The Western Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP) informs us that a public comment period will close next week, April 10th, on a proposal by the U.S. Department of Energy to increase nuclear weapons development at the Nevada Test Site, said to be ‘the most heavily-nuked region on the planet.’ The Test Site is located within the Treaty-recognized territory of Western Shoshone lands and has long been protested by Western Shoshone and their supporters.

Please take a moment in the next few days to submit your comment. You can find out how to …

Black Mesa Indigenous Support has sent out an urgent call for people to help protect Yucca Mountain.

Located 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the Mountain range is located on Shoshone territory as defined in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The US government however refuses to acknowledge the treaty and is currently planning to make the Mountain range into a major nuclear waste repository.

The Shoshone and numerous other Indigenous Nations, all of whom hold Yucca Mountain sacred, have been actively opposed to the plan from the beginning. …

The Western Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP) posted an action alert yesterday, warning that Cortez Gold Mines (a subsidiary of Barrrick Gold) may soon be permitted to build a new gold mine on the slopes of Mt. Tenabo.

The mountain and surrounding area is of extreme significance to the Spiritual and Cultural life of the Western Shoshone. “Mt. Tenabo has been, and continues to be used by Western Shoshone people as a central part of their religious practices and world view. Western Shoshone visit the mountain and the valley below (the location of the mine pit) for prayer ceremonies, gathering …

“The land is very important to us. It is very sacred to the Western Shoshone People. It represents life, and to take our land is to take our life. And I find it quote appauling that a country like the United States is legitimizing the theft of Western Shoshone land.”– Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother

The following 25 minute video focuses in on the struggles of Carrie and Mary Dann, two Western Shoshone Grandmothers who have since 1972 been working to protect their lands from the United States’ gradual encroachment and utter usurpation.

Their Nevada Territory—in fact two-thirds of the State …

ALERT!! Please help protect Western Shoshone spiritual areas from Gold Mining - Sign the attached petition and forward to your friends and family.

Tell Barrick to Stop Mining on Sacred Grounds

What would you do if someone came onto your land and started drilling for gold?

It’s happening right now to the Western Shoshone people of Nevada. A mining company called Barrick Gold has been mining Shoshone lands without consent and is now expanding into Mount Tenabo and Horse Canyon, areas considered sacred to the Shoshone.

Even though the Shoshone have repeatedly protested these incursions and the UN stated last year …

A step towards accountability
First Peoples Human Rights Coalition
March 10, 2007

In February, the Western Shoshone exercised their right to represent themselves on an international level, by submitting a shadow report [attached] to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva. Several other articulate Indigenous groups also submitted reports to the Committee, all regarding human rights responsibilities of the government of Canada.

The Western Shoshone report emphasized that the actions and policies of transnational corporations registered in Canada were causing adverse effects on the human rights of the Western Shoshone in the United States, as well as …

(Duckwater — February 2007) The Western Shoshone Nation responds to the threat of another explosion at the Nevada Test Site code named “Divine Strake” intended to simulate effects of a nuclear weapon. The Western Shoshone government calls attention to the legacy of adverse health impacts and disproportionate burden of risk borne by the people downwind. The US has conducted more than 1000 explosions for development of weapons of mass destruction within the boundaries of the Western Shoshone Nation identified by the Treaty of Ruby Valley in 1863, killing thousands of Americans and Western Shoshone nationals alike. The potential for …

The Pentagon recently announced plans to detonate 700 tons of Ammonium Nitrate in Nevada on Western Shoshone land. The detonation, called the Divine Strake, is planned for June 2. The testing of weapons on sovereign Native American land is a direct violation of the March 10 decision by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which called for the United States to freeze destructive actions being taken against the Western Shoshone peoples.

According to Lee Dazey, Development Coordinator for the Western Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP), the U.S. government has been detonating explosives on the Western Shoshone’s …

MNN. March 16, 2006. On March 10, 2006, the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination found that the United States was denying the Western Shoshone people “their rights to own, develop, control and use their land and resources”. They warned the U.S. to respect their obligations according to the Convention”. The U. S. was urged to “freeze”, “desist” and “stop” their actions against the Western Shoshone and abide by the Committee’s “Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure”.

The Western Shoshone land base covers approximately 60 million acres, stretching …

Native Group Takes Land Dispute to UN, by Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 26 (IPS) - Feeling cheated and betrayed by Washington for nearly 150 years, a Native American tribe is now looking to the United Nations for help in protecting its ancestral lands.

“Where else do we go?” Carrie Dann, a leader of the Shoshone people of the United States, told IPS in an interview about why her people have gone to the U.N. to demand justice.

Dann and other Shoshone leaders maintain that the U.S. government has used a series of illegal tactics to gain control of their ancestral lands, including …