Corbin Harney (March 24, 1920 – July 10, 2007) was an elder and

spiritual leader Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrine Doctrine (from la, Wikt:doct ...

of the Newe (

Western Shoshone Western Shoshone comprise several Shoshone tribes that are Native Americans in the United States, indigenous to the Great Basin and have lands identified in the Treaty of Ruby Valley 1863. They resided in Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah. The tr ...

) people. Harney reportedly inspired the creation in 1994 of the Shundahai Network, which works for

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justice ...

and

nuclear disarmament Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: * Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space * Nucle ...

. The Shundahai Network plays a key role in organizing non-violent

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a stat ...

aimed at bringing about the closure of the

Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the ...

, used for testing nuclear weapons, which is located on Western Shoshone land. 330-PS-3322 (16691009184)

Early life

Harney's formal education ended when he ran away from Indian boarding school at the age of nine. He felt that his schoolmates were mistreated by their teachers Beginning in 1957, he worked with medicine women of

Battle Mountain, Nevada Battle Mountain is an unincorporated town in and the county seat of Lander County, Nevada, United States. The population was 3,635 at the 2010 census. Its primary economic base is gold mining and, to a lesser extent, legalized gambling. The t ...

, running the Sundance Ceremony and sweat lodges as well as helping sick people. As a medicine person, he also worked steadily to preserve and protect the sacred sites and

burial grounds A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

of his people. He was raised to view all life as

sacred Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or godd ...

Work and activism

Harney devoted his life to working to save the land on which his people have survived for thousands of years. The

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

has exploded more than 1,000

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

s at the

, which is located on Western Shoshone land from the Treaty of Ruby Valley (1863). Harney spent most of his time travelling around the world spreading a message about the dangers of

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity *Nuclear binding energy Nuclear binding energy in experimental physics is the minimum energy that is required t ...

and nuclear weapons . In 1989, Harney visited the former Soviet hydrogen bomb testing site in Semipalatinsk

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

. He reported that he saw victims of the radiation in hospitals that he visited, people who lived close to the Russian nuclear test site. Harney talked about the

contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination ...

of water in his writings and speeches. He said:" I didn't really understand what I was told until I went to

in Russia Kazakhstan is where Russia tested hydrogen bombs for many years. Over there I saw water that looks like clean water, but people can't drink it because it is contaminated with radiation ... e

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

put all the living things here for us to take care of, not to destroy them." In 1994 he founded the Shundahai Network ("shundahai" translates to "peace and harmony with all creation") where he remained as board chair until his death. In 2003 received the International Nuclear Free Future Solutions award. Harney's experiences with victims of the nuclear weapons testing, particularly the "

Downwinders Downwinders were individuals and communities in the intermountain area between the Cascade and Rocky Mountain ranges primarily in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah but also in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho who were exposed to radioactive conta ...

" of the Western United States, gave credibility to his words. Downwinders refers to the US citizens that were downwind from the atomic bomb tests in Nevada. Harney was a keynote speaker at the Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Conference in 2001, in Nagasaki, Japan, where he was able to speak with still-recovering survivors of the testing (in the Marshall Islands, and other South Pacific atolls) or use (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) of

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

. He was also the founder and director of Poo Ha Bah, a traditional healing center in Tecopa, California.

"I have established Poo-Ha-Bah for all the people. Poo-Ha-Bah in my language is a very important word--it's talking about Doctor Water. My people have always traveled for many miles to get into different kinds of healing waters."

Trained from childhood in the traditional Newe ways of

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, and Health promotion ...

and spirituality (the two are not viewed separately), Harney noted the

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds ( taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed ...

medicinal plants Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection ...

due to the

toxins A toxin is a naturally occurring organic poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. Toxins occur especially as a protein or conjugated protein. The term toxin was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849 ...

of mining, and the disappearance of many birds and other animals that once roamed the Newe homelands. Harney completed arrangements for the publication of his second book, "The Nature Way", shortly before his death. In this book he shares the traditional knowledge of his people, the Newe. Together with Harney in the defense of Western Shoshone lands were the sisters, Mary Dann and Carrie Dann who contested the government's use of their land in a case that went to the US Supreme Court. Harney died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bl ...

which had

metastasized Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

into his bones.(

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas. Symptoms include enlarged lymph nodes, fever, night sweats, weight loss, and tiredness. ...

)

Film

''Broken Treaty at Battle Mountain,'' released in 1975, Joel Freedman a MacArthur Foundation Film selection narrated by Robert Redford 60 minutes. This film documents The Western Shoshone of Nevadas fight to preserve 24,000 acres to save their pinon trees needed for food and traditional practices. ''Newe Segobia is not for sale. The Struggle for Western Shoshone Land'' 1993 documentary by Jesse Drew ''To Protect Mother Earth,''1989. Joel Freedman documentary won the

CINE Golden Eagle Ciné film or cine film is the term commonly used in the UK and historically in the US to refer to the 8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer ...

award as well as a best short film award at the 1990 Chicago film festival. ''American Outrage'' (2008) produced by Gage films;

Mary and Carrie Dann The Dann Sisters, Mary Dann (1923–2005) and Carrie Dann (1932–2021), were Western Shoshone elders who were spiritual leaders, ranchers, and cultural, spiritual rights and land rights activists. They challenged the federal government over us ...

, sisters, are two women of the Western Shoshone tribe in Nevada who challenged the US government for land rights and the case goes to the US Supreme Court.

Books

Harney, Corbin ''The Nature Way'' 2009 University of Nevada Press, Reno Harney, Corbin ''The way it is: one water-one air-one mother earth'' 1995 Blue Dolphin Pub. Nevada City CA Fradkin, Philip. ''Fallout an American Nuclear Tragedy'' 1989 Johnson Books, Colorado

References

External links

Corbin Harney featured on PBS's "Circle of Stories"

Shundahai Network website

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060614132734/http://shoshone.us/corbin-harney-shoshone-medicine-a19.html Profile of Corbin Harney on Shoshone-specific culture/language sitebr>Reminiscence of Corbin Harney
by

David Rovics David Stefan Rovics (born April 10, 1967) is an American indie singer/songwriter. His music concerns topical subjects such as the 2003 Iraq war, anti-globalization, anarchism, and social justice issues. Rovics has been an outspoken critic o ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harney, Corbin 1920 births 2007 deaths Shoshone people American animists American environmentalists Deaths from prostate cancer Native American activists Religious figures of the indigenous peoples of North America People from Petaluma, California American anti–nuclear weapons activists Nonviolence advocates Deaths from cancer in California People from Owyhee County, Idaho Activists from California 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans