alcoholism, that particularly plague the Indian
community, it also includes resources on traditional
Indian healing practices.
July 17
President George W. Bush signs a law calling
for Western Shoshone land payment.
More than 50 years after the Indian Claims Com-
mission decided the Western Shoshone were entitled
to compensation for 26 million acres of their ances-
tral lands (see entry for 1962), the president signs a
bill that will pay the tribe more than $145 million.
Most of the 6,000 tribe members support the law,
believing that the return of the land is now impossi-
ble. However, internationally known activists Mary
and Carrie Dann (see entry for FEBRUARY 10, 1985)
vow to continue their battle for their restoration of
their homeland. After Mary Dann’s death in a ranch
accident in 2005, Carrie Dann will continue to lead
this fight on her own.
September 7 to 11
Cherokee leaders perform healing ceremony
at massacre site.
Several Cherokee spiritual leaders come to the site
of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (see entry for
SEPTEMBER 11, 1857) to perform a ceremony in-
tended to bring peace to those killed. During the
1857 massacre, 120 non-Indian men, women, and
children were slaughtered. Although Paiute Indians
were long blamed for the murders, many schol-
ars now believe Mormon pioneers were largely to
blame. One of the ceremony’s organizers, Raine
Bowen, explains, “We’re looking to bring a blessing
for the dead and to settle their energies.”
September 8
Two men are sentenced to prison for
stealing Indian petroglyphs.
John Ligon and Carroll Mizell of Van Nuys, Califor-
nia, head to prison after being convicted of stealing
rocks carved with petroglyphs from Humboldt-
Toiyabe National Forest. The petroglyphs, which
include drawings of a sheep, a lizard, and an archer,
were created by American Indians approximately
one thousand years ago. During the trial, the defen-
dants claimed that they had no way of knowing the
petroglyphs were government property since there
were no signs marking the site. A Forest Service
archaeologist testifies that labeling the site would
“draw increased visitation and potential vandalism
to the petroglyphs.” (See entry for MARCH 2006.)September 17 to 18American Indians hold a powwow in Iraq.
On the Taqaddum Air Base near Fallujah, American
Indians serving throughout Iraq gather for the first
Indian powwow held in that country. The event is
hosted by the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion,
a National Guard unit from Oklahoma. About 20
percent of the 120th’s soldiers are of Indian descent.
During the two-day powwow, participants beat a
drum made from an oil drum topped with a can-
vas cot cover. They also play stickball and stage a
tomahawk-throwing contest, with tomahawks cob-
bled together from the metal of old truck doors.September 21The National Museum of the American
Indian opens in Washington, D.C.
A crowd of more than 80,000 people come to-
gether on the National Mall to celebrate the grand
opening of the National Museum of the American
Indian. The festivities begin with the Native Na-
tions Procession, during which 25,000 Indians
from 500 tribes walk from the Smithsonian Institu-
tion toward the Capitol Building. The procession is
the largest gathering of American Indians in mod-
ern history. The ceremony includes a presentation
by the Hopi Honor Guard in honor of fallen soldier
Lori Piestewa (see entry for MARCH 23, 2003) and
speeches by Ben Nighthorse Campbell (see entry
for 1992), the Northern Cheyenne senator from
Colorado, and W. Richard West, Jr., the museum’s
director and a member of the Southern Cheyenne