At the border to the test site, a member of the tribe read a proclamation to the Nye County, Nev., deputies and the guards for the test site. The proclamation said that under the treaty, the guards and deputies had no right to be on the land.

"At that point, a number of people decided to cross the line." There were about 40, two-thirds of them women.

"When you cross the line here at the test site . . . you're escorted to a holding pen," Taylor said Sunday night in an interview via cell phone.

About 15 or 20 officers began making arrests as people crossed the line. "There was a big group of people that went across the line first, and I held back for a little while, maybe five minutes," Taylor said. She felt nervous "but I had been through a lot of training in non-violence principles with specific regard to direction action such as this one," she said. She and Olsen stepped across together, "holding our Western Shoshone permits in the air." They told the officers who stopped them that they had the tribe's permission to be there.About 20 feet onto the Test Site, they were arrested and taken to the holding pens, which Taylor described as a "big, fenced-in area" with barbed wire on top of chain link fencing.

Besides a portable toilet, there were no amenities. "There's no shelter," she said.

"They let us take our water bottles in with us."

The women stood or sat in a circle, talking, and she did some cheering. She is part of the group Salt Lake Radical Cheerleaders.

"We were very boisterous and did some cheering. We made the guards laugh. They enjoyed it."

Lipster said those arrested were released after about two hours. They were cited with trespassing on federal land and given tickets that carry $300 fines.

However, he said, those cited might not be prosecuted.

The Western Shoshones think the government may not wish to push the issue of their land claims by taking people to court who have the tribe's permits, he said.

Lipster added, "There are very large land claims that are at stake."

Lipster said "Peace Camp" was being taken down Sunday and should be removed by today.

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com