The Yucca site is on unceded land and is nuclear colonialism.

<The main theme in the various public comments submitted by American Indian people is the value of land, specifically the spiritual rights to Yucca Mountain. The US claims that the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site is located on federally controlled land (NTS, Nellis Air force Base, and BLM), but this is contested by Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute nations who claim treaty-based and spiritual rights to the land. The Western Shoshone lay claim to Yucca Mountain under the 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty of Peace and Friendship.56 At a public hearing in Pahrump, Nevada, Corbin Harney indicates that, ‘‘the land that you guys are talking about, the DOE, we still haven’t heard from the federal government or the state that they own the land. Under the Treaty of 1863, we still own it under your federal law.’’57 Yucca Mountain is just one site of an ongoing struggle by the Western Shoshone for their land rights. Based on Supreme Court rulings and laws that argue that the Western Shoshone lost their treaty rights due to the gradual encroachment of westward settlers, the federal government disputes the Western Shoshone claim to the land.58 Employing the discourse of colonialism, the US claims that the Western Shoshone lost their treaty rights through an International Claims Commission (ICC) ruling. However, the Western Shoshone contest the government’s interpretation, citing their treaty and a technical loophole that Congress never actually filed a finality clause for the ICC ruling.59 The Western Shoshone case for land ownership is bolstered by two U.N. commission rulings that conclude that the US claim to Western Shoshone lands violates international human rights law.60 In addition to claims of land ownership, members of the Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute nations argue that Yucca Mountain is part of their traditional homeland that holds cultural, spiritual, and resource value. Members of the Las Vegas Paiute, the Lone Pine Paiute Shoshone, the Big Pine Paiute, the Western Shoshone National Council, Western Shoshone, and the Utah Paiute all comment that Yucca Mountain has been part of their homeland since ‘‘time immemorial.’’61 At a public hearing in Las Vegas, Southern Paiute Edward Smith suggests the following about the sacredness of Yucca Mountain: Unfortunately, the laws of the United States overlook that our own landscape is dotted with equally important American Indian religious sites that have served as cornerstones for indigenous religion since time immemorial. The Forest Service, the Park Service, and private interests have been allowed repeatedly to destroy irreplaceable Native sacred sites.65 Therefore, American Indian spiritual claims to land are often overlooked in favor of competing corporate or national interests.>