By invoking the Treaty to justify their actions, the BLM provides a good opportunity to discuss the Treaty as an agreement between sovereign nations. Mills may be erected and timber taken for their use, as also for building or other purposes in any part of the country claimed by said bands. As illustrated above, one of the rights granted to the U.S. by the Western Shoshone Nation was permission to mine on their lands. One might assume then that the proposed exploratory drilling is permitted under the Treaty. Yet, such an assumption is contrary to established treaty law.
Treaties are agreements between sovereign, independent nations.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that treaties are to be interpreted as the native peoples would have understood them at the time of signing. The Western Shoshone in no way agreed to the scale, intensity or form of modern open pit heap leach gold mining. It also applies only to U.S. Federal land. To this date, the U.S. has not proven how they acquired legal title to Western Shoshone land. It should be understood that these treaties do not give rights to Native Americans, they grant certain rights to the United States and its citizens.