U.S. Continues to Violate Rights of Native Americans
INDIGENOUS INSTITUTE of the AMERICAS
INSTITUTO INDIGENISTA de las AMERICAS
INDIAN LAW RESOURCE CENTER
CENTRO DE RECURSOS JURIDICOS PARA LOS PUEBLOS INDIGENAS
602 North Ewing Street • Helena, Montana 59601
(406) 449-2006 • Fax (406) 449-2031 • Email vtaliman@indianlaw.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 10, 2006
Contact Valerie Taliman 406/449-2006 or 449-7018
For more info, please visit www.indianlaw.org
U.S. Continues to Violate Rights of Native Americans
Human Rights Committee hears testimony on discriminatory, unjust legal policies NEW YORK – The United Nations Human Rights Committee convenes Monday to hear reports on the United States’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Many American Indian tribes and communities in the U.S. continue to be subjected to numerous human rights violations, including the taking of Indian lands and resources without compensation, and pervasive discrimination under U.S. law. Lucy Simpson, staff attorney for the Indian Law Resource Center, will present testimony regarding hostile actions by the U.S. against Native Americans and unfair, discriminatory legal policies that impact the daily lives of indigenous peoples in the U.S. Simpson said the U.S. must fully comply with its human rights obligations to indigenous peoples.
The abuse and human rights violations suffered by the Western Shoshone and traditional elder Carrie Dann will be the centerpiece of Simpson’s testimony. Simpson will also urge the Committee and the international community to support the decadeslong struggle of the Western Shoshone to retain their land and traditional way of life in the face of military-style seizures of Shoshone livestock and continued harassment by U.S. federal agents.
Yesterday, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued an historic decision urging the United States to “freeze, desist,” and “stop” actions being taken or threatened to be taken against the Western Shoshone people. This decision challenges the United States government’s assertion that it owns Western Shoshone traditional lands. These traditional lands cover approximately 60 million acres, stretching across what is now referred to as the states of Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California.
Western Shoshone rights to these lands - which they continue to use and occupy today - were recognized by the United States in 1863 by the Treaty of Ruby Valley. The United States now claims that these same lands are federally owned, due to the finding by a discriminatory federal administrative process that denied the Western Shoshone people fair access to U.S. courts. The Western Shoshone traditional 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. “Current Federal Indian law continues to deny basic human rights to Indian peoples, especially rights to their lands and rights to be free from discriminatory government action,” said Simpson. “This law needs to be changed if Indian peoples are going to survive as an important and distinct part of American society.” The ongoing struggle of the Western Shoshone people is but one example of how the United States’ discriminatory policies of Federal Indian law detrimentally affect
indigenous communities within the Untied States. To this day, indigenous peoples of the United States continue to live under a regime of discriminatory and unjust laws and policies. This unjust framework of law, which so profoundly determines the welfare of indigenous peoples in the United States, must be reformed if indigenous peoples are to rebuild their economies, maintain their cultures, and survive as distinct, sovereign nations. Despite strong recommendations from international human rights bodies, the U.S. has done has done nothing to attempt to remedy the human rights violations suffered by the Western Shoshone at the hands of the U.S. government. Instead, the U.S. has intensified its tactics to intimidate and threaten the Western Shoshone. With this newest decision by CERD, the Indian Law Resource Center urges the United States to begin its own serious review of its discriminatory policies affecting the indigenous peoples of this country.
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Copies of Simpson’s testimony and additional background documents are available at www.indianlaw.org.
