Shoshones promise to fight dam plan

Monday, March 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Tribal leaders said they plan to file as many lawsuits as possible against the Rock Creek Dam project in an effort to drain the county's coffers and make officials give up on it.

"We will challenge every single step they take," said Carol Yateman, senior lawyer of the Indian Law Unit of Nevada Legal Services.

"They are looking at a very lengthy, very costly legal battle, taking three to five years and costing several million dollars. ... We will win this war because the county can't afford this fight."

But county officials said they're not ready to give up on the project. Lander County voters approved a $2 million bond issue for the dam in 1984.

County Commissioner Jerry LaMiaux said the project would benefit boaters, swimmers and fishermen, and he'll do everything in his power to build the dam.

Plans call for the construction of an 85-foot-high, 325-foot-wide dam in Rock Creek Canyon, 30 miles northeast of Battle Mountain. The reservoir would be more than 4 miles long.

Shoshone leaders say the canyon is sacred ground that contains artifacts from more than 5,000 years of American Indian occupation.

"This site means a lot to our people," said Gelford Jim, a Western Shoshone tribal leader from Battle Mountain. "It's a place of healing, of spiritual feelings, of burial sites, of beauty."

"They want to play atop the bones of our ancestors. We will never accept this," added Bernice Lalo of the Western Shoshone Defense Project.

LaMiaux said the religious objections are a smoke screen for the Western Shoshone's effort to recover land they say was guaranteed them in the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863.

Joining the Western Shoshone in the fight against the dam are the Nevada Indian Commission, the Inter-Tribal Council, the environmental group Citizen Alert and the Washoe Tribe.

"When they face one Shoshone, they will face us all," said Jack C. Orr, chairman of Western Shoshone Resources Inc.