A Chance To Do The Right Thing Indian policy can

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A Chance To Do The Right Thing Indian policy can't be blamed on ancestors this time

By Glenn Morris

Whenever I discuss U.S. American Indian policy with non-Indians this retort is submitted: "I refuse to take responsibility for the sins of my ancestors. I have never harmed any Indians, and I will only take responsibility for those things that I can control." Fair enough.

During the recent Columbus Day protests around the country, those of us who were critical of continuing the official adulation of Christopher Columbus were labeled "historical revisionists," "naysayers," and even "stormtroopers."

Supporters of Columbus were incapable of connecting his legacy to the very real injustices that continue today. In particular, we were criticized for living in the past and for being insufficiently forward-looking.

Quite the contrary was true; our message was one of hope for a future that will be much more positive than the past. Our fear was that if past errors and injustices were not acknowledged then those mistakes would be repeated and a just and respectful future would be difficult to obtain. Little did we know that we would have to wait only six weeks before our fear was realized.

As you read these words, the United States government, your government, is invading and attacking the Western Shoshone Indian Nation. This attack is not occurring in Brazil or Guatemala, it is happening in what you call the state of Nevada. To the Shoshone, their homeland is known as Newe Sogobia, and it has been under their stewardship from time immemorial.

In 1863, the United States, seeking a rail route from the California gold fields to the Civil War-ravaged U.S. treasury, entered into a treaty with the Western Shoshone. The Treaty of Ruby Valley ceded no territory to the United States, and it allowed only a limited number of activities by the U.S., including the construction of a railroad through Shoshone territory.

Despite the treaty, the United States allowed its citizens to encroach on Shoshone lands in blatant violation of U.S. law. When the Shoshone objected, the U.S. forced the cases into the Indian Claims Commission and the U.S. Supreme Court, two judicial forums controlled by the party accused of violating the treaty.

The Shoshone never agreed to sell their land, and their title had never been extinguished as required under law. Not surprisingly, the courts ignored their own laws and ordered that the Shoshone Nation be paid for land that the Indians never sold - more than 24 million acres of land at its 1872 value of $26 million. The Shoshones have refused the money to this day, although their lawyers received $2.5 million off the top of the award.

Mary and Carrie Dann are two Western Shoshone sisters, the matriarchs of a community of self-sufficient Western Shoshone ranchers. Their family has lived and cared for their lands since long before there was a United States. The Treaty of Ruby Valley guaranteed them undisturbed use of their traditional lands forever. Forever was until 1973. That year the Bureau of Land Management cited the Danns for trespassing on "BLM lands." The Danns defense was their treaty, still in force, and never repudiated by either side. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court where the U.S. position prevailed.

Shoshone elder Glenn Holley succinctly summarized U.S. dealings with the Shoshone people when he said, "Nothing happened in 1872. No land was 'taken' by the government. We never lost that land, and we're not selling it. In our religion, it is forbidden to take money for land. What's really happening is that the U.S. government ... is stealing the land from us right now."

On Nov. 19, 1992 - not 1492, not 1892, but 1922 - The United States began a military assault on the Western Shoshone Nation at the Dann Ranch. They imposed a media and transportation blockade at the ranch while they commenced a roundup and seizure of the livestock that is the lifeblood of the Dann Band of Shoshone Indians. When one of the Dann family members tried to stop the invasion by pouring gasoline over himself and igniting it, federal officials beat him and charged him with assaulting federal officers.The federal invasion force also assaulted Carrie Dann.

The Danns and other Western Shoshone people have pledged that they will not allow the United States to steal the last vestiges of their freedom from them. They have pledged that they will resist this latest invasion to their last breaths. Raymond Yowell, chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, in a Nov. 22 letter to President Bush, wrote,

"The situation is critical, and the danger of innocent blood being spilled is growing by the hour. I have been authorized by the Western Shoshone National Council to inform you ... of the serious violations against our people that your agents have committed. You have the executive power to stop this. Whether you have the courage to discipline your own bureaucrats and order them to honor the treaty made between our two nations, remains to be seen."

Now we're not talking about Columbus or Custer or some other demon of the past, we are talking about right now in the United States of America, before your very eyes. We are witnessing another shameful chapter of U.S. Indian policy being written - in your name. Call the President. Call your Senators. Call your representative. Tell them that these actions do not represent you or your family. Tell them to stop it. Tell them to leave the Shoshone alone and to honor the Treaty of Ruby Valley. This time there are no excuses. This time you cannot blame your ancestors. If you let it happen this time, the blood is on your hands.