue to live in my world," the meticulous 46-year-old wrote in May in a suicide note. "Most of all, I cannot leave Carrizo, a place where I finally found a home and a place I love dearly."

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-carrizo20aug20,1,1424770,full.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true
--------------------------------------------------
Was she killed or did she give up?

[JaneGat]

21. Plane crash risks left out of Yucca Mtn. Plan

"Plane crash risks left out of Yucca Mountain plan, NRC staff says
By ERICA WERNER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department left out risk factors related to potential airplane crashes and hazards at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in planning for the project, nuclear regulatory staff told the agency in a memo released Thursday.

The department undercounted the number of Air Force plane crashes at the site in Nevada during the 1990s, and discounted the possibility of jettisoned ordnance, birds hitting planes and cruise missile testing at the Nevada Test Site, the memo by Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff said.

The Energy Department also made an unsupported assumption that airplanes that malfunction outside the no-fly zone would never enter the zone and crash into the dump, the memo said.

The memo relates to aircraft failures and problems, as opposed to potential terrorist attacks, at the proposed dump site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It was written as part of the consultation between the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the department prepares a license application to operate the dump."

The article also states that "the NRC has concluded its review of aircraft hazard issues at Yucca Mountain, but that the issues outlined in the memo remain unresolved."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2005/aug/04/080410033.html

The issues remain unresolved? That's not acceptable.

[rodeodance]

22. I imagine BushCo sees this a pesky little fly.

...... In 2001, the committee questioned the United States' continued application of the ''doctrine of discovery,'' a racially based legal fiction that was used to justify the genocide of Indian peoples and the taking of their lands due to their ''inferior'' status as non-Christians.

The committee also questioned the U.S. delegation about why domestic law allowed the U.S. government to unilaterally abrogate Indian treaties, to which the United States never provided an answer.

Western Shoshone said the situation has become even graver.

CERD is slated to meet with U.S. government representatives in August to hear the government's response..

[JaneGat]

27. You're no doubt right about that. Thanks for the information

:kick:

[Toots]

26. I doubt the UN will acknowledge they are a true nation

They claim nationhood but are they a nation truly? They have no long history of land ownership and in fact have stated that people can not own the land. Maybe in this Bizarro land I have found myself in these last five years or so, where the Confederacy has risen again they may just rise up also. Maybe the Indian Wars along with the Civil War will erupt anew.

[OKthatsIT]

28. Many Whites acknowledge Native Sovereignty

and the treaties which were ignored. Are you a man of your word or not?

[Up2Late]

35. I think what "Toots" was saying was that, for the UN to act in this matter

the W.S. Nation would need to have signed on as a member of the U.N., which I don't think they have.

That might be an interesting first step, to see if the U.N. would allow the established Indian Nations of this Country to sign on as Members of the U.N.

I don't know if the U.S. Government would allow it, but I might get your people some very needed and deserving attention in the Press, even if the effort fails.

Peace and Good Health to you.:pals:

[Waya]

31. According to....

..Treaty, yes, we are Sovereign Nations. It's hardly the Native Americans' fault that the White Government cannot keep its promises and hold up their end of the bargain. That is something they haven't learned in over 500 years.

Native Americans do not have a long history of Land ownership? - that's where the culture difference is unmistakable. We have 'owned' this Land for hundreds, if not thousands, of years before the first White Man ever set foot on these shores. And your statement, that our people have stated that 'people cannot own the Land', is a misperception. We can 'own' Land - but unlike the White mentality of individual ownership with fences and property lines - we 'own' the Land as a Community. A Tribe's Land is 'owned' by all the members of the Tribe - not by individuals. We 'own' it as a Community and we try to preserve it and take care of it for the next Generation who will 'own' it - as a Community

[sintax]

33. You are a wonderful addition to DU

The history of Western man has been a progressive peeling back of the psyche, as if the earliest agriculture may have addressed itself to extenuation of adolescent concerns while the most modern era seeks to evoke in society at large some of the fixations of early natality rationalized, symbolized, and disguised as need be. The individual growth curve, as described by Bruno Bettelheim, Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, and others, is a biological heritage of the deep past. It is everyman's tree of life, now pruned by civic gardeners as the outer branches and twigs become incompatible with the landscaped order. The reader may extend that metaphor as he wishes, but I shall move to an animal image to suggest that the only society more frightful than one run by children, as in Golding's Lord of the Flies, might be one run by childish adults. 
Paul Shepard, Nature and Madness
Peace

:toast:

:hi:

[Robeson]

32. Has Bush sent in the calvary yet?...

...

[NVMojo]

34. Believe me, the mines can afford to go to court to keep pulling that

gold out and fight the Western Shoshone.

And Yucca Mountain will happen. It's one of George W's nocturnal wet dreams....

[JaneGat]

37. And our worst nightmare

:kick: