Native American ranchers, activists and sisters Carrie and Mary Dann spent their lives battling against the federal government’s control of Western Shoshone lands in northeastern Nevada.
The issue was decided against them by the U.S. Supreme Court.
For nearly 50 years, the materials they collected and those from the non-profit Western Shoshone Defense Project were only available to members of the Western Shoshone Nation.
Carrie, now in her 80s and the only surviving sister – Mary died in 2005 – donated a 120-carton collection of documents, ranging from the mid-1960s to 2010, to Special Collections & University Archives in the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center at UNR.
“Because of the extraordinary scope and historical significance of the records for not only Western Shoshone history but also Native American issues concerning the role the U.S. government assumed over their ancestral lands, the collection will appeal to a wide array of researchers who wish to understand the legal, cultural and environmental issues which face indigenous peoples in the West,” said Jacquelyn Sundstrand, Knowledge Center manuscripts and archives librarian. “This is the first manuscript collection of the Western Shoshone we have in Special Collections.”
A grant of more than $77,000 from The National Historical Publications and Records Commission is making it possible to organize and create an online exhibit of the documents.
“With the addition of this collection, we can expand the information and sources related to the three Great Basin tribes in our area: the Paiutes, Shoshones and the Washoe,” Sundstrand said. “We have collections from anthropologists and ethnographers who worked with Paiute and Washoe tribal members and materials from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, but this is a significant contribution from the Western Shoshone. There is an underlying trust issue here for Native Americans particularly because of their history and treatment, and we are grateful to have been entrusted with the safeguarding of this collection and meeting Carrie’s wish that this archive be used for educational purposes.”
SOURCE: UNR.
