Carrie Dann
(c. 1925-)

Western Shoshone Elder
1993 Right Livelihood Award Winner

birthdate: ?
birthplace:
Crescent Valley (Newe Sogobia), Nevada

Carrie Dann is a Western Shoshone elder who, together with her sister, has been at the forefront of the battle to save the Shoshone ancestral lands in Nevada and bordering states. Despite a treaty signed by the US government in 1868 guaranteeing the Shoshone rights to their territory, more than 90% of their lands have been taken away since then. Gold mining has destroyed some of the land and more than 950 nuclear bombs were tested on Shoshone land in Nevada against the wishes of the Shoshone. In 1973, sisters Carrie and Mary Dann were fined for allowing their livestock to graze near their ranch in the Crescent Valley, Nevada; they argued that they were grazing on Shoshone land, which was a right guaranteed under the 1868 treaty. They have been fighting with the US government, the nuclear industry and international gold mining corporations through legal action and nonviolent civil disobedience ever since for their right and the rights of the Western Shoshone to maintain their way of life on their ancestral lands. After her sister died in an accident in 2005, Carrie continues this struggle for her people. Carrie and Mary Dann received the 1993 Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize, "...for exemplary courage and perseverance in asserting the rights of indigenous people to their land."

Kids | Youth | Adults | Calendar | Quotes | Heroes | Stories | The EMILY Fund | Scholarships
DO ONE THING and BetterWorld Kids Clubs are projects of The EMILY Fund (The Emily Silverstein Fund, Inc.)
Hero portraits are included for illustration purposes only - no celebrity endorsement implied

The Emily Fund
Education, Mentorship, Inspiration, Leadership, Youth
- for a Better
World

PO Box 430
Roosevelt, NJ 08555-0430
info@EmilyFund.org