Tragic News: Mary Dann, of the activists Dann Sisters dies ...

[NVMojo]

Press Release from the Western Shoshone Defense Project:

Western Shoshone Grandmother Mary Dann Has Passed One

April 23, 2005. Crescent Valley, Nevada (Newe Sogobia). 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. 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. Mary is survived by her sister, Carrie Dann, her grandchildren, her greatgrandchildren, her nieces, and nephews and her two brothers, Richard and Clifford and many, many more relatives and friends. Mary was an honorable, incredible woman who inspired people through her quiet strength and unwavering faith in the Creator.

Mary Dann will be sorely missed but she will never be forgotten.

Service arrangements are being determined by the family.

_____________________________________________________________________

I will have a link soon. This is just breaking. Mary and her sister, Carrie, Dann are famous for taking their issues before the UN and other world wide groups to fight for indigenous rights against filthy rich corporations such as mining industry pals of the Republican Party in the USA. Their most recent battle with the BLM was over the culturally sensitive Horse Canyon area of Mount Tenabo at Crescent Valley over drilling permits filed by Placer Dome mining in what is pegged to be one of the richest gold claim areas in the USA, boasting to be bigger than the nearby Carlin Trend that has kept the economy of northern Nevada going since the late 1980s.

_________________________________________________________________

Saturday, April 23, 2005

We have received word that late yesterday evening(Friday, April 22) a tragic ATV accident has occured at the Dann Ranch in Crescent Valley, Nevada that has taken the life of Mary Dann.

Carrie and Mary Dann are known world wide in their struggle against the United States Government and the Bureau of Land Management.

We are awaiting further details and will post information as it arrives.

Larry Kibby
Elko Indian Colony
Elko, Nevada 89801

_____________________________________________________________________

http://www.wsdp.org/

http://www.angelfire.com/nv2/wells/danns.html


Mary is the one on the right in this photo...

Whose Land Is It Anyway?
by Phyllis Raybin Emert
Imagine being in your "golden years" and having the U.S. government bring a lawsuit against you for trespassing on land that you believe is yours, land that has been in your family for as long as you can remember.

That is what the Dann sisters, American Indians who live in Nevada, contend happened to them. Carrie, 70, and Mary, 80, live on their ranch near Crescent Valley, Nevada, much as their Western Shoshone ancestors did more than 100 years ago. They have no electricity or hot water. Their cattle and horses graze freely on the surrounding land and they raise their own food, making money from the sale of their livestock.

The Dann sisters have been waging a battle with the federal government since 1972 over property rights. In 1974, the U.S. brought an action against them in federal court for trespassing. The Danns claim the land in question is part of their ancestral home. The government declared that it is public land and said the sisters must pay a fee and obtain a permit to allow their cattle to graze. The Danns' argument of ownership was rejected in district court; however, the Court of Appeals reversed the district court's decision and ruled in favor of the Danns. The government brought the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the Court of Appeals decision. The Danns, however, have still refused to pay for a permit, stating that their ancestors never signed papers giving the land to the government.

Over the years, the sisters have been fined a total of $3 million for trespassing and $50,000 in other fees. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has seized hundreds of the Danns' cattle and horses and sold them at auction to help pay off their debt. Yet the Danns have stood firm.

"Trespass?" Mary Dann asked The New York Times. "Who…gave them the land anyway?"

The Treaty of Ruby Valley

The Western Shoshone Indians once occupied almost two-thirds of the land that is now the state of Nevada. There are numerous decentralized tribes within the Western Shoshone nations, the biggest of which are the Temoak Shoshone Band, the Ely Shoshone Band and the Yomba Shoshone Band.

The U.S. government and the Western Shoshone signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley in 1863. This treaty of peace and friendship ended hostilities with the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians. It also guaranteed safe passage by rail, stage and on horseback for white settlers through Shoshone country and provided for the establishment of military posts, mining camps, ranches, farms, mills and other outposts. The government also set aside reservations where the Indians would live when they, according to the treaty, "agreed to abandon the roaming life…and become herdsmen or agriculturists."

Today, much of the controversy centers on the question of when the Shoshone ancestral land became the property of the U.S. government. The Dann sisters argue that they have hunted, grazed and occupied this land "since time immemorial" and that the Treaty of Ruby Valley, which never specifically gave ownership of Shoshone land to the U.S. government, is still in effect. They claim that the U.S. has steadily taken over parts of the ancestral lands to the benefit of the government and non-Indians. The Danns also contend that the use of this land was "undisturbed and unchallenged until the early 1970s," when the Department of the Interior began to issue fines for grazing and trespassing on public lands.

more...

http://www.njsbf.com/njsbf/student/respect/spring03-1.cfm

[Zorra]

1. Another liberal activist lost to tragedy. So sad.

We are losing a lot of good people.

Seems to be occurring on a very frequent basis these days.

[LostinVA]

2. Thsi absolutely sucks -- she was a great woman. n/t

[glitch]

3. Maybe they're being reincarnated as we speak.

Gotta regenerate sometime. At least, that's the way I like to look at our loss. Our loss the future's gain? Maybe!
Or, maybe their strong and profound spirits are needed in the spirit world, to help guide our material world through the coming hard times.

My condolences to her family.

[NVMojo]

4. Shoshone activist Mary Dann dies in ranch accident

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Activist Mary Dann, who with her sister Carrie helped represent the Shoshone Nation in its effort to reclaim 60 million acres they claim as their ancestral land, has died in an accident on her rural central Nevada ranch.

Mary Dann apparently had an accident on an all terrain vehicle while she was repairing fence on the Crescent Valley ranch Friday night, according to Julie Fishel of the Western Shoshone Defense Project. Fishel said Mary Dann was in her 80s.

Carrie Dann's daughter, Patricia Paul, said her aunt "died as she would have wanted - with her boots on and hay in her pocket."

For more than a quarter century, the Dann sisters have been at the forefront of efforts to reclaim a vast tract spreading across four states, including mining royalties from gold-rich eastern Nevada, which they claim is their aboriginal land seized by the United States under a treaty enacted two years before the end of the Civil War.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2005/apr/23/042310581.html

[Cha]

5. So many really good people are

leaving this Planet..while others continue to stay and wreck havoc.

RIP Mary Dann! O8)

[NVMojo]

7. The Western Shoshone believe that when they die, they go back to

become one with their Mother Earth and the animals and all of life ...

This woman was truly an "innocent" in many ways. I was at a meeting with the head of the BLM out here, Bob Abbey, and about 60 Western Shoshone/Te-Moak Tribe members, the Western Shoshone Defense Project and Great Basin Mine Watch over their recent complaint against the BLM/Placer Dome mine drilling plan. I watched her and I kept feeling she was going to pass on soon ...I was never expecting this.

She would just sit there and smile and smile in a very peaceful way ...she was a treasure....and she and her sister, Carrie, despise George Bush and the neocons.

[Cha]

9. THanks for the

further info on the Shoshone and the Danns! :)

What an inspirational life!

[soleft]

6. Tempted to almost wonder if the rapture's taking place

:shrug:

Maybe it's taking place all the time, not that I'm in any hurry or anything. Knock on formica.

[TroglodyteScholar]

8. :( n/t

[bemildred]

10. She is still here. nt

[LeftyMom]

11. That's too bad

I was just in Crescent Valley last weekend for a funeral. It's beautiful country, I don't blame her at all for fighting to defend her share of it and the horses she and her sister kept.

[Moderator]

12. NVMojo

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[Piperay]

13. How convenient

for the repigs, don't know the particulars but wonder how much of an 'accident' it was.:tinfoilhat: Actually I'm sure it probably was just an unfortunate accident but it seems like the repigs are so lucky with 'troublemakers' eventually ending up out of the way.