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GUESTS: George Gage, film makers of “Our Land, Our Life: The Struggle for Western Shoshone Land Rights”

In 1863, the US government signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley, giving the government certain rights over land in Nevada. Two Western Shoshone sisters, Mary and Carrie Dann were raising livestock on ancestral Shoshone lands in Crescent Valley, Nevada. The Dann sisters were the leaders of a traditional Western Shoshone extended-family group. They were sued, under the Treaty of Ruby Valley, by the Bureau of Land Management in 1974 for trespassing, and grazing livestock on public domain land without a permit. Since then they have been fighting a battle for the rights to their land – a fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The struggle of the Dann sisters is documented by two film makers, Beth and George Gage, in a new film called “Our Land, Our Life: The Struggle for Western Shoshone Land Rights” which premieres in Los Angeles County this weekend at Cal State Long Beach.

The film will be screened on March 7th at 8 pm at the Long Beach University Theater at Cal State Long Beach, near the south end of campus off 7th street. Attendees can park in Parking Lot 7.

For more information, visit www.wsdp.org