"With 29 tribes in Washington and five in Idaho, the Pacific Northwest's Native American communities play an essential part in the region's contemporary political and cultural life. There have been a number of significant policy disputes between the federal government, the states and their Native American populations, most notably involving water rights. Long viewed as strictly domestic matters, these issues now reverberate in international law.

The case of the Dann sisters is a poignant example. Mary (now deceased) and Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone Elders, have long sought access to Western Shoshone ancestral lands, including much of present-day Nevada and extending to parts of Idaho, Utah and California. When denied access by the U.S. courts, the Dann sisters continued their struggle as a matter of international human rights law.

In a strongly worded rebuke to the United States in 2002, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (a body of the Organization of American States) found that the inadequate process afforded the Dann sisters by the U.S. Indian Claims Commission constituted a violation of the protections they were owed under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man."

Get the Story:
Russell A. Miller: International law protects Native American interests (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 4/11)

Relevant Links:
Western Shoshone Defense Project - http://www.wsdp.org
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cerd.htm

Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act:
Bill Report | H.R.884 | S.618

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