Ox Sam Grandmother: Paiute Shoshone have right to hold ceremony at Pee'zuh

Ox Sam Grandmother: Paiute Shoshone have right to hold ceremony at Pee'zuh

By Ox Sam Camp

Censored News

May 27, 2023

Despite being threatened by Lithium Nevada with trespass for accessing her own sacred grounds, Fort McDermitt Grandmother Josephine (Sam) Dick is holding ceremony at her traditional sacred site Pee'zuh (Nipple Rock).

Grandma is a direct descendant and founder of Ox Sam Camp (named after Ox Sam who survived a massacre by the US Nevada Soldiers in 1865). The Grandmothers welcome those who come in a good way to stand in ceremony with them; the BLM and Department of Interior granted this big corporation a permit to destroy this land.

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The Paiute Shoshone people have an inalienable right to hold ceremony here.

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (42 U.S.C § 1996) states that it is “the policy of the United States to protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions of the American Indian...including but not limited to access to sites, use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through ceremonials and traditional rites.”

Executive Order No. 13007, Indian Sacred Sites

“In managing Federal lands, each executive branch agency with statutory or administrative responsibility for the management of Federal lands shall, to the extent practicable, permitted by law, and not clearly inconsistent with essential agency functions:

1. accommodate access to and ceremonial use of Indian sacred sites by Indian religious practitioners and

2. avoid adversely affecting the physical integrity of such sacred sites.”