Divine Strake Stopped!

Led by Western Shoshone and other indigenous activists, the march culminated with mass civil disobedience and the arrest of over 50 people on charges of Trespassing. The protestors were detained and released after little more than an hour.

While at the Test Site gate, Western Shoshone National Council member John Wells and Indigenous Environmental Network founder Tom Goldtooth served notice to Test Site guards from the Nye County Sheriff Department that they are in violation of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, obligating them under both Western Shoshone and United States law to evacuate the premises.

Despite persistent government denials that “Divine Strake” would have had anything to do with nuclear weapons, one of the Department of Defense’s own planning documents acknowledges that the test was designed to simulate the conditions of a tactical nuclear weapons bunker-buster, as part of a program to “develop a planning tool that will improve the warfighter’s confidence in selecting the smallest proper nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities while minimizing collateral damage.”

In addition to the indigenous activists, the protestors hailed from all parts of the western United States, including Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California, Oregon, and New Mexico.

Located roughly 70 miles northeast of Las Vegas, NV, the Test Site has been the site of over 900 nuclear tests since 1952, 100 of them above-ground. Large-scale demonstrations first began there in the late-‘70s, culminating with the arrest of over 4,000 people at a pair of protests in 1988.