Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada

The Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada is a federally recognized tribe of Western Shoshone and Northern Paiute Indians in northwestern Nevada.[1][2]

Reservation

The Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada has a reservation at 40°57′58″N 117°43′41″W in Humboldt County, Nevada. The reservation was established on June 18, 1917, and comprises two parcels of land, 20 acres (0.081 km2) enclosed within the urban area of the City of Winnemucca centered on Cinnabar Street, and 320 acres (1.3 km2) of rural land on the southern edge of the city west of Water Canyon Road. In 1990, 17 tribal members lived on the reservation.[2]

Recent history

The Winnemucca Indian Colony joined non-Natives from Utah in suing the United States to prevent the detonation of 700 tons of explosives at the Nevada Test Site, which is on ancestral Western Shoshone lands. In the 1940s, members of the tribe had been forcibly removed from their lands, which were taken over by the Nevada Test Site, where nuclear bombs were tested from 1951 to 1993. The tribe considers the removal and subsequent nuclear weapons testing on their lands as a violation of the 1863 Western Shoshone Treaty of Ruby Valley.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights ruled on March 10, 2006 that the lands belonged to the Winnemucca Indian Colony and other Western Shoshone tribes.[3] The USA does not recognise the competence of the Committee to hear complaints from individuals about violations of the rights protected by the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Today

The Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada's tribal headquarters is located in Winnemucca, Nevada. Judy Rojo is the Tribal Chairman recognized by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.[1][4] The tribe is governed by a five-person tribal council.[2]

Notable Winnemucca
  • Chief Winnemucca
  • Sarah Winnemucca, she published the first autobiography by a Native American woman, Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (1883), considered "one of the most enduring ethno-historical books written by an American Indian."[5]

Notes
  1. "Winnemucca Indian Colony". Tribal Directory. National Congress of American Indians. Retrieved 13 Feb 2014.
  2. Winnemucca Colony Council (5 March 1971). "Constitution and Bylaws of the Winnemucca Indian Colony Nevada" (pdf). Harrison Loesch, Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Retrieved 13 Feb 2014.
  3. Norrell, Brenda. "Western Shoshone and others file suit to halt detonation", Indian Country Today. 27 April 2006 (retrieved 9 Dec 2009)
  4. "Tribal Leaders and BIA Servicing Offices - Western Region" (pdf). Tribal Leaders Directory. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Fall–Winter 2013. Retrieved 13 Feb 2014.
  5. Omer Stewart, Review: "Gae Whitney Canfield, 'Sarah Winnemucca of the Northern Paiutes', Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma, 1983", Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 5(2), 1983, accessed 12 February 2014

References
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