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
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