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[article provided by LH. Thanks!]

Nevada Focus:
While Shoshones Struggle, Millions Of Federal
Dollars Await Them

AP  02/18/2000
By James Rainey

SOUTH FORK RESERVATION, Nev. (AP) _ At an isolated
subdivision here, boxy government housing perches on a
scrub brush hillside, wood stoves provide the only heat
and televisions seem to drone all day _ a sad refrain for
a people who have lost their place.

At least a third of the Shoshone Indians on this
reservation don't have jobs. Those who do usually
struggle to make a living.

So it's hard to say what is more surprising: that people
here have $116 million in the bank, or that some of them
don't want the money.

But withdrawal of that "money in the bank" _ the U.S.
Treasury _ could end the tribe's claim to land that it
has longed for since white settlers began to push the
native people aside.

After decades of impasse, there may be a way to distribute
the fortune, payment for 23.6 million acres taken from
the western bands of the Shoshone tribe more than a
century ago.

Tribal members have persuaded at least one of Nevada's
U.S. senators, Harry Reid, to introduce legislation that
could disburse $20,000 to every Shoshone man, woman and
child.

"We live in America. Democracy prevails, even though these
are sovereign nations," said Reid, the Senate's minority
whip. "There is an overwhelming majority now that is for
the distribution of this money, so that is what I am going
to do."

But since payment could end the tribe's claims to its
historic homeland, some of the Shoshones' top leaders are
fighting fiercely to leave the money untouched in a
Department of Interior account.

The ferocity of the disagreement is a reminder that, even
in a new century, America and its native people still
struggle with the great, unresolved "Indian question."

"You can't just snap your fingers and resurrect an entire
culture," said Michael Lieder, an attorney and authority on
native claims against the government. "We have been fighting
that issue and we will keep on fighting it."

The U.S. Congress and President Harry S. Truman hoped for
a cleaner, more expedient resolution when, in 1946, they
established the Indian Claims Commission. The panel and a
court that followed it heard more than 600 cases and paid
out nearly $1.5 billion.

But that meant that the average American Indian often
received a check for less than $1,000 _ money that went for
decidedly mixed uses, said Lieder, coauthor of "Wild
Justice," about book on the claims commission's work.

Some tribal members spent their money on new cars or other
goods that have long since landed on the junk heap. But
others pooled their resources and invested in economic
development.

The Western Shoshone feud quietly churns through a dozen
remote reservations and urban Indian "colonies" of northern
Nevada, where most of the tribe's 5,062 enrolled members
live.

A grassroots group backing the cash payments threatens to
remove from office the tribal leaders who have blocked
distribution. Blood relatives have stopped speaking to each
other about the issue.

Opposing camps frame the debate as a struggle between
traditional values and a devotion to the land on the one
hand, and pragmatism and pursuit of economic development on
the other.

Most Shoshones say they are not a demonstrative people. But
when Nancy Stewart told friends that a newspaper reporter
was coming to her home in the western Nevada farm town of
Fallon, nearly 30 tribal members showed up.

One said she'd buy a new bed. Another said she'd use the
money to pay off debts and perhaps open a sandwich shop. A
third said she would pay her tuition for nursing school.

Stewart and her principal ally, Larry Piffero of Elko, are
leading the charge to claim the money. They formed an
independent committee to petition the government, and
conducted a straw poll that seemed to show overwhelming
support among tribal members for a cash settlement.

Though some have called the vote a sham, others say it
signaled a fundamental shift among the Shoshones. The
result: 1,230 for the payment and 53 against.

Stewart's allies acknowledge that the U.S. government's
settlement is a paltry sum, considering the land lost. The
Western Shoshone once ranged from the Snake River in Idaho
to Joshua Tree in California. But they say it's unrealistic
to hold out for anything more.

Two hundred fifty miles east of Fallon on Interstate 80,
Elwood Mose sits in a casino coffee shop in Elko and shakes
his head when asked about tribal members who want to cash
in.

"Most of that money is going to end up in the pit over
here," Mose says, jerking a thumb over his shoulder toward a
row of blackjack tables. "Or it's going to be spent down the
street here, to buy two-thirds of a pickup truck. That's all
it's going to get you."

Mose, 48, is the chairman of the largest single Western
Shoshone political entity _ the Te-Moak Bands Council, which
represents 2,514 tribal members in Elko, Battle Mountain and
Wells and on the South Fork Reservation.

Mose says, "We have laid it out bluntly to the people in
Sen. Reid's office: 'If you want a fight, we can give you a
fight."'

Marla Stanton Woods of the South Fork Reservation is just as
militant about rejecting a payoff.

"A lot of tribes have sold out, but those leaders were not
thinking of the future," says Woods.

"There is no price you can put on the land. It is part of
us," adds Woods, 35, whose great-great-grandfather was one
of the chiefs who signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley in 1863,
making peace with the U.S. government.
 
 

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