The Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada is a federally recognized tribe of Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone Indians in western Nevada.[1]
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The Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada has a reservation at in Humboldt County, Nevada. The reservation was established in 1971 and is 340 acres (1.4 km2) large. In 1990, 17 tribal members lived on the reservation.[1]
The Winnemucca Indian Colony joined non-Natives from Utah in suing the United States to prevent the detonation of 700 tons of explosives at the Nevada Test Site, which is on ancestral Western Shoshone lands. Members of the tribe had been forcibly removed from their lands on the Nevada Test Site, where nuclear bombs were tested from 1951 to 1993. The removal and subsequent nuclear weapons testing is seen by the tribe as a violation of the 1863 Western Shoshone Treaty of Ruby Valley. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights ruled on March 10, 2006 that the lands belonged to the Winnemucca Indian Colony and other Western Shoshone tribes.[2] The USA does not recognise the competence of the Committee to hear complaints from individuals about violations of the rights protected by the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada's tribal headquarters is located in Winnemucca, Nevada. Linda Ayer is the Tribal Chairperson.[3] The tribe is governed by a five-person tribal council.[1]