American Outrage

Two feisty Western Shoshone sisters put up a heroic fight for their land rights - and their human rights. Carrie and Mary Dann endure terrifying roundups by armed federal marshals in which thousands of their horses and cattle are confiscated, for the crime of grazing them on the open range outside their private ranch - even though that range is part of 60 million acres recognized as Western Shoshone land by the U.S. After the government sued them for trespassing, their dispute went to the Supreme Court, and eventually the United Nations. Why has the U.S. spent millions persecuting and prosecuting two elderly women grazing a few hundred horses and cows in a desolate desert? The Dann sisters say the real reason is the resources hidden beneath this seemingly barren land, their Mother Earth: it is the second largest gold producing area in the world.