GENEVA -- A United Nations anti-racism panel said Friday that it had evidence the U.S. government was working with industry to ride roughshod over the rights of an American Indian tribe by exploiting its ancestral land in Nevada and other parts of the Western United States.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination ruled that the United States was failing to respect an international anti-discrimination treaty, to which it became a party in 1994.

Organizations defending the rights of the Western Shoshone hailed the decision as a victory, but the U.S. mission to the U.N. and other international organizations in Geneva had no immediate response to the decision, an official said.

"This isn't about money," Raymond Yowell, chief of the Western Shoshone National Council, said by telephone from his home 60 miles south of Elko. "It's about our land. We have been trying for 20 years to get the government to the negotiating table. Now they may be embarrassed enough to meet with us."

Yowell said many members of the tribe live in poverty, though the 60 million acres they claim as ancestral land includes the nation's most lucrative gold mines, Yucca Mountain and cities including Elko, Tonopah and Winnemucca.

Western Shoshone rights to the land -- stretching across Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California -- were recognized by the United States in 1863 in the Treaty of Ruby Valley.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that the treaty gave the U.S. government trusteeship over tribal lands, and it now claims them as "public" or federal lands.

But some Shoshone have kept up the fight, even after fellow tribe members voted to accept a government settlement that has grown to $145 million.

On Friday, the U.N. committee said it had received "credible information alleging that the Western Shoshone indigenous people are being denied their traditional rights to land."

The committee of 18 independent experts said it was concerned that the U.S. government's position is based on processes "which did not comply with contemporary human rights norms, principles and standards that govern determination of indigenous property rights."

The committee said it was particularly concerned about reported legislative efforts to privatize Western Shoshone ancestral lands for transfer to multinational mining industries and energy developers, federal efforts to open a nuclear waste dump, and the reported resumption of underground nuclear testing on Western Shoshone ancestral lands.

But Robert Hager, the Shoshone's Reno lawyer, said in a telephone interview from Sacramento, Calif., that the United Nations cannot force the U.S. government into doing anything for the tribe.

"There is no enforcement mechanism for the United Nations to commence actions against the U.S.," Hager said. "We hope the finding will influence public opinion so the human rights violations will stop."

There should be an immediate end to efforts by the U.S. Department of Energy to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and all attempts to privatize lands in Indian country, he said.

The U.N. panel said it also was worried about reported intimidation of the Western Shoshone people by U.S. authorities, through the imposition of grazing fees, trespassing and collection notices, the impounding of horses and livestock, restrictions on fishing and hunting as well as arrests.

"Maybe this will make the United States start looking at itself and at the problem of discrimination and make it start to look at us as people instead of subhumans," said Western Shoshone delegate Bernice Lalo. "We feel the decision will be helpful by opening the door. We will continue this struggle to give our children a better chance."

The Indians assert they still own about one-third of Nevada and lands in Idaho, Utah and California under the Treaty of Ruby Valley.

Unlike other American treaties with Indians, Yowell said the Ruby Valley document did not cede tribal lands to the United States. He called the treaty one more of "friendship and peace" between the tribe and the government that was designed to ensure non-Indians safe passage across hundreds of miles in Northern Nevada.

The treaty, however, specifies that Shoshone country may be prospected for gold and silver and permits the establishment of mines, agricultural settlements and ranches. Indians also may be moved to reservations "whenever the president of the United States shall deem it expedient for them to abandon the roaming life..."

American court decisions over the meaning of this treaty generally have gone against the Indians. A claims commission in 1979 set aside money for the tribe to settle their claims to the land, but that money has not been distributed.

President Bush signed into law a bill sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that would divide about $145 million among the tribe's 6,000 to 10,000 members. Individual Indians would receive checks of $15,000 to $30,000.

Reid said Friday the Indians should accept the payments.

"I worked hard throughout my career to improve the quality of live for Native Americans in Nevada," he said. "That work includes my bill to settle the long-standing claims of the Western Shoshone Indian Tribe. The measure will distribute more than $144 million among about 6,000 people. It will also create a tribally controlled educational trust fund of $1.27 million, which will help countless future generations of Western Shoshone."

He added the bill had the overwhelmingly support of the Western Shoshone people, which backed the distribution in elections in 2000 and 2002, along with the entire Nevada congressional delegation.

"I am glad I was able to help the Western Shoshone people get the outcome they wanted, and I will continue working with the Department of Interior and the Western Shoshone people on land issues," Reid said.

Yowell contended only about one-quarter of the eligible tribal members voted in the fund distribution elections.

He said it is the Indians' way not to vote at all when they oppose something.

Yowell added the tribe has no intention of forcing any residents off their ancestral lands if the U.S. government ever recognizes their claim.

But he reiterated the tribe abhors Yucca Mountain and would limit gold mining production to mines that controlled mercury releases and did not pollute water. He added the tribal council also would watch carefully before approving any new power plant production and release the latest technology to control emission releases.

Ed Vogel writes for the Review-Journal Capital Bureau and Erica Bulman writes for The Associated Press.