Our Land, Our Life

“Our Land, Our Life” presents the struggle of Carrie and Mary Dann, two Western Shoshone elders, to address the threat mining development poses to the sacred and environmentally sensitive lands of Crescent Valley, Nevada. This was originally posted by Brenda Norrell at http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Western Shoshone protest Barrick Gold on Mount Tenabo photos

Western Shoshone protest Barrick Gold’s destruction on sacred Mount Tenabo on Wednesday. Shoshone call for help to establish an encampment.
By Brenda Norrell
CRESCENT VALLEY, Newe Sogobi (Nevada) — While most Americans enjoyed Thanksgiving this week, Western Shoshone protested the devastation on their sacred Mount Tenabo, as Barrick Gold ripped out pine trees by the roots on this ceremonial mountain for gold mining.
As Barrick Gold continues its practice of genocide, targeting Indigenous Peoples territories around the world, Barrick is destroying Mount Tenabo for one of the United States largest open pit gold mines. The Cortez Hills Expansion Project is at the flank of the mountain where Shoshone carry out sweatlodges and other ceremonies. (See protest photos at http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com )
Shoshone called for help and an immediate encampment to protect sacred Mount Tenabo.
Earlier this week, several Western Shoshone tribes and non-profit indigenous and environmental organizations filed a restraining order in the federal District Court in Reno against the construction of the proposed mine site.Unable to wait for the hearing that is scheduled for early next week and the mine’s continual slaughter of the pinion forest, the Western Shoshone grandmothers and supporters traveled to the site demanding Barrick to stop cutting the trees.
“As heavy machinery used to tear out the pinion trees came to halt upon the arrival of the Shoshones, Barrick Gold employees ignored the Shoshone’s demand that they cease the clear cutting. They witnessed piles of pinion and other trees strewn across the landscape and unfenced polluted ponds,” Western Shoshone said in a joint statement.
“Today we went to a war zone, a war zone against the trees by the Barrick Gold Company. If people can eat or drink gold to sustain life, maybe we can call it a sacrifice of the life of trees, trees that gives us pine nuts and other medicinal uses,” stated Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother and executive director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project.The Western Shoshone had lived in the area of Mount Tenabo since the beginning of time.
Today it is the homelands to local Shoshones and continues to be the home to Shoshone creation stories, spirit life, medicinal foods and plants as well as a site for spiritual and ceremonial practices. Mount Tenabo is in the heart of Western Shoshone territory and is part of the ancestral lands that has been identified and recognized as Western Shoshone territory through the ratification of the Treaty of Ruby Valley between the Western Shoshone and the United States.
“The mining company and the Bureau of Land Management are trespassing on the Western Shoshone treaty land and are destroying our mountains, trees, food, medicine and leaving dirty polluted water ponds that are wide open making it unsafe to the birds and animals. Why doesn’t the mining company go dig up the Vatican or the Mormon Tabernacle instead of Western Shoshone lands, I’m sure they will find gold there, because this is what you are doing to our mountains and trees,” said Mary McCloud, Western Shoshone grandmother.
Earlier this year, Barrick attorneys halted release of a book exposing the global genocide and atrocities of Barrick Gold. The book launch for Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique, edited by Alain Denault and the Collectif Ressources d’Afrique out of Montréal, was halted when the authors and publishers (Édition Écosociété) received letters from a law firm representing Barrick Gold, according to the Dominion in Canada.
Barrick has also sued The Guardian and The Observer over published articles about the Bulyanhulu massacre in Tanzania.
The book exposes Barrick’s advantageous mining contracts, partnerships with arms dealers and mercenaries in the Great Lakes region, miners buried alive in Tanzania, an “involuntary genocide” by poisoning in Mali, brutal expropriations in Ghana, using people from the Ivory Coast for pharmaceutical testing, devastating hydroelectric projects in Senegal and the savage privatization of the railway system in West Africa.
For more information, or to help, Western Shoshone: Western Shoshone Defense Project
So-Ho-Bi (South Fork) office: 775-744-2565 (fax and phone) Main office:P.O. Box 211308Crescent Valley, NV 89821

Western Shoshone Devastation and Destruction on Mount Tenabo

This was originally posted by Brenda Norell at http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/ Western Shoshone Devastation and Destruction on Mount Tenabo Contact: Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother, (775) 468-0230 Western Shoshone Grandmothers Day of Resistance – Devastation and Destruction Witnessed (November 27, 2008, Crescent Valley, Newe Sogobi (Nevada). Western Shoshone grandmothers and other Western Shoshone supporters gathered in solidarity [...]

Barrick Gold ready to carve up Western Shoshone sacred mountain

RENO and CRESCENT VALLEY, Nev. — Last week, after years of determined opposition from Western Shoshone, the U.S. Department of Interior, through its Bureau of Land Management (BLM), approved one of the largest open pit cyanide heap leach gold mines in the United States on the flank of Mount Tenabo – an area well-known for its spiritual and cultural importance to the Western Shoshone.

The area is home to local Shoshone creation stories, spirit life, medicinal, food and ceremonial plants and items and continues to be used to this day by Shoshone for spiritual and cultural practices. Over the years, tens of thousands of individuals and organizations from across the United States and around the world have joined with the Shoshone and voiced their opposition to this mine. The mine has been referred to as one of the most opposed mines in the world and indeed the level of public opposition is unprecedented for the BLM.

With the threat of mine construction beginning as early as this week, the South Fork Band Council of Western Shoshone, the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, the Western Shoshone Defense Project, and Great Basin Resource Watch, today filed a complaint in the Reno Federal District Court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the mine.
Barrick Gold Corporation, the world’s largest gold mining company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, plans to construct and operate the mine, known as the Cortez Hills Expansion Project. The Project area is located entirely within the territory of the Western Shoshone Nation, recognized in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The Mine would blast and excavate a new massive open pit on Mount Tenabo over 900 acres in size, with a depth of over 2,000 feet. It would include several new waste disposal and processing facilities (including a cyanide heap-leaching facility), consisting of approximately 1,577 million tons of waste rock, 53 million tons of tailings material, and 112 million tons of spent heap leach material. The Mine would include an extensive groundwater pumping system to dewater Mount Tenabo (in order to keep the open pit and mine workings dry during mining) and associated water pipelines that will transport the pumped water away from Mount Tenabo. In total, the mine would permanently destroy approximately 6,800 acres land on and around Mount Tenabo, over 90% of which is classified as federal “public” land.
“How are we, as a nation, showing our values, if we allow a transnational corporation to destroy this ‘church’ for all time, just to get 10 years worth of gold.” Says Larson Bill, Vice-Chairman of the South Fork Band Council. “There are dozens of active gold mines on Western Shoshone lands already, there is no need for this one, which is clearly immoral and irresponsible. The public should be aware that Nevada is not a waste land, but is the home of ranchers, sportsmen, fishermen and homesteaders that have enjoyed the lands alongside the Shoshone people for generations. We have been clear in our opposition to this mine and while Barrick tries to cloud the real issues with gifts and money, we continue to oppose this project – they have not bought our people, the traditions nor the lands of the Shoshone.” he adds.
The proposed mine area has been found by the BLM, in repeated ethnographic studies, as being of extreme spiritual and cultural importance to the Western Shoshone. One report says: “Mt. Tenabo is … considered a traditional locus of power and source of life, and figures in creation stories and world renewal. As the tallest mountain in the area – the most likely to capture snow and generate water to grow piñon and nourish life – it is literally a life-giver. Water is to earth what blood is to the body, and these subterranean waterways are likened to the earth’s arteries and veins.”
Carrie Dann, a world renowned Western Shoshone elder, and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (known as the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize”) has been among those to lead the fight to protect Mount Tenabo from mining for over 15 years. “Mount Tenabo should be left alone – no further disturbance. This mine will drain the water from Mount Tenabo. They will be sucking the water out of the mountain forever. The destruction of the water is like the destruction of the blood of the earth; you are destroying life of the earth and the people and wildlife that depend on it. Dewatering is taking the life of future generations. Water is sacred, all life depends on it,” says Carrie Dann.
“Next week we celebrate Thanksgiving – The question that the courts and the people of this country need to ask themselves is will we continue to tolerate these violations against the First Peoples of this land or will we finally turn the tide of injustice and protect these sacred areas?” Says Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, Consultant to the Western Shoshone Defense Project.
“None of us are opposed to mining, if it is done responsibly, however this project is as irresponsible as it gets. The BLM has a legal responsibility to protect the air, water, and ecological values of the area as well as the religious freedom of Western Shoshone, and to fully analyze the impacts of a proposed project. In each case, this mine would clearly violate the law.” Says Dan Randolph, Executive Director of Great Basin Resource Watch. “This is an example of how the Bush Administration is rushing to protect their corporate friends in their last few months in power. The BLM denied requests to extend the comment period on the Environmental Impact Statement not only from us, but also from several Western Shoshone tribal governments. Therefore, we are forced to now turn to the courts to stop this project. We know that Barrick will begin work on the mine as soon as they can, to cause enough harm in an attempt to make the religious rights arguments moot, and the BLM and Bush Administration appear to be more than willing to help them in every way possible.”
The plaintiffs are being represented in court by Roger Flynn of the non-profit legal firm, the Western Mining Action Project, which specializes in mining, public land, and environmental law.

Western Shoshone tour in Ireland

Representatives from the U.S.-based Western Shoshone Defense Project will begin a week long speaking tour in Ireland this month. Larson Bill, Western Shoshone leader and community planner and Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, Irish descendant and Western Shoshone Defense Project advisor, will travel to the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritage, University of Ulster, Derry (22nd October), the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway (23rd October) and Erris in the Gaeltacht of Co. Mayo, (24th–26th October) where they will participate in Afri’s ‘Pipelines and Profits: People Under Pressure’ Hedge School, and meet community members opposing Shell’s attempt to build a controversial gas pipeline. During the tour Larson and Julie will talk about the struggle of the Western Shoshone, recent international successes and the need for indigenous-rights based protection of the environment, cultures and spiritual areas worldwide. The new award-winning film documenting the Western Shoshone struggle, American Outrage, will precede discussions.

The Western Shoshone struggle is well known and based on a decades long challenge to the US government’s assertion of federal ownership of nearly 90% of Western Shoshone lands. The land base covers approximately 60 million acres, stretching across what is now referred to as the states of Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. Western Shoshone rights to the land – which they continue to use, care for, and occupy today – were recognized by the United States in 1863 by the Treaty of Ruby Valley. The U.S. now claims these same lands as “public” or federal lands through an agency process and has denied Western Shoshone fair access to U.S. courts through that same process. The land base has been and continues to be used by the United States for military testing, open pit cyanide heap leach gold mining and nuclear waste disposal planning. The U.S. has engaged in military style seizures of Shoshone livestock, trespass fines in the millions of dollars and armed surveillance of Western Shoshone who continue to assert their original and treaty rights. Both the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination have ruled against the U.S. on several occasions, but the Shoshone continue to suffer from ongoing harassment by federal officials and massive expansion by transnational corporations.

Larson Bill, Community Planner for the WSDP and 25 year elected leader said before leaving the U.S.: “We are pleased to be able to meet with people across Ireland to discuss these issues that affect all of us around the world. It is through traditional knowledge and teachings that we will protect our spiritual areas and learn more about our original relationships to the earth and to each other as we take on some of the largest industries in the world.”

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