Shoshone Indians ask for UN intervention.

In an appeal to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Western Shoshone tribe has asked the world body to intervene in a land ownership dispute with the federal government.

The Shoshone petition "challenges the U.S. government's assertion of federal ownership of nearly 90 percent of Western Shoshone lands," reported Indian Country Today on August 19. The dispute involves roughly 60 million acres stretching across Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and California. "The lands include the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste facility and lands targeted for expanded gold extraction," notes the report.

"Our traditional laws tell us we were placed here as caretakers of the land," stated Western Shoshone spokesman Joe Kennedy. "As part of the Western Shoshone Nation, we will not stand idly by and allow the U.S. federal government to cement its hold on our ancestral land base."

Also among the grievances listed by the tribe was the fact that "domestic law allowed the U.S. government to unilaterally abrogate Indian treaties, [a question] to which the United States never provided an answer."

Some--not all--of the Western Shoshones' grievances have merit. Unconstitutional federal control over lands in the western U.S. vexes Americans of all backgrounds, as does Washington's habit of redefining the law and constitutional provisions to suit its whims. If genuine federal accountability and reform are the desired outcome of the petition--as opposed to building precedents for global governance--turning the matter over to the UN is exactly the worst way to proceed.