Treaty may prevent nuclear storage March 11, 2005 by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

LAS VEGAS - Attorney Treva Hearne, partner at Hager and Hearne in Reno and counsel to the Western Shoshone National Council, said it is time for the United States to honor its treaties with American Indians and halt its longstanding history of human rights abuses.

The U.S. plans to entomb 77,000 tons of highly radioactive commercial, industrial and military waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Although Congress and the Bush administration selected the site in 2002, a planned 2010 opening has been delayed by budget, legal and technical difficulties.

A lawsuit filed March 4 by the Western Shoshone National Council in federal district court in Las Vegas seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the plan, as the area has long been held as significant to the Western Shoshone Nation and included within the tribe's boundaries as described in Article 5 of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley.

The United States, U.S. Interior and U.S. Department of Energy are named as defendants, and two people are specifically named: Secretary of Interior Gayle Norton and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

Hearne, co-counsel filing the suit, said the treaty only allows for communities, mining, agriculture and the development of roads and a railroad. A nuclear waste dump would prevent all of this.

''That land would be lost,'' Hearne told Indian Country Today. ''It would be lost for 10,000 years. In other words - it would be lost forever. ''The Western Shoshone are speaking for all of the people of Nevada who do not want this land lost to humans forever.''

Responding to the pattern of nuclear waste dumps on Indian lands, Hearne said, ''Unfortunately we have more human rights violations against Indian people in the United States than there are human rights violations against any people in any of the other countries we accuse of this.'' Hearne said toxic waste dumps on Indian lands reflect the U.S. government's lack of respect for the culture and rights of Indian people.

Western Shoshone National Council Chairman Raymond Yowell said the fact that Indian nations are sovereign and not subject to the same U.S. environmental protection laws as the states has made Indian nations targets for deadly nuclear dumping. Indian nations have also been targeted because of their need to boost their economies, he said.

Yowell warned against the proposal for the temporary nuclear waste dump on Goshute land in Utah. ''Our view is, once they get it there, they will never move it.''

While Goshutes are split on the proposal, he pointed out that some Goshute accepted the U.S. government promise of dollars. ''They offered them money and bought their way in,'' Yowell said.

''High-level nuclear waste must not be stored in the breast of Mother Earth at Yucca Mountain,'' the Council said.

A hearing will be scheduled by the court and could be held as early as the end of March, Western Shoshone said in a written statement.

A federal Energy Department spokesman declined comment.