Smokin' Ace

© Indian Country Today April 25, 2005. All Rights Reserved
Posted: April 25, 2005
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today


CRESCENT VALLEY (NEWE SOGOBIA), Nev. - Western Shoshone Mary Dann, upholder of Shoshone treaty rights and ardent resister to exploitive U.S. federal policies, has died as a result of a ranch accident.

''With very heavy hearts, we regret to inform you that yesterday evening, April 22, 2005, Mary Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother and life-long activist passed away,'' said Julie Fishel of the Western Shoshone Defense Project.

''Mary was killed in an accident while working on her family's ranch. She died as she would have wanted - with her boots on and hay in her pocket,'' said Carrie Dann's daughter, Patricia Paul.

Mary Dann is survived by her sister, Carrie Dann; two brothers, Richard and Clifford Dann; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews.

As hundreds of e-mails and phone calls poured into the ranch expressing condolences and prayers, Carrie Dann spoke of the life cycle and return to the earth.

''We want to let people know that we are doing OK and we will be strong. There was a three-day visitation for Mary beginning on Friday evening,'' Carrie Dann told Indian Country Today on April 24.

''Her body will be cremated and her ashes released to become part of the earth and nurture her and nurture life, as it was meant to be.

You must remember she [Mary] came from the earth and she is returning back to the arms of her mother, the earth. She has completed the cycle. This Earth Mother will cradle her forever. The wind will carry her body in all four directions ... Those of us remaining here in the physical world ... must be strong - stronger now for those who have passed ahead of us and those who are yet to come. Mary believed in living her life for the protection of her family, the life - the sacred [the land, air, water and sun] and for the future generations.

''We must remember that Mary stood proud, strong, dignified [and] respectful against all types of racial discrimination, [and the] desecration of her spiritual ways by the [Bureau of Land Management and] Department of Interior ... She stood up against the mining industry, the nuclear industry, the energy industry.

''Mary never took 'no' for an answer but she stood her ground for what she believed in and for the truth. Not because she wanted to, but because she had to. I will continue to do this, even with my sister gone. I believe in these things also.

''We must always remember the future generations and protect the sacred things so that the little ones coming behind us will be OK. The struggle will go on,'' Carrie Dann said.

In the struggle to maintain Western Shoshone rights to aboriginal lands secured by the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863, ranchers Mary and Carrie Dann fought against gold mining on aboriginal lands, the controversial nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, the war in Iraq and the oppression of indigenous peoples throughout the world.

In February 2003 BLM agents confiscated and sold hundreds of the Danns' horses. The Dann sisters remained steadfast in their resistance to the Interior's continued pressure to remove them and their livestock from their homeland.

The Dann sisters carried their rights struggle all the way to the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

Among the first to respond to Mary Dann's tragic death was Steve Melendez, Pyramid Lake Paiute and president of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston.

''The Native community has truly lost a treasure in Mary Dann. Her clarity of mind and purpose can and should be emulated by our young people and our leaders alike. Her steadfast resolve to stand up for Native rights in the face of seemingly insurmountable opposition is what set her apart,'' Melendez said.

''Greater love is seldom seen than that a person should dedicate their life for the good of her people, and for the future generations yet to come. We can all look at her life and be proud to be Indian.

''Mary Dann looked back at history and seemed to say, 'The injustice stops here.' By her actions, Mary Dann seemed to say, 'I am tired of having my people be the object of 500 years of propaganda, the sole purpose of which is to dehumanize, criminalize and subliminally justify genocide.'''

Melendez remembered Mary Dann's words to the BLM when agents first accused her of trespassing on her own ranch land. Mary told them, ''We're not going to pay you for the grazing of our cows on our own land.''

The Danns' resistance began when they were teenagers. They refused the United States' offer of money for aboriginal Shoshone land and never conceded to U.S. claims that Shoshone land had been bought and paid for.

During the past year, Mary and Carrie Dann challenged the Department of Interior decision to open spiritual and cultural areas in Horse Canyon to further gold mining by Cortez Gold Mines.

Horse Canyon, located in the center of Western Shoshone territory and adjacent to the sacred Mount Tenabo, is in the same area where the Danns' horses were seized.

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