How Did I Miss That? Militia: God Gave Land to Settlers, Not Shoshone

[The Straight Story]

How Did I Miss That? Militia: God Gave Land to Settlers, Not Shoshone

Big news that went on all week was the confrontation between the federal government and the “militia movement” over the removal of cattle belonging to Mormon “pioneer” Cliven Bundy from federal land. Bundy has not paid his grazing fees for 20 years. Why? His ancestors settled those lands in the 19th century. “Time immemorial,” my Cousin Ray Sixkiller pointed out, “means different things to different people.”

....

The year before Nevada was admitted, the US signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley, which recognized the Western Shoshone as owners of the dirt Cliven Bundy is claiming the right to use because of his “pioneer” pedigree. In 1979, the Indian Claims Commission awarded the Shoshone $26 million in compensation for land lost to “settler encroachment” while the federal government looked the other way. Those encroaching settlers would be who Cliven Bundy cites today as originators of his right to graze his cattle.


The Shoshone refused the money. They had not agreed to sell the land. They did not agree that the land should be used for nuclear testing. Carrie and Mary Dann were Shoshone elders who stood up to the abuse. Mary walked on at age 82, in 2005. The 81-year-old Carrie was last arrested in 2007, protesting against the use of Shoshone land for nuclear weapons research.

The Dann Sisters grazed their cattle on land the Bureau of Land Management claimed since 1973, refusing to pay grazing fees based on the Treaty of Ruby Valley, Article VI of the US Constitution, and a report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States that found the US to be cheating the Shoshone.

In 1992 and again in 2002, armed BLM posses rounded up the Dann Sisters’ cattle and sold them for grazing fees. The New York Times reported in 2002 that the Dann Sisters had been fined $3 million for “trespass.”

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/04/18/how-did-i-miss-militia-god-gave-land-settlers-not-shoshone-154472

[xchrom]

1. du rec.

[giftedgirl77]

2. K & R

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

3. So, let's see the Fox News footage of them freaking out over this treatment of the Dann Sisters.

I'm betting it doesn't exist.

[Paladin]

4. K&R. Thanks for this important historical information. (nt)

[Scuba]

5. K&R

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Did God sign the deed? Did God pay the transfer fees? Who was the realtor?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. White folk privileged double standard treats minorities like dirt in comparison. nt

[freshwest]

22. +1. And steals their dirt, too. n/t

[maggies farm]

8. Remember The Treaty of Ruby Valley because that portends what is to come

We have already trashed the planet to the point of collapse and earth changes are coming and no one will escape what is to arrive. No one is immune from this, the good and the bad participates in the change to come.

The garden of eden was before cultivation. Indigenous cultures of the world walked in harmony then and until recently. We have collectively walked away. Things have gone downhill sense.

We are not mature enough to sustain a civilization long enough to be equal neighbors to the entire cosmos.

Bundy and the US Empire takes from all of the people of turtle island and ruthlessly kills them and destroys food supply. The Shoshone paid no taxes or fees and yet they sustained their communities and the land. BUT most importantly they did not take more from Mother Earth then being nurtured as the local pronghorn antelope, and that is the key in living as indigenous like you see in Avatar the movie.

Take a look at the early treaties to get a sense of what was to come:
"They would allow free passage along the routes through Shoshone country, establishment of military posts and rest stations for travelers and for mail and telegraph companies, continued operation of telegraph and stage lines and construction of a railway from the plains to the Pacific ocean passing through their country. They would also allow prospecting for gold, silver or other minerals, mining of any deposits found, formation of mining and agricultural settlements and ranches, erection of mills and logging of timber." Treaty of Ruby Valley

So when people talk about corruption today and senators benefitting well guess what this nation has always been about plunder and we shall all go down with the awful karma that we are all complicit in.

The Hopi warned us for many years to participate with earth changes and learn and change and survive. They started coming forward and talking to our government during atomic testing - the Gourd of Ashes.

They went to the presidents and were denied they went to the UN to no remedy. They talked to the white man that had taken this land like voracious mosquito's. Some listened, some tried to make a difference, while others including what later became survivalists and militia's slumbered. This is not a political issue, this is a spiritual issue.

The die is cast, too late. You can't kill MotherEarth because she will shake you like fleas from a dog. The survivalist and militia's are irrelevant because they will just recreate the destruction of our Mother. They have learned to shoot and kill and take, nothing changes.

Eventually the Earth goes fallow to heal and rest. Perhaps in a million years it will support sentient life again. Perhaps the whales are more deserving of being the keeper of the planet after all they don't have an opposable thumb that has gotten us in a lot of mischief.

There is no political solution, there is no revolution solution, the only solution is spiritual and that won't be the Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but will remain as it always has been to do no harm to others including Mother Earth.

The settlers had over 150 years to get a clue and talk to their red brothers and sisters and consider how they were to walk across the land. Bundy and his ilk had years to reconcile with the Shoshone and cooperatively work together in a garden of eden.

They did not and now - all for that disregard will face the brutal side of Empire and a dark civilization (along with the other empires of Russia, China, Great Britain, and France) that pales compared to Atlantis and Lemuria and other golden civilizations.

Remember The Treaty of Ruby Valley because that portends what was to come of the trespassers which is us collectively. We are always a guest to the planet and we are rapers and robbers every one of us.

[erronis]

14. Agree with most of what you say

And believe that our recent rape and pillage of our land will come back to destroy us all.

However, I also think it is naive to think that any people that ever lived on this planet ha not caused murder and destruction to further their own personal goals as well as those of their families, tribes, and nations. Any "golden" civilizations are only golden because of the telling of tales.

The sweep of the human species through the various continents show plenty of evidence of cruelty, barbarism, etc. Much as we'd see if we were to watch a wave of other predatory animals finding a new fertile territory.

[Lizzie Poppet]

9. Ever notice how when someone claims "God" decided some worldly matter or another...

..the decision is always beneficial to the person making the claim?

Funny how that works.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

10. Putin & Bundy. Two of a kind, backed by militia

sickening

[grahamhgreen]

11. Following Clivens logic, he owes money plus the land to the Shoshone. Sounds lke a good settlement!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. +1

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Mention "God given grass" and....

[jwirr]

13. So if I understand you correctly the Dann sisters were Shoshone Natives and that tribe owns the

land in dispute. Except that the US government did not recognize their right and proceeded to use the same tactics as they are using to stop old Cliven from grazing his cattle for free. Now the question is does old Cliven have Native blood? If not he is a whole different story.

When this all began I wondered if this was Indian Land held by the BLM. It looks like it is in dispute.

[maggies farm]

16. Everything is in dispute in the end

The Shoshone as well as others across the continents (Americas) know that their lands were taken by genocide there is no dispute in that. All treaties were lopsided, unfair, and generally handed down at the point of acquiescence.

Bundy relations did not come in until after they were cleared out of the way. Keep in mind that many settlers were not interested in the arid west and were on the way to the promised land in CA and the west coast. In general only the white outcast (such as the Mormons) stayed in the desert to be left alone by others and federal intrusion. Problem is that eventually population impact would encroach upon dreams of being left alone.

His forefathers made claim to the US government and received a homestead land grant of perhaps as much as 320 acres or as little as 160, he also got preemptive water rights along the VIrgin River and his land claim. At that time although I don't think there is legal standing of documents, there was the assumption or understanding at the time that you could spread out on rangeland. Necessary because it was not possible to raise a commercial herd on the acreage of homestead. Homestead often provides enough to meek a subsistence "off the grid" life, but little more.

As it became an increasingly smaller world population encroached these very rural areas. As it was overgrazing was starting to have huge environmental impacts. This is the land of pronghorn antelope and nothing larger. The bison did not have habitat in this area. This is the desert SW and always will be unsuitable for commercial cattle grazing, and it barely supports subsistence living when everything is reduced to personal property lines.

As time came overgrazing became to all including ranchers, from that started the agencies to manage public rangeland whether federal, State, or County.

Today both the USFS and BLM serve as "land managers" and must plan and allow "Multiple Use" which is extraction (logging, grazing, mining), biological diversity and other environmental concerns, and recreational amenities. The real problem is this: traditionally these agencies have favored extractors whether corporate and industry or individuals or small business. Which has a lot to do with the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 80's when the Federal government was having to address national legislation such as clean water and air acts, and endangered species. Yet still the is a congressional purse string issue so every which way there is to feather the pocket and enrich by exploitation continues.

Conservationists and environmentalist have an uphill battle and these issues invariably becomes a pitched battle of conservation or "Wise Use".

Everybody has a bit of the truth in what has come out in all of this. But no one bothers to tell the whole complicated story or work towards a true sustainable planet (other perhaps the indigenous which is roundly ignored by everyone anyway).

It is very important to note that our government has had a nefarious role in trashing the west. No one is innocent and most are very uninformed.

[etherealtruth]

18. Great post, welcome to DU!

[IronLionZion]

15. Beef prices are high, let's sell Cloven Bundy's cattle

for grazing fees and to feed Americans who are not evading taxes.

GOP keeps complaining about the debt, so this could help.

[christx30]

17. Did the sisters have

supporters with weapons? Or did the BLM waltz in and take what they wanted without opposition? That's the difference. Thieves take what they want, but they go after easy targets. BLM pulled back because of the weapons.

[ladyVet]

24. Seems like having lots of armed supporters trumps the law, doesn't it?

If the Shoshone had stood up to the government the way this white rancher has done, they would have been slaughtered.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. K&R

[Tanuki]

20. k & r n/t

[rafeh1]

21. thisis very good

Info to handle the rackos