Never Mind Cliven Bundy: Here’s the Real David vs. Goliath Story Between Ranchers and Feds

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/heres-real-david-vs-goliath-story-between-ranchers-and-feds



***SNIP

But Nevada is home to another epic battle between ranchers and the feds. As in Bundy's case, it involves ranchers Mary and Carrie Dann, whose ancestors lived on the land long before the federal government staked a claim to it.

Unlike Bundy, who claims his ancestors were homesteaders on his ranch in 1877 and never ceded it to the federal government, the Danns, two Western Shoshone sisters, were not trampling over land set aside for sensitive plants and animals. Nor were they getting rich off the land while, in essence, robbing the taxpayers of grazing fees.

The Danns have lived without running water or electricity their entire lives. Their tribe, the Western Shoshone, have lived in Nevada and parts west since time immemorial. The land was Shoshone land, and the U.S. formally agreed that was the case when it signed the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, which explicitly stated that the Shoshone would never have to give up their land. That is, until the U.S. began encroaching on the land, claiming it for its own without the tribe's consent or knowledge.

The Danns' battle goes back to the early 1970s, when the federal government first sued them to stop grazing horses and cattle on land the U.S. claimed as its own. The Danns said the land was Western Shoshone land that the U.S. had taken illegally, and refused to pay grazing fees. Mary waged this battle until her death in 2005 at age 82, in an accident while she was repairing a fence. Carrie, 82 years old, is still fighting.

[marmar]

1. k/r

[MsLeopard]

2. Kick to the top nt

[tecelote]

3. K&R

[Orrex]

4. It's their own damn fault.

They should have had the good sense to be born white and rich.

[xchrom]

5. !

[uponit7771]

8. +1

[2naSalit]

6. THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS STORY!!!

I wanted to mention this earlier but didn't have the time to find all the source material. This has been going on since before Bundy got all fired up with his pseudo-vicitimhood, and I can't help but think the issue (plight of the Dann sisters) helped him get all the publicity he has all these years, only he was able to claim that he was the victim 'cause he's white and wears a c'boy hat... and he's mormon which has a lot of sway in UT, NV, WY an ID especially.

These ladies have fought the good fight and still they are subjected to the worst treatment even though they are right about their claims.

Thanks for bringing this up!

[boston bean]

7. One thing I have learned from watching Arial America

is how many damned treaties the US Gov't with the Indian tribes, that the US has reneged on.

It is a sorrowful, pitiful, shameful past.

[malthaussen]

9. Not just a past.

The present is not much better. Seen this DU thread?: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024836513

--Mal

[KG]

10. let's face it, america is a country built on land theft, ethnic cleansing, and slave labor...

[jwirr]

11. This story is the story of almost all of the Reservations in the USA. The land was taken and the

Native Americans were shuttled off to land that was less productive called Reservations. And most of us are probably living on land taken this way. Many of these land disputes are still in court for the original settlement. The history of our relationship to the Native American people is not one we can be proud of. But we are very careful not to put that little fact in the history books.

[Enthusiast]

12. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!