PVT FILE PHOTO Corbin Harney, at right, a Western Shoshone spiritual leader, faces down Nye County Sheriff's Sgt. Tom Perez at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site during a Mother's Day protest in 2003. Advertisement

Corbin Harney, a Western Shoshone spiritual leader who founded the anti-nuclear, pro-Indian rights group Shundahai Network, died recently in Santa Rosa, Calif. He was 87.

Harney led protests against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site and other potential hazards to the earth.

Shundahai Network, an organization he created in 1994, briefly had its headquarters in Pahrump five years ago.

Harney also had a native healing center in Tecopa, Calif., where he had a ceremonial sweat lodge.

Resident Robin Flinchum recalled hearing his prayers during sunrise ceremonies.

"It was an uplifting thing, it really made your feet feel like they were connecting with the earth," Flinchum said.

Harney was born in Little Valley, Idaho, March 24, 1920. Most of his life he lived in Nevada, leading thousands of protesters in demonstrations. Harney traveled the world spreading the spiritual and environmental message. He received various awards and once spoke before the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Harney authored two books: "The Way It Is: One Water, One Air, One Earth," and "The Nature Way."

He could often be seen at the annual Mother's Day protest at the "Peace Camp" at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site in Mercury.

"We are all concerned about our mothers on both sides of the line," Harney said in a face-off with Nye County Sheriff's Sgt. Tom Perez during the Mother's Day protest in 2003, when peace protesters crossing the line were promptly arrested. "I know you guys have a job to do and so do we. Somehow we're going to work together on this monster we have to deal with."

Harney, a believer along with some Shoshones in the concept of Newe Sogobia, a nation encompassing most of present day Nevada, recited the promises made to the tribe in the Treaty of Ruby Valley in 1864.

During a meeting in Tecopa on the proposed transportation of nuclear waste along California Highway 127 in March 2005, Harney was more forceful.

"I want you to tell them they are liars," Harney urged Inyo County Fifth District Supervisor Richard Cervantes to tell the U.S. Department of Energy. "I want you to find out if you can get an answer to who owns the land. They didn't buy it from nature. We didn't sell it, because we didn't own it. Find out why are they destroying the mother -- the only mother we have. Tell them to put their stuff in Washington where they can watch it real close."

A letter from Harney was posted on the Shundahai Web site states: "I have been trying to protest our Nuclear Energy Department (DOE), talking about the nuclear waste, trying to protect the land that we survive on, the water that we drink, the air that we breathe. It is important for me to try to protect those things for all the living things, like the animal life, the bird life, plant life, all the creatures that roam this Mother Earth of ours."

Harney lamented the poisoning of the earth with chemicals and radiation. "Let us think about the young generation. How are they going to survive when we already have begun to see so many sicknesses of all different kinds, especially cancers, taking over the land?" he wrote.

Harney continued, "Nuclear power is very important, they told us, it's a cheap power. But we have never been told it was going to cause death and sickness and contaminate everything with radiation. If we let it continue, we are going to be the ones that suffer."

In the end, cancer took his life. A message from his family states, "Before he passed, he said to remember: We are one people. We cannot separate ourselves now."

Donations may be made to the immediate family through Reynaulda Taylor, P.O. Box 397, Owyhee, Nev. 89832 or to the Corbin Harney Way, 6360 Sonoma Mountain Road, Santa Rosa, Calif. 95404.