U.S. Argument: “Gradual Encroachment,” And 15 ¢ Per Acre

Shoshone elders filed a petition with the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) calling for action against the U.S. government for claiming large parts of indigenous lands as federal property.

… The Shoshone lands cover about 60 million acres in the states of Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. These lands, which are known to contain rich reservoirs of gold, also include a proposed national repository for radioactive waste.

… In their petition to the U.N., the Shoshone have argued that the U.S. government has no right to occupy or privatise their ancestral land because the treaty it had signed in 1863 does not allow Washington to do so. The U.S. government maintains that the Shoshone people have lost their rights to ancestral lands, as identified in the treaty, due to “gradual encroachment” by non-Native Americans.

… In 2004, the U.S. government tried to resolve this issue by passing a law, known as the Western Shoshone Distribution Act, which allowed Washington to claim large swathes of indigenous lands by financially compensating the Shoshone people. However, the compensation to the tribes is based on the 1872 price for their land and minerals -- about 15 cents per acre.

Haider Rizvi, “Native Group Takes Land Dispute to UN,” Inter Press Service, 1/26/06.