In 1863, the federal government and the Western Shoshone nation signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley, giving the Shoshone land rights over much of Nevada. Over the last 100 years, however, Shoshone land rights over Nevada have largely been ignored. Between 1951 and 1992, the United States conducted over 1,000 nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site, now the Nevada National Security Site, only 24 miles from the base of Yucca Mountain.
These tests—much like the construction of the Yucca Mountain Waste Repository—were conducted against the will of the Shoshone nation. Though the consequences of nuclear testing have faded from the consciousness of many Americans since the last detonation in 1992, they remain a harsh reality for the Shoshone people. The Shoshone have to grapple not only with increased risk of cancers, tumors, and birth defects, but also with the basic idea that the U.S. government does not recognize their ownership of their land.
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The Treaty of Ruby Valley, signed in 1863 to protect America’s gold reserves in the West during the Civil War, confirmed the Western Shoshone people’s ownership of most of Nevada in exchange for allowing the United States the right to traverse the area, maintain established infrastructure, and engage in specific economic activities. The treaty at no point ceded Shoshone land to the United States.
However, in the early 1900s, the United States began to assign lands designated to the Shoshone in the treaty as “public lands.” Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the Western Shoshone people have engaged in constant legal battles and protests to determine who owns the land.
In 1962, the Indian Claims Commission, an arbitration body established by Congress to hear claims from Native American tribes, awarded the Western Shoshone $26 million in compensation for their land. The Court of Claims deposited the money into a Treasury account for the Western Shoshone nation. However, the Western Shoshone refused to accept the funds, saying they were not willing to be bribed out of their lands.
In 1985, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Dann that the appropriation of funds by Congress constituted “payment” despite the non-participation of the Western Shoshone. The Court ruled under Section 70 of the Indian Claims Commission that the Western Shoshone’s “aboriginal title had been extinguished,” permanently barring their future claims to the land claimed by the federal government.
Since the federal government’s claim on the land was apparently legitimized by the ruling, the fight for Western Shoshone land rights has only intensified.