Western Shoshone elder Carrie Dann passes on to the Spirit World
Carrie Dann on her land in 1993, as posted by the Right Livelihood FoundationA giant, a living legend, of Indigenous rights activism and leadership, has passed on. It is with sad hearts that we share the news that Western Shoshone elder Carrie Dann (1932-2021) passed on to the Spirit World on January 2, 2021.
This Is Reno reported Carrie Dann's passing.
Brenda Norrell has published a tribute, entitled "Carrie Dann in Her Own Words."
Carrie Dann, along with her sister, Mary Dann (1923-2005), helped lead the Western Shoshone Nation's fight to protect their homeland, Newe Sogobia, against many threats, including nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site (now named the Nevada National Security Site), and high-level radioactive waste dumping at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
Ian Zabarte, Carrie Dann, and Bob Fulkerson, 2019. Photo by Holly Woodward. Used with permission.Carrie Dann also spoke out against MRS (Monitored Retrievable Storage), now called CIS (Consolidated Interim Storage), whether targeted at Yucca Mountain, or at scores of Native American reservations across the U.S., such as at the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah.
(See a 2019 photo of Carrie Dann, with Ian Zabarte and Bob Fulkerson, left. Ian Zabarte is Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians, Secretary of the Native Community Action Council (NCAC), and recipient of Beyond Nuclear's 2020 Dr. Judith H. Johnsrud "Unsung Hero" Award; Bob Fulkerson founded Citizen Alert of Nevada, which fostered NCAC, and helped lead the grassroots "Nevada Is Not a [Nuclear] Wasteland" resistance for decades.)
The Dann Sisters' tireless defense of their land and grazing rights in Crescent Valley, Nevada -- such as against ever encroaching open pit gold mining -- under the 1863 "peace and friendship" Treaty of Ruby Valley (Consolidated Treaty Series, Vol. 127), began in 1973, went before the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Dann, and continued their entire lives.
Mary Dann in foreground, Carrie Dann in background, on their land in 1993, as posted by the Right Livelihood FoundationThe Danns' Indigenous rights struggles on behalf of the Western Shoshone Nation and their Newe Sogobia homeland garnered international renown; Carrie Dann was a highly sought after speaker, not only across the U.S., but also overseas.
Although the U.S. government has consistently violated Western Shoshone treaty rights, the Danns never gave up. (Just one example of the U.S. federal government's trampling of the Danns' land and Western Shoshone treaty rights were several violent roundups of Dann cattle and horses, beginning in 1992.) The Danns went on to help win numerous major victories in more just international forums, including at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (see numerous citations about the Danns in this report, for example), and others. The Danns' cutting edge, successful Indigenous rights work took them across the continent, and around the world.
Carrie and Mary Dann's leadership in the defense of their Indigenous land and lifeways was honored around the world as well, as by their 1993 Right Livelihood Award. The award, honoring and supporting "courageous people solving global problems," is widely regarded as the "Alternative Nobel Prize." The Dann Sisters' Right Livelihood Award was given in honor of their "exemplary courage and perseverance in asserting the rights of indigenous people to their land." See their Dec. 31, 1993 acceptance speech, and an accompanying Oxfam short documentary film, "Our Land, Our Life," about the Dann Sisters' lifelong work (click on the Videos tab).
Mary (left) and Carrie Dann, on their land in Crescent Valley, Nevada, 1993, as posted by the Right Livelihood Foundation(The same filmmakers, Beth Gage and George Gage, published a longer documentary in 2008, "American Outrage," about the Dann Sisters' story.)
See photos of Mary and Carrie Dann on their land, posted at their Right Livelihood Award Laureates website, here (as well as featured on the left hand side of this post).
The Dann Sisters were also honored in 2004 by Front Line -- The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (see Pages 31 to 43 (page 41 of 197 to 53 of 197 on the PDF counter) in this report). Carrie Dann travelled to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to be honored at the report's unveiling.
The Dann Sisters' deep and broad impact on thought and culture, as well as the inspiration and leadership they have provided to Indigneous rights defenders, as well as their non-Indigenous allies, cannot be overstated. In addition to what's listed above, the documentary, "Newe Segobia Is Not For Sale: The Struggle for Western Shoshone Land," by Jesse Drew, was published in 1993, featuring the Dann Sisters. Carrie 
A 1979 photo, by Ilka Hartmann, of Mary (on horseback) and Carrie Dann, on their land in Crescent Valley, Nevada, as posted by the Right Livelihood FoundationDann is also highlighted in the documentary "To Protect Mother Earth." The Dann Sisters were also featured in Jerry Mander's 1991 book In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. Also, see a 2014 AlterNet article, contrasting the Danns' Indigenous land and treaty rights struggle with that of the greedy, infamous, far right, white Nevadan rancher Cliven Bundy. Unsurprisingly, the Danns' life work has even inspired a lengthy law review article about Indigenous women-led resistance against oppression and dispossession. These are but a few of countless examples of the Danns' remarkable impact, here and abroad.
Carrie Dann deserves our heartfelt thanks for her lifelong defense of Mother Earth, on behalf of current and future generations. May she rest in peace and power.
admin