U.N. Committee Censures U.S. Policy Toward Shoshone Indians

Last week (March 10, 2006), the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination ("CERD") issued an ''Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure'' (full text) strongly criticizing United States policy toward the Western Shoshone Indian tribe. The federal government, which claims that the Shoshone's lands became public lands after the tribe's title was extinguished, interferes with the tribe's using various ancestral lands for religious and cultural activities. The government says that the Shoshone tribe has twice approved a settlement with the government. The action by the U.N. body has been covered in articles in the Salt Lake Tribune, Indian Country Today, and Spero News.