Tribe rejects Reid land-sale bill

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 9:58 a.m.

The Western Shoshone Nation's leaders are opposing a bill sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that would distribute $120 million to tribal members in exchange for the sale of their lands.

Those lands include Yucca Mountain, site of a proposed nuclear waste repository. Tribal leaders believe the repository would be more likely to open if they accept the payment.

Reid intends to reintroduce the bill on March 22, Nathan Naylor, the senator's spokesman, said.

In a straw poll conducted in June 2000, about 1,200 members of the 10,000-member Western Shoshone tribe favored accepting cash payments for the land. Reid based his bill on that vote, Naylor said.

A representative of the tribe suggested that poll did not reflect the feelings of the entire tribe.

"It's not about money, it's about land," said John Wells, Western Shoshone southern representative of the tribe's national council. Chief Raymond Yowell and council secretary Ian Zabarte will testify against the measure next week.

Wells noted Yucca Mountain is included in the tribe's land claim.

"We could stop (a) Yucca Mountain (nuclear waste repository), they can't," Wells said, referring to the state. The tribe is considered a sovereign nation under federal law.

The national tribal council may consider filing a lawsuit in an international court to try to stop the nuclear waste repository, he said.

"We haven't filed any suit because it goes to a U.S. court and we don't believe it will go anywhere," Wells said. "Besides, it costs a lot of money."

Nevada officials have not joined the Indians in the Yucca Mountain repository battle, but that could change, said Bob Loux, director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects.

"We could have them potentially as allies," Loux said of the Shoshones. Both the state and the tribe oppose a repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"That is exactly what the Shoshones are concerned about, a repository," Loux said.

The Western Shoshones claim a total of 24 million acres in Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Southern California.