Human Rights and American Indian Land Claims

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The Native Americans have been subject to the westward process of settlement since the US government forced them to part with their land. This policy has expanded the territorial base of the federal government to the detriment of the indigenous people's rights. For the Western Shoeshone, it was the Treaty of Ruby Valley 1863, which the USA has abrogated by annexing the Newe Segobia, that not all the tribe had sanctioned. The Dann band challenged this as an affront to human rights, and the Organisation of American States gave a landmark preliminary judgment in their favour in 2004, which the USA has rejected.