History

Time Line of Invasion and Appropriation

1861 – 1865 American Civil War.
1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley.
1917 Western Shoshone man wins caught case against conscription in the US Army on the basis that the Western Shoshone never agreed to fight for the US government.
1930s New Deal sees building of substandard accommodation, education and medical provision on Western Shoshone Reservations. 1933/34 Pauline Esteves’ father removes her from the Indian School due to their abuse of Native children.
1940s the US starts exploding atomic bombs on Western Shoshone land.
1962 the first British nuclear weapon is detonated on Western Shoshone land, transferring from over ground bombing in the Pacific.
1970s Indian Reorganisation Act states that the Western Shoshone have lost their right to the land (1979) and allocates compensation to another government department on behalf of the Western Shoshone. Western Shoshone considered as trespassers.
1970s Western Shoshone traditionalists take a stand against US government attempts to extinguish their land rights. Chief Raymond Yowell steps forwards.
1980s Minuteman Missile system planned to be sited on Western Shoshone land by reservations in Northern Nevada.
1980s High Level Nuclear Waste Repository planned for Yucca Mountain on Western Shoshone land, spent US$15 billion before stopped work as couldn’t prove title to the land.
1990 British activists from Greenham Common / Bristol delay a British nuclear weapons’ test.
1991 the last British nuclear bomb (Julin-Bristol) is detonated underground on Western Shoshone land.
1992 Western Shoshone speaking tour in the UK (Pauline Esteves and Heidi Blackeye).
1992 Western Shoshone start issuing their own passports.
1993 Women from Greenham break into the grounds of Buckingham Palace to demand that the Queen stops the war on the Western Shoshone.
Western Shoshone elder Bill Rosse speaks at the court hearing and other speaking engagements in the UK.
1998 Lois Whitney speaks at the Rio Tinto Zinc AGM in London and visits open cast mine in Bristol.
2000 Timbisha Band regain control (with conditions) over a large part of Death Valley/ Timbisha.
2004 Western Shoshone Distribution Act.
2006 the Western Shoshone make a presentation to the UN which issues a formal request for the US government to stop any further actions against the Western Shoshone people and efforts to privatise their lands and to initiate dialogue with the Western Shoshone.
2020 High level plutonium waste secretly shipped to Nevada Test Site.
2021 a planning application in Arkansas suggests that the transitional nuclear waste plant collecting nuclear waste from small scale nuclear power plants will be permanently depositing the waste at Yucca Mountain.