The Treaty of Ruby Valley, also known as the Peace and Friendship Treaty, was signed by representatives of the United States government and the Western Shoshone Nation in 1863.  The treaty (http://www.wsdp.org/treaty_ruby_valley_1863.htm) stipulated to a ceasing of hostilities between the two groups, and promised the white settlers safe passage as they passed through the lands comprising Western Shoshone territory (ranging from Wyoming all the way to Death Valley -- http://www.wsdp.org/images/newemap.gif).  Under this the treaty, the U.S. pledged to respect the sovereignty of the Western Shoshone people, and while it reserved to the U.S. President the right to "deem it expedient" for the Shoshone to "abandon the roaming life" at any time, it did not cede lands.

As our delegation discovered today, sitting together in the protective embrace of Rock Creek's canyon walls, even the meager provisions of that treaty requiring the U.S. to engage with the Shoshone as a sovereign power have been summarily abandoned over the last 150 years.  The history of the Western Shoshone's dealings with the U.S. is marked with pain, betrayal, and destruction -- and yet, as we learned in sitting with a few of the Shoshone elders, this community continues to adapt to the changes and persevere in their work towards restoring a balanced human relationship with the Mother Earth. 

The Western Shoshone land base (Newe Sogobia, or "People of the Earth Mother") 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.  Western Shoshone said the United States has conducted numerous military-style seizures of Western Shoshone livestock, has transferred alleged Western Shoshone trespass fines to the Internal Revenue Service and private collection agencies, and has reinvigorated federal efforts to open a nationwide nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.  Western Shoshone territory is covered with mines, including an open-pit cyanide heap leach goldmine at Mount Tenabo, sacred to the Shoshone people.

To justify their seizure of this resource-rich, highly profitable land, the U.S. government devised a theory called "gradual encroachment," claiming that the U.S.' presence on the land over time extinguished any claim to title that the Shoshone people might have had.  This theory has not been applied to any other situation, before or since.  Carrie Dann, one of the most powerful freedom fighters in the Western Shoshone struggle and a feisty elder, said that it would be as if someone came into your yard, stood there for a day, and then claimed ownership because of "gradual encroachment."  Eventually, the U.S. set up a fund to pay the Shoshone for this supposed cession of title; yet Western Shoshone never accepted the cash settlement that in 1979 the Indian Claim’s Commission (ICC) placed in an Interior trust account for the lands.

We spent the day with Julie and Larson, and these eloquent elders, as they shared their painful stories with us.  They told us of the government's outright lies, and its physical violence towards the Shoshone and their grazing animals.  They asked us, "how can this be?  How can this injustice be called 'legal'?"  They wanted us to explain our government's outright brutality in effecting these injustices in the name of profit.  None of us had an answer -- how can our nation portray itself as a model of freedom and equal justice, and simultaneously be responsible for such profound human rights violations on its own soil? 

And yet we were all deeply inspired by the creative legal efforts of the Western Shoshone Defense Project (www.wsdp.org), the organization for which Julie has been serving as legal counsel for these many years.  WSDP has successfully advocated before the United Nations and the OAS' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) for recognition of the U.S. government's failure to uphold its treaty obligations and its violation of Shoshone human rights.  In 2002, in a landmark decision, the IAHCR determined that the U.S. was in violation of specific human rights, including the rights to property, due process and equality under the law, and that the U.S. must provide the Shoshone with an effective remedy for the harms done.  The successes -- applying to all indigenous peoples -- continued in 2007, when the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  These victories, and many others which have been achieved before these international bodies, demonstrate the international community's awareness of the profound injustices unfolding on American soil, and the demand that those injustices be rectified.  This work is truly creative and precedent-setting, and Julie's stories about her and her community's efforts are deeply inspiring to all of us who seek to emulate this thinking-outside-the-box model of environmental justice lawyering.

We ended the day with a delicious dinner at Julie's house, deep in the beautiful, starlit hills, and were fortunate to sit with Carrie Dann as she shared her wisdom with us on the desecration of the Mother Earth and our responsibility to protect her if we are to survive.

On the way home in the car, Carrie blessed our loom with her intent weaving, and wished us well as we continued on our journey.   

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