Carrie
Dann is a Western Shoshone elder who, together with her sister, has been at the
forefront of the battle to save the Shoshone ancestral lands in Nevada and bordering
states. Despite a treaty signed by the US government in 1868 guaranteeing the
Shoshone rights to their territory, more than 90% of their lands have been taken
away since then. Gold mining has destroyed some of the land and more than 950
nuclear bombs were tested on Shoshone land in Nevada against the wishes of the
Shoshone. In 1973, sisters Carrie and Mary Dann were fined for allowing their
livestock to graze near their ranch in the Crescent Valley, Nevada; they argued
that they were grazing on Shoshone land, which was a right guaranteed under the
1868 treaty. They have been fighting with the US government, the nuclear industry
and international gold mining corporations through legal action and nonviolent
civil disobedience ever since for their right and the rights of the Western Shoshone
to maintain their way of life on their ancestral lands. After her sister died
in an accident in 2005, Carrie continues this struggle for her people. Carrie
and Mary Dann received
the 1993 Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize,
"...for exemplary courage and perseverance in asserting the rights of indigenous
people to their land."
