On October 14, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Catherine Hourcade crossed the boundary line of the Nevada National Security Site and was arrested. She was given a citation for trespass with a notice to appear in Nye County Court on December 9.
A short while earlier, she had joined with others in a Shoshone/Paiute sunrise ceremony, led by Jeremiah Jones. The group then walked the short distance to the entrance of the nuclear weapons test site. Carrying the tribal permit Jones had issued, granting Hourcade permission to be on Shoshone land, she entered test site property and handed the officer the permit along with her ID. He asked her why she had trespassed, and whether it was because of the Shoshone. “Yes!”, she replied, “This is sacred Shoshone land and you don’t belong here!” She told the officer about the contamination there because of nuclear bomb tests.
Before being released at the site, Hourcade was warned that because she is a repeat offender, if she trespasses there again she will be taken to the Nye County Jail.
The action took place on the last day of the Nevada Desert Experience’s Justice for our Desert 2024.