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Mount Tenabo
HistoryReport by Amy Corbin Newe Sogobia, which translates as “the people’s earth mother,” stretches from southern Idaho through eastern Nevada to the Mojave desert in California. This Great Basin terrain is a high altitude desert with no drainage to ocean. In this landscape of intricate relations, everything—mountains, plants, animals, waterways—has a purpose and is related to everything else. For example, mountains capture precious rainwater and feed the numerous springs upon which desert people depend for survival. The Western Shoshone recognize the existence of Bah-o-hah, water beings that live in the creeks and springs of Newe Sogobia. These sites are in turn the settings for curing ceremonies. Two of the most important sacred sites in Newe Sogobia are Mt. Tenabo and Horse Canyon, which have prominent roles in Shoshone creation stories and are the sites of ancient burials. Today, the Western Shoshone still have ceremonies and gather medicinal plants at all of these sacred places. English fur trappers from the Hudson Bay Company entered Newe Sogobia from the north in 1828-9 beginning the era of resource exploitation on Western Shoshone land. As part of their competition with the American trappers, they determined to trap all the beavers they could find so that when Americans arrived on their heels, the streams would be empty. Americans came through the area in great numbers in the 1840s spurred by the California gold rush. In 1862, federal troops arrived in Ruby Valley to establish a fort and ensure the safe passage of whites through Western Shoshone territory. Troops were authorized to kill male Shoshones in punishment for attacks on settlers. The presence of the settlers who stayed in the area to mine in this delicate desert environment led to depleted wild game, overgrazing of cattle, scarcity of water, and deforestation.
Western Shoshone representatives made numerous trips to Washington, D.C. to remind the government of the treaty, which specifically excluded any transfer of land title from the Shoshone to the U.S.. Not to be deterred, the federal government set up the Indian Claims Commission as a mechanism to legally assume title to native lands across the U.S. The work of the Commission became one of the great travesties of Native American history, as tribes became ensnared in the American judicial system, fighting by foreign and often easily manipulated rules to keep their lands. Lawyers would find a few individuals to sue on behalf of their tribe, the government would give them a one-time sum of money, and then declared the land legally purchased. This process went on for decades, as natives would realize what was happening and back out, and the lawyers would find others to take their place. In 1976, the Western Shoshone attempted to fire their lawyer, but the ICC continued to recognize him as representing the people. Finally in 1979, a settlement of $26 million for Newe Sogobia was offered. Rejected by the Western Shoshone, the money was held in trust by the Department of Interior and to this day, legislators are still attempting to force Western Shoshone to accept payment to legitimize the land sale, which most view as a way to extinguish aboriginal title and preclude future land claims. Current ChallengesThe U.S. government still claims jurisdiction over 80-90% of the original 60 million acres of Newe Sogobia. The Western Shoshone never have received royalties for the extraction of natural resources. Today, only .1% of Newe Sogobia is controlled by the Western Shoshone. These lands comprise the third largest gold-producing area in the world and also have been cited as the next “Saudi Arabia” of geothermal energy production. Further, the US Department of Defense has targeted Western Shoshone lands for renewed nuclear weapons testing and waste storage.
Beginning in the 1980s, gold prices soared, and there are currently two dozen major gold mines operating in Newe Sogobia. The two largest gold operations in Newe Sogobia are now Goldstrike and Cortez, both of which encompass several mine sites. Newe Sogobia now yields 64% of U.S. gold production and nearly 10% of the world’s, totaling $30 billion to date. The Pipeline and South Pipeline deposits supply the Cortez Mine and an adjacent deposit discovered in 2003 will, if tapped, create a continuous mine throughout the Cortez Mountains. A year later, Placer Dome US, which was the operator of Cortez Gold Mines along with its 40% partner, Kennecott, received permission from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to expand exploration for its mines. The gold embedded in this desert country is present in tiny traces, and must be extracted through the environmentally destructive cyanide heap leach method, which uses a cyanide-water solution to remove gold particles. This process produces vast tracts of blasted rock, open pits, and contaminated water (see our reports on Indian Pass and Cajamarca, Peru). One effect of the cyanide heap-leach method is high mercury levels in the air and in fish that live in nearby waters. When ore is heated, mercury is released into the air, and more emissions occur when the waste rock is disposed of. An estimated 95% of airborne mercury comes from gold mines. Mercury is a known neurotoxin that has been linked to brain damage, birth defects, and cancer. Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno have asked the state to investigate the mercury levels of fish at Wild Horse Reservoir adjacent to Mt. Tenabo and to issue a fish consumption advisory. Gold mining is far less regulated than energy-producing coal-fired power plants. The average coal-fired power plant emits approximately 250 pounds of mercury emissions into the air, while in 2005 the Goldstrike mine emitted 1,700 pounds and the Cortez mine 850 pounds. The US government is requiring coal-fired plants to reduce mercury emissions, but there are no such regulations aimed at gold mines. For a long time, Nevada had a voluntary regulation program determined by the mine operators. By 2006, public outcry about the health hazards of mercury was strong enough that the state adopted mandatory regulations. These are still quite weak: they allow the companies to monitor their own emissions, only having to measure already-known points of emission, and do not force a reduction in emissions levels. By 2018, if the Goldstrike mine continues at current levels, it will emit seven times more mercury than all of Nevada’s coal-fired power plants combined. Cyanide, which industry claims is relatively harmless because it breaks down quickly when exposed to air and light, lingers for a long time in the underground water table, raising grave concerns about the acidity of water, a scarce resource in the desert. Tailings (waste rock) from the mine are a semi-solid solution that contains cyanide, arsenic, and mercury. Birds have been killed from cyanide-water. Pit lakes with this hazardous water are predicted to linger up to 250 years after the mine has closed, long after the mining companies are legally held accountable for the land’s restoration. The operations near Mt. Tenabo are also threatening the wider ecosystem. The sage grouse, which is an important source of food and medicine for the Western Shoshone, and the mule deer, which provides food and skins used for clothing, gloves, and drums, are two primary examples of local endangered animals. Over-grazing of grassland is a separate but important issue which has decimated wild plants that have long been harvested by Western Shoshone for food and medicine. The Western Shoshone have filed suit to stop the Cortez 200-acre expansion and in May 2005, a delegation traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, to speak to shareholders of Placer Dome. They complained that the company has shown no awareness of the impacts of their mining activity and no respect for Shoshone culture. “They are even claiming to have leased our hot springs which we still use for cleansing and healing,” states Carrie Dann. When the government acknowledges the existence of cultural sites, it treats them as archeological sites, to be excavated and provide artifacts to museums or universities. Such measures do not help the Western Shoshone protect their living spiritual practices. Barrick Gold has recently acquired Placer Dome’s 60% interest in Cortez and is aggressively pursuing the new deposits. All BLM permits have been issued for continued exploration in the Pipeline deposits on and around Mt. Tenabo and Horse Canyon, but the company needs additional permits for an expansion to Cortez Hills. The Western Shoshone has sued the BLM and Cortez charging that the BLM did not consult with the tribe and its issue of permits to the gold company did not adequately protect cultural sites and is violation of National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Presevation Act regulations. In April 2007, a federal court heard arguments in this ongoing case. Goldstrike Mine, considered Barrick’s “flagship property,” yields enough gold that Barrick deemed it cost-efficient to open its own natural gas fired power plant. The site is operated in conjunction with Newmont, the Denver-based gold giant. Newmont itself is facing a global campaign to hold it responsible for the environmental damage and impact on local communities caused by its mines around the world. At Newmont’s April 2005, shareholder meeting, Western Shoshone representative Kristi Begay criticized the company’s “overabundant use” of water, desecration of sacred sites, and lack of community contact — problems reported at Newmont facilities around the world. As a result of this pressure, Newmont has held quarterly meetings with the Western Shoshone but nothing concrete—such as a formal company position on mining in disputed territory, fair compensation for mining, and the right to free, prior, and informed consent for expansion projects—has emerged as a result. In the summer of 2006, the Western Shoshone presented a draft corporate policy calling for Newmont to respect Western Shoshone land rights and human rights. Since that time, Newmont has held no further meetings. The Western Shoshone Nation is caught in a state vs. federal jurisdictional quagmire, as are many Native American communities. As part of the antiquated 1872 Mining Law, metal mining companies do not pay royalties for extraction on federal land as oil and gas companies do. The law makes mining a priority use of public land and authorizes the sale of land to be mined for $2.50-$5.00 an acre. Further, lands purchased under the mining law become subject only to state environmental regulation, less stringent than federal regulation in mining-friendly Nevada. However, as a sovereign nation with government-to-government relations with the U.S., the Western Shoshone Nation does not have a legal relation to the state of Nevada. The state of Nevada does not require that companies return the land to its original ecological condition after they leave. Open pits may be left as-is, while tailings piles are covered up and revegetated, leaving the toxic material buried underneath. Rain runs through heap leech pads, releasing toxins into the water. Several companies operating in the area have gone bankrupt, abandoning nine mine sites for which the state does not have the funds to clean up properly. Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV) introduced the Federal Mineral Development and Land Protection Equity Act of 2005 (HR 3968) in October 2005, but the bill has not left the House subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. This bill would increase regulation of mining on federal land, collect fees from mining operations to be used for restoration work after damage caused by mines, and specifies federal lands on which mining is prohibited. In addition to the mining pollution of their ancestral land, the federal government maintains that the Western Shoshone have to obtain permits from the BLM to keep their herds on their own land. In 2002, the BLM removed horses in this area belonging to Western Shoshone elders Mary and Carrie Dann, who have been prominent activists for land rights. Only a few months later, Placer Dome doubled its estimate of the amount of gold contained in that same land and the BLM approved the mining company’s operation on that land. The BLM’s vehement enforcement of grazing permits on the Dann sisters’ land is ironic given that it allows cattle grazing on the Magruder Mountain Allottment, another area of spiritual and cultural significance to the Western Shoshone. This grazing threatens springs, medicinal plants and wildlife. The 2002 incident on the Dann’s ranch was not the first time the Danns had been harassed by mining companies. In 1996, Oro Nevada Resources bought a ranch adjacent to the Dann family to begin mining and ignored the Danns’ request to avoid a hot springs used for bathing and ceremony. The community rose up in resistance, and some individuals purchased stock in the company in order to gain access to a shareholder meeting. Two years later, Oro was out of financing for development and failed to find a partner, so it abandoned its plan. The State of Nevada continues to be a complicated friend and foe of the Western Shoshone. While the state congressional delegation agrees with the Western Shoshone on the need to prevent storage of nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain, they have worked with the Bush administration to enact a forced payment to the Western Shoshone in an effort to legitimize U.S. government control over land resource extraction. The Western Shoshone Distribution Bill of July 7, 2004 authorizes a payoff of approximately 15 cents per acre for 24 million acres of land that was supposed to have been protected by the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The settlement, totaling approximately $145 million, was welcomed by some in the Shoshone community who thought they should accept the money since they see no chance of regaining the land. However, a majority of involved tribal councils and all of the traditional leadership, including the Western Shoshone National Council, strongly opposed the bill, arguing that their ancestral lands were too high a price to pay and that they would continue the struggle. Western Shoshone fear that accepting the money will negate any future land title arguments. Politicians justified the bill based on uncertified polls of individual Shoshone rather than the various tribal councils, the governing bodies that can legitimately negotiate sovereignty. Massive opposition by numerous traditional people, human rights organizations, and thousands of individual citizens delayed numerous votes on the bill, but was ultimately unable to stop its passage as Nevada politicians played trickery by scheduling the vote during “consent” and “suspension” calendars. The government’s latest attempt to separate the Western Shoshone from their land comes in the form of the National Forest Land Adjustment for Rural Communities Act, which would authorize the National Forest Service to sell certain parcels of land around the country to private companies for the ostensible purpose of funding rural schools. This bill would allow mining and logging companies to take control of land that previously had at least minimal government regulation. Public outcry prevented the bill from becoming law in 2006, but it has been introduced this year again as part of the Forest Service’s fiscal year 2008 budget. Since the passage of this bill, the Western Shoshone have been increasingly harassed by U.S. government and corporate attempts to assert control of the land. In August 2005, the Western Shoshone filed an urgent action request with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which resulted in a formal “Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure Decision” from CERD to the U.S. government. The March 2006 notice asks the U.S. government to explain its violations of treaty rights and the rapid pace of development on Western Shoshone land. Pressure tactics used by the government have included the seizure of livestock and the assessment of alleged trespass fines by the Internal Revenue Service and private collection agencies. “The role of non-state actors, or multinational corporations, in the ongoing human rights violations against indigenous peoples is also being addressed by the delegation in response to the influential posture of the gold companies and the energy industry under the current administration,” states the action request. Noting that the US government has neither acknowledged nor complied with CERD’s notice, the Western Shoshone National Council filed an update on the situation to CERD in February 2007. This statement also points to the following activities opposed by the Western Shoshone on their lands: military testing plans continue; public hearings on all these matters are not scheduled in Shoshone territory where the community can be heard; the Bureau of Land Management is selling oil and gas leases; there are plans to build a plutonium center; DOI approved construction of a water pipeline, in a reversal of an earlier decision; and DOI plans to build the Ely Energy Center, a coal-fired electric power plant (which would use up to 30,000 gallons of water per minute), transmission lines, and a rail line. There has also been a large increase in uranium and geothermal exploration. The U.S. government practices controlled burning of land without consulting Western Shoshone elders, despite the fact that the Western Shoshone have traditional methods to control wildfires. SolutionAn August 2006 Environmental Assessment by the DOI admits to many of the ways in which the Western Shoshone have a spiritual connection to the land, and to the existence of Traditional Cultural Properties that are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Protection under this list would be a step towards making Newe Sogobia off limits to resource extraction. The U.S. government now needs to conduct proper consultation with the Western Shoshone on a nation-to-nation basis, acknowledging them as the rightful caretakers of their land and designating sacred areas that should be permanently off limits to resource extraction. The government should negotiate in good faith with the Shoshone over their treaty rights to ancestral lands, giving them the option to regain control of some of the land, rather than forcing them to accept a financial settlement. The Western Shoshone are owed royalties from current mining operations, which would be fairer compensation than a one-time payment for a land sale that never occurred. The public must also guard against new attempts to loosen the already weak 1872 Mining Law, and instead, support efforts to revise the law so it will protect select public lands from being mined and force mining companies to take responsibility for environmental damages and cleanup. Companies should post reasonable bonds to cover the costs of cleanup after the mine closes. For the economic health of the Western Shoshone and their neighbors, the government agencies should increase development of solar and wind energy technologies and provide job training to funnel mine workers into new professions in preparation for the inevitable mine closures What You Can DoContact your Senators and Representative to state your support for reform of the antiquated Mining Law and demand more environmental regulation of mining and required royalty payments for mineral mining on public land, as already exist for the coal, oil, and gas industries. The Democratic control of Congress has increased the discussion around Rep. Rahall’s proposed bill, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) treads cautiously on the issue because of the substantial mining activity in his home state. Contact the BLM and oppose mining on Mt. Tenabo – public comments are due Dec. 4, 2007. See the Western Shoshone Defense Project’s website to join their mailing list and support their activism. Resources
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Mt. Tenabo and its environs are part of Newe Sogobia, the ancestral land of the Western Shoshone, which has never been legally ceded to the federal government. Nevertheless, U.S. politicians and multinational corporations ignore the 1863 treaty between the U.S. government and the Western Shoshone, treating sacred land as a public resource to be mined for gold. Today, Barrick Gold, the world’s largest multinational mining corporation is planning an open-pit gold mine on the sacred mountain, the highest peak in the Cortez Mountains of northern Nevada. To justify the resource extraction, the government has been working for decades to force the Western Shoshone to accept a one-time payment for their land. Western Shoshone elder Carrie Dann has said: “The Indian Claims Commission payment constitutes selling of our Indian lands and destruction of the Indian heritage and culture. No money could ever compensate taking the land from our native people. No race of people has ever sold their homeland. Where will our homeland be if we accept the money? Let us walk with dignity and honor and never as a people without a country.”
Desperate to end the violence and survive on their land, Western Shoshone leaders agreed to the 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty. This treaty acknowledged Western Shoshone ownership of the land, but permitted non-native Americans to engage in extractive activities, for which royalties were to be paid to the Western Shoshone. The slow erosion of Western Shoshone land sovereignty began in the early 1900s when the Forest Service and the Grazing Service (predecessor to the Bureau of Land Management) started to refer to Western Shoshone territory as “public land,” without any legal change in its status. Whites also began to claim water rights in the area based on “first use.”
Arguably, nowhere is the collusion between government and industry more apparent than in the case of gold mining, where the government is allowing multinational companies to operate without permission from or recompense to the Western Shoshone. Modern gold mining began in the 1960s when scientists, subsidized by the government, figured out how to profitably process microscopic gold. In 1965, Newmont opened Carlin Mine, the first modern mine in Newe Sogobia, and the company continues to operate five sites in the area. The biggest threat to Mt. Tenabo today is the Cortez Hills mining project, which would blast open a new 2,200 foot hole on the mountain, even though the mining company presents the project as an ‘expansion’ of the current Pipeline and Cortez mines adjacent to the mountain. |
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