Article: 850 of sgi.talk.ratical From: (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe) Subject: Tearing up a blood-stained treaty between the Shoshoni and the US Keywords: The 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty--one of over 300 the US govn't has broken Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc. Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 22:06:05 GMT Lines: 156 They are both clear that Indian Reservations, the enclaves created by the US governments for indigenous peoples, are effectively small prisons controlled by the federal authorities. In Timbisha (Death Valley), Pauline's family are considered squatters and have been uprooted to make way for a visitors' centre and a camping ground. Because Timbisha has been declared a "National Monument" the Shoshone are not permitted to become economically self-sufficient. Instead, they are targeted by corporations and government departments eager to dump toxic and other waste. They are also made the victims of arsenic poisoning, as a direct result of gold mining. . . . Nuclear testing is also targeted towards the Shoshone rather than white North Americans. Sometimes, Pauline says, tests are postponed "because the winds might be blowing towards Las Vegas." The US military and government prefer nuclear debris to blow onto the reservations downwind of the test sites. As a result, Heidi says, "a lot of people have been affected. There have been children born with no limbs, with cancerous diseases which have affected our elder people too." . . . Heidi continues: "The law of the Shoshone people says that all living things are connected and that you are not better off than any other living thing. We all live off the land and living things feed us, keep us alive. We're so modern today that we forget these things, but we need to remind ourselves." the karma created by the american people over the past 200+ years is going to transform the earth in ways most people continue to pretend they are not aware of. -- ratitor from PeaceNet via ACTIV-L: Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 00:41:40 GMT Sender: Activists Mailing List From: "(Rich Winkel)" Subject: TEARING UP A BLOOD-STAINED TREATY To: Multiple recipients of ACTIV-L /** headlines: 324.0 **/ ** Topic: Tearing up a blood-stained treaty ** ** Written 5:45 pm Sep 30, 1992 by ggundrey in cdp:headlines ** ~From: George Gundrey ~Subject: Tearing up a blood-stained treaty /* Written 4:53 pm Sep 30, 1992 by gn:peacenews in cdp:wri.news */ /* ---------- "Tearing up a blood-stained treaty" ---------- */ TEARING UP A BLOOD-STAINED TREATY by JULEY HOWARD On 3 August 1992, the US Senate voted decisively to bring an end to nuclear weapons testing in Nevada. On 18 September a nuclear bomb was exploded creating a 4.0 earthquake at Rainer Mess, Nevada, traditional territory signed over to the US government by the Western Shoshone people as part of the 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty. Two Shoshone women, Pauline Esteves of the Western Shoshone National Council and Heidi Blackeye of the Citizen Alert Native American Program, spoke to _PN_ about land, reservations, Sir James Goldsmith and nuclear testing. "There was a war before the Shoshone were forced to sign the 1963 treaty," says Heidi. "The original treaty is in archives in Washington DC. It has blood on it where some of the native people have signed the treaty." Pauline adds that the Indian Claims Commission of 1979, when the US government attempted to pay off the Shoshone people with $26 million, is equally invalid because they refused to accept the money. "They used the fact that we have been paid off, but we never received a dime. We don't want any money, because we'd be losing as lot more than we already had. The land is not for sale. If we were to sell the land we would be selling ourselves." They are both clear that Indian Reservations, the enclaves created by the US governments for indigenous peoples, are effectively small prisons controlled by the federal authorities. In Timbisha (Death Valley), Pauline's family are considered squatters and have been uprooted to make way for a visitors' centre and a camping ground. Because Timbisha has been declared a "National Monument" the Shoshone are not permitted to become economically self-sufficient. Instead, they are targeted by corporations and government departments eager to dump toxic and other waste. They are also made the victims of arsenic poisoning, as a direct result of gold mining. It is worth noting that Newmont Mining, a major contributor to pollution in Nevada, is partly owned (42 per cent) by Sir James Goldsmith ... Nuclear testing is also targeted towards the Shoshone rather than white North Americans. Sometimes, Pauline says, tests are postponed "because the winds might be blowing towards Las Vegas." The US military and government prefer nuclear debris to blow onto the reservations downwind of the test sites. As a result, Heidi says, "a lot of people have been affected. There have been children born with no limbs, with cancerous diseases which have affected our elder people too." The Shoshone position is set out by Chief Raymond Yowell of the Western Shoshone National Council. "This is Shoshone land. Its use by the United States for nuclear testing is a blatant violation of law and our civil property rights. We cannot help but see that the United States and other nuclear testing powers are testing their most destructive weapons on other peoples' lands ... on the territory of native peoples who cannot prevent the larger and more technologically powerful nations from doing this to them." But it goes beyond this, as Pauline explains. "Our recognition is not written in the histories that you read. Ours is written into the mountains, and into all the life-forms that the creator has placed upon this land. And this land, this earth, we respect. We walk upon it honouring it because it is our mother. When they do their weapons' testing out there they make a hole down to a great depth and run into the veins of mother earth. We have always known that we must not dig that far into mother earth." Heidi continues: "The law of the Shoshone people says that all living things are connected and that you are not better off than any other living thing. We all live off the land and living things feed us, keep us alive. We're so modern today that we forget these things, but we need to remind ourselves." And finally, Pauline reminds us, "When the British do their weapons' tests they are on Western Shoshone lands." ******************************************************************* * Reprinted from Peace News 2359 (October 1992). * * Please credit if reprinting. * * Peace News and War Resisters' International, * * 55 Dawes Street, London SE17 1EL * * (tel +44 71 703 7189; fax 708 2545; email peacenews@gn.apc.org) * ******************************************************************* ** End of text from cdp:headlines ** -- The Hopi believe this is the Fourth World. There were seven worlds created at the beginning. The first three were each destroyed in turn because the humans inhabiting them had diverged too far from their original sacred path of connectedness with and respect for all life on Mother Earth. Their prophecies (see "Book of the Hopi" by Frank Waters) describe the possibility of such a destruction of the Fourth World (in the forms of uranium mining, the existence of powerlines, and the atomic bomb): If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster. Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky. A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans. KOYAANISQATSI ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language) n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life out of balance. 4. life disintegrating. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.