[2] In 1863, two years into the American Civil War, the US made the peace Treaty of Ruby Valley with the Western Shoshone, which was to allow US citizens safe passage through their territory, protect Pony Express and other access, and permit mining for gold on their land and future construction of railroads.

In 1982, some tribal members organized the Western Shoshone National Council as a governmental group; they elected Raymond Yowell as chief.

[3] In 1998, BLM issued trespass notices to the Danns and Raymond Yowell, chief of the Western Shoshone Nation, ordering their removal of hundreds of cows and horses from public lands in Eureka County, Nevada.

[3] Carrie and Mary Dann filed a request for urgent action with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

They had been active in the movement to recover millions of acres of land in Nevada and bordering states that originally belonged to the Western Shoshone tribe.

The Dann sisters persuaded the UN of their case, which subsequently ordered the US government to halt all actions against the Western Shoshone people, a mandate which was mostly ignored.

In November 2008 Dann, with members of the Western Shoshone Defense Project and four other tribal and public interest groups, sued in federal court against the US and Canadian Barrick Gold, seeking an injunction to stop the "largest open pit cyanide heap leach gold mines in the United States - the Cortez Hills Expansion Project on Mt.