Tribal leaders criticize Reid’s land claim bill

Tom Gardner

Wednesday, July 19, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Western Shoshone leaders say a proposal to distribute $121 million in payment for 23.6 million acres taken from their ancestors just perpetuates a land grab the federal government began during the Civil War.

Three tribal chairmen used a Tuesday news conference to criticize a bill introduced by Sen. Harry Reid to pay $20,000 to every Shoshone man, woman and child whose ancestors were affected by the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley.

They contend that the treaty neither ceded their land nor extinguished their title.

"Sen. Reid's bill is simply the latest attempt to complete the illegal seizure of Western Shoshone ancestral lands," three tribal chairmen said.

They represent the faction of the Western Shoshone Nation that claims the land was never ceded to the government and the $121 million represents a paltry attempt to buy them off.

Others in the nation argue just as vigorously that it's time the tribal members simply take the money.

Reid, D-Nev., said when he introduced the bill June 27 that it's "increasingly apparent that the vast majority of those who qualify to receive these funds support an immediate distribution of their money."

He based that on a straw poll that showed 1,230-53 support for the payment.

But Kevin Brady, chairman of the Yomba Shoshone Tribe, said the poll was informal and was not endorsed by tribal leaders in the 6,500-member nation.

Reid said all observers called the vote fair and regular.

"To come back now and say it's not fair doesn't really ring very true to me. Everything was covered. This is all sour grapes. I'm used to close elections and that's not even close."

Brady also said Reid's bill was introduced without consultation with tribal leaders.

"We do have other plans that are better than this one here. We need to sit down with congressional leaders so that everybody will have an opportunity to participate," he said.

But Reid said it was time to move ahead.

"I have had over the years many, many conversations with Shoshones and Shoshone leaders. We're going to have hearings."

Carrie Dann and her sister Mary have been focal points of the dispute since the government sued them in 1974 for grazing their livestock on federal acreage at their remote ranch in central Nevada. The sisters claim it's their ancestral land.

"These lands are not a piece of real estate to traditional Shoshone people. They represent life," she said. "To us the land is sacred. It has no value in dollars and cents."

The three tribal chairman also said Reid's bill gives no firm assurance that the Shoshones won't ultimately lose their land if they accept the deal.

Dann said that since the Shoshones never ceded their land to the government, that wasn't an issue.

"It's not how much land we want. It's how much land we're going to give," she said.

Thomas E. Luebben, attorney for the Yomba Tribe, said Reid's bill could be salvageable if retention of the aboriginal land were assured.

"We're probably not going to complete it this year. We'll come back to it next year," Reid said.

Arthur Kamasee, chairman of the Ely Shoshone Tribe, said the leaders bear a responsibility to their people to not only take care of them, but to protect future tribal members.

"This bill will shut us down without any land language in it," he said. "We'll outgrow what we have within 20 years and we'll have to kick our members off the reservation if we don't have the land."