The Dann Sisters (Western Shoshone Nation)

Native Americans Divided Over Land Battle
Daniela Relph - BBC Correspondent in Nevada

Aug 13, 2004


There can be few places in America more breathtakingly beautiful and bitterly divided than the Indian Lands of Nevada: 24 million acres of disputed territory.

Now President Bush hopes to settle one of America's longest running land disputes in approving a $140m payment from Congress to the Western Shoshone Indians.

In return, the American government would get the Shoshone ancestral lands seized by settlers and speculators in the 19th Century.
But in the president's way stand two unlikely and increasingly isolated figures of resistance.


-Sacred land

Carrie and Mary Dann are Shoshone sisters who have spent all their lives on the family's ramshackle ranch in Nevada's Crescent Valley.
It is a 10-hour road trip from Las Vegas to their ranch.

I traveled to their ranch just as President Bush was about to sign the deal.

When I arrived, I found two sisters who were at times difficult, stubborn, argumentative and consistently tough - the result of 30 years fighting the American government over who owns much of their land. In September 2002, the government raided the Danns' ranch. They are known as the old ladies locally but neither will reveal their age.

But their lined, worn faces reflect a life of working the land they call "sacred".

"Our land represents our lives and all living things," says Carrie Dann. "I feel sorry for the government for trying to take this land. They just can't take 'sacred' away from us."

For the Dann Sisters, this battle is about defending years of tradition, about preserving a way of life, about protecting the customs and faith of Native America.


-Dilemma

The US government sees it very differently.

For the government, it is all about territory it believes it owns and about using land, rich in gold, for development.

In September 2002 the government raided the Dann sisters' ranch and searched their land.

Convoys of police vehicles surrounded Crescent Valley; helicopters were used to round up livestock; and the Dann sisters were terrified.
Video of the raid shows Carrie Dann screaming at officials. "You're stripping us of our dignity," she cried. "I think that's wrong, totally wrong."

Most Western Shoshone live in modern Elko-not on Tribal lands. The problem the Dann sisters have is that their defiance has divided their tribe.

The vast majority of Western Shoshone no longer live off their land. Instead they live in Elko, Nevada, classic small-town America, and they work in banks, shops and local government.

The modern Shoshone want to accept the government's financial deal that would give each tribal member £11,000 each.

"It's been coming to us for all these years; we want it," says Gracie Bagey, a tribal elder. "My grandma died when she was 104-years-old, and she used to say the government owes us lots of money that we never get."

It has been a real moral dilemma for the modern Shoshone.
They want the money but fear the erosion of a traditional way of life. Heroines or outlaws?

The momentum is with them. President Bush has approved a bill that would give them their money.

But still the sisters refuse to accept defeat and are actually stepping up their campaign to keep hold of their land.

Their strongest support has come by way of a former corporate lawyer from Minneapolis.

Julie Fishchel has made the life changing decision to give up her lucrative salary and comfortable home in the city.

She has moved herself and her family to rural Nevada and has become Carrie and Mary Dann's trusted adviser.

"I find these two women two of the most incredible women I've ever met," she explains. "To me, they're heroes. The least I can do is come to lend my skills to help them in their struggle."

Carrie and Mary Dann are heroines to some, outlaws to others. The lands that once sustained the tribe are now the issue dividing them.
Many Shoshone will see their money within months.

But not the Danns, they will never accept the deal. They vow never to sacrifice their "sacred" lands.

Is there anything sacred in America anymore....?