Gibbons optimistic on Shoshone bill

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | 10:56 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Legislation that would compensate Nevada's Western Shoshone Indians for land taken by the federal government may have new momentum in Congress.

The Senate passed the bill last year, but it stalled at the end of the session in the House. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who introduced the bill, is optimistic it will pass this year, spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said.

"I urge each member of this committee to support the Western Shoshone people in their endeavor to put this issue to rest once and for all," Gibbons said in remarks prepared for a House Resources Committee hearing today.

The bill aims to give about 6,500 members of the Western Shoshone tribe about $142 million, roughly $22,000 per person. Congress in 1979 awarded the Western Shoshone about $26 million, in response to an initial lands "taking" claim filed by the tribe in 1951.

The federal government over the decades had encroached on the Indian land -- roughly one-third of the state of Nevada in mostly the eastern part of the state, Gibbons said.

But the compensation account, which has grown with interest, has never been distributed amid a debate inside the tribe over whether to accept the money. Some members fear taking the cash will undermine effort to reclaim the land.

It's unclear exactly how many of the 6,500 members support accepting the money. A lawyer for the Interior Department, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, told the House Resources Committee today that a "vast majority" want to accept the compensation.

"The Western Shoshone are entitled to it," department lawyer Michael Olsen told the panel. "It's their money."

Olsen said three of the four Western Shoshone tribal councils have passed resolutions in support of accepting the money.

Gibbons has said as much as 90 percent of the tribal members want to accept the money.

But one panel member questioned the documentation of such support. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., noted that only 1,500 of 6,500 had responded in a survey on this issue.

Several witnesses were scheduled to testify at today's hearing. Raymond Yowell, chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, argued in prepared written testimony that the disputed territory rightfully still belonged to the Western Shoshone.

"We request that this committee not take action on (the bill) but let it die the death it deserves in committee," Yowell said.

Gibbons said his legislation protects the right of tribal members to continue to wage lands rights battles.

Two other tribal representatives were scheduled to testify in favor of distributing the money.

"Too many of our tribal members have passed away without benefitting from money that was set aside for them," Felix Ike, chairman of the Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone, said in written testimony. "Although it cannot fully compensate us for the loss of our land and way of life, the claims money may help to make life better for the tribal members who receive a share."

The legislation has the support of Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid has re-introduced the legislation this year.