Differing Shoshone Bills Being Debated in Congress 

by Cory McConnell
www.lahontanvalleynews.com
08 June 2004

One month after shifting his support to a Senate bill that would distribute money long ago awarded to Western Shoshones, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons is back to pushing his own version of a similar bill.

Gibbons had put his support behind U.S. Sen. Harry Reid's Western Shoshone Distribution Claim Act in hopes of overcoming opposition from House Democrats.

Money doled out to Western Shoshone, about $20,000 to $30,000 per person depending on how many prove to be eligible tribal members, would be exempt from income tax under Reid's version of the bill. The Senate bill would also ensure accepting the money will not affect recipients' ability to get federal aid, such as food stamps or student funding.

Those attributes, however, make the bill revenue related and "revenue-related bills have to start off in the House," said Gibbon's spokesperson Amy Spanbauer.

The congressman will now focus on passing his own version of the bill, Spanbauer said.

Gibbon's version has been stymied in the House since making it out of committee eight months ago while Reid's version sailed unscathed through the Senate.

Several similar measures have been introduced in recent years but none have overcome opposition from those who want land rather than money. Last year, Reid's distribution proposal died in a backlog of unfinished Senate business.

Fallon-area Shoshone member Nancy Stewart, who heads a steering committee geared toward getting the long-held funds released, said that opposition force is a vocal minority passing itself off as the majority.

"They are ranching interests for the most part," Stewart said.

A straw poll was conducted on Western Shoshone reservations around the west in 2002 to gauge the desires of the people and 92 percent voted in favor of taking the money that the Indian Claims Commission awarded them in 1977 for some 60 million acres lost to settlers and the U.S. government over the last couple centuries.

The 1977 award has ballooned with interest from $26 million, when it was funded by Congress in 1979, to about $144 million today.

Cory McConnell can be contacted at cmcconnell@lahontanvalleynews.com 

       


Reprinted as an historical reference document under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html