our team interviewed Elvida Crutcher, an #elder and citizen of the Fort McDermitt #Paiute and #Shoshone Tribe. She recounts how decades of open-pit mercury #mining has poisoned the air, water, lands, and health of her relatives.

#airpollution #waterpollution

3/10

https://lakotalaw.org/resources/poisonous-mining-without-tribal-consent/?ms=ea&utm_source=ea&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nvli&utm_content=piclink&sourceid=1059582&contactdata=+setg2Bv9GkgKK+DLBua9osRfQWpyCbsr8aaOY8ZWzna9dtQBQVsF6FH6rlGE+mkMgd0w8fEacICcB0OvEpcGpoyHoLoxvr4H%2f8p9Mc0MSSsxvGLuFhnIXWt+fCmUJHOG0kQcLBsi1bdDOvaE2bBlxHLiS71DJfxB6ZYI+FuUJZIjjeihbC4T4NEmvuKup2fZbog8hUNIX5ux4zeVnV+d7m%2foI41RO%2fa70yuvso+tgA%3d&rac=%2cdvcc%2cmmbr%2clpnl&emci=c090ac6a-7947-ee11-a3f1-00224832eb73&emdi=58ef01d3-9447-ee11-a3f1-00224832eb73&ceid=9521138

#Paiute and #Shoshone #elders have asked for supporters from far and wide to come take part in an ongoing #ceremony of protection for those #waters and #lands.

Our #NativeVoices just haven’t been heard, and that’s a big problem. The project has undergone several stages of permitting and regulatory processes before it can begin full-scale mining operations. These processes are essential to addressing environmental and societal impacts and complying with local regulations.

9/20

Since its inception, the project has faced opposition from environmental and Indigenous groups. These concerns relate mainly to #water usage, potential impact on local #ecosystems, and the preservation of #CulturalSites. At the very heart of the Thacker Pass issue is the safety and protection of this place as a #SacredSite, a resting place of #Paiute and #Shoshone #ancestors who were #massacred.

7/20

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2023/05/12/peaceful-protest-staged-at-thacker-pass-to-halt-construction-of-lithium-mine/70209492007/

THACKER PASS AND THE UGLY TRADITION OF EXTRACTION WITHOUT INDIGENOUS PERMISSION

By Tokata Iron Eyes

Peehee mu'huh (or #ThackerPass, as it’s known in English), a sensitive wilderness area located in what is now called #HumboldtCounty, #Nevada, sits on the ancestral homelands of the #Paiute and #Shoshone peoples. Right now, these lands are threatened by a #lithium mining project being developed by a company called #LithiumNevada, a subsidiary of #LithiumAmericasCorp .

1/20

Peehee mu'huh (which means "Rotten Moon" in the #Paiute language) got its name from a pair of #massacres, including one in 1865 of at least 31 men, women, and children by #US soldiers.

In the current era of runaway #ClimateChange and rampant loss of #biodiversity, playing defense is never enough.

4/5

or will we allow the same tactics deployed by the fossil fuel industry for generations to sully our transition to #GreenTechnology?

We believe we must stand in solidarity with the #Paiute and #Shoshone peoples of #Nevada in their fight to keep #BigGreenExtraction honest. Let's make #ElonMusk and other green #entrepreneurs respect #IndigenousSovereignty.

2/5

#ethnography #paiute #photography #filmphotography #believeinfilm

Saturday bonus: Here's something I wrote back in 1975.

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7k3917hd

I’m not sure how many people realize, science now accepts that humans lived in the Americas long before the Bering land bridge was passable.

These human-made tools found in the traditional homelands of the Northern #Paiute people in Oregon are over 18,000 years old. The Bering land bridge wasn’t ice-free until 15,000 years ago.

At Chiquihuite Cave in today’s northern Mexico, they’ve found human tools that are 30,000 years old.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/07/these-are-the-oldest-stone-tools-ever-found-in-the-united-states/

and enlisting local law enforcement to keep prayerful protests away. Meanwhile, the bulldozers keep running roughshod over sacred grounds where the bones of #Paiute, #Shoshone, and #Washoe ancestors lie.

It's that part — the failure to acknowledge the terrible things that happened at #PeeheeMu'Huh more than a century and a half ago and properly account for them in the mine's review process — which rests at the heart of the #lawsuit brought by three #NevadaTribes.

3/6

June 21, 2023

Interior Sec. Haaland Supports Digging into #Paiute Massacre Site for Lithium

by Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Raided and terrorized by police, their Eagle Feathers taken, now Interior Sec. #DebHaaland has broken their hearts, imperiling future generations. Ox Sam Camp at the Paiute Massacre Site. The People of the Ghost Dancers

"Interior Sec. Deb Haaland supports digging into the burial places of massacred Paiutes for #lithium -- and said she is doing the right thing.

"AP reports that Haaland, whose department oversees Thacker Pass, said that while she supports
the right to peaceful #protests, her agency is in favor of the mine because 'the need for our clean
energy economy to move forward is definitely important.'

"Haaland told The Associated Press that when her agency inherits a project from a previous
administration, 'It’s our job to make sure we’re doing things according to the science, to the law.'
However, the Interior Department and a federal judge are violating federal laws that protect Native
American religious and burial places; #endangered species and their habitat; and the #groundwater."

#CulturalGenocide #NativeAmerican #NativeAmericanNews #ThackerPass #Enviroment #EndangeredSpecies #WaterIsLife

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/06/interior-sec-haaland-supports-digging.html

Resistência a um projeto de mina de lítio em Peehee Mu'huh, na chamada Nevada, incêndios florestais, ondas de calor, inundações e uma apreensão indígena de navios petroleiros no Peru neste episódio ambiental especial de Falha de Sistema.

https://kolektiva.media/w/asNrMZAUMZ2FHAeW8YxSTM

#OxSam #DefendTheSacred #ProtectThackerPass #ÁguaÉVida #retomada #indígena #Paiute #Shoshone #Achuar #Wampis #Peru #CarroElétrico #LithiumMining #TerrasRatas #Tesla #ambientalismo #MudançasClimáticas #sustentabilidade #JustiçaClimática

@sambutlerUS @cldc @Katiame Were you able to connect with a lawyer?

This request for donations and to join the protest camp was just in my feed: https://www.oxsam.org/donate

RT: https://sfba.social/@Mikal/110486665217944029

@Teri_Kanefield or @ACLU might you know someone who can help?

#Oxsam #ThackerPass #LandandWaterProtectors. #OxSamCamp #Indigenous #Paiute #Shoshone #DoreceAntonio #Environment #Climate #DirectAction #EV #EVs #Renewableenergy

#Paiute #Shoshone Court Date is Friday for Defending Massacre Site from #LithiumAmericas

May 31, 2023

Ox Sam Camp, #ThackerPass, Nevada: "I would like to ask all of you out there to kindly share this for my fellow sister warrior descendant, she stands here for her lineage through her great great grandfather Ox Sam whose family was massacred here at Thacker Pass also known as Peehee Muhu which is translated as Rotten Moon.
Due to recent events of her being served a TPO that is restricting her from accessing her Rights to her unmarked ancestral burial grounds and sacred site at Sentinel Rock by #LithiumAmerica Corporation. She now has to go back and forth to #Winnemucca 150 miles round trip where the court is being held and conducted which adds up a lot of miles and she is still looking for a Nevada attorney preferably pro indigenous rights for her legal issues filed by Lithium America a Canadian Based Corporation. So we're kindly asking you all to share these links to try and get her all the help we can do for her and to help her along as we continue to shed light and love on the current happenings at PeeHee Muhu Ox Sam Camp. (Newe Momokonee Nokutun)
Thank you for Very Much.

"The legal hearing for Dorece, Chuck, Paul, and Max is now scheduled for Friday (June 2nd) at 1:30 pm in Winnemucca. We're asking the court for an extension but it may not be granted. So that's our timeline for now. I'm not sure if supporters will be allowed in the courtroom, but if anyone wants to come out and support us feel free (although I wouldn't want to take people away from camp). For now, that's our deadline for legal representation. The situation is evolving. Thank you."

#SaveThackerPass #CulturalGenocide #IndigenousNews #EnvironmentalRacism #OxSamCamp #Frontline #Biodiversity #Solidarity #Help #Nevada #Environment #Climate #DirectAction #ProtectPeeheeMuhuh #LithiumNevada #LithiumMining #OpenPitMining #OpenPit #Mining

More at:
https://www.facebook.com/Drone.nation2017

Via Censored News:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/05/paiute-shoshone-court-date-is-friday.html

#UregentRequest for #Attorney(s) licensed in #Nevada for #LandandWaterProtectors. #OxSamCamp #Indigenous #Paiute #Shoshone #DoreceAntonio

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=114408728327248&id=100092743623424

#Paiute #Shoshone Protectors at Ox Sam Camp at #ThackerPass

By Ox Sam Camp Censored News, May 23, 2023

#NativeAmericans in #Nevada Are Praying Over Their Ancestors Graves. A Court Has Ordered Them to Leave or Be Arrested.

OROVADA, Nevada — For nearly two and a half years, local Native American tribes and leaders have been trying to stop the Thacker Pass lithium project, an open-pit mine that will destroy a sacred site. But despite lawsuits, rallies, regulatory hearings, and community organizing, Lithium Nevada Corporation has now begun construction of the mine at the place Paiutes call “Peehee Mu’huh,” or rotten moon.

"But the construction has not gone unopposed. On May 11th, Native Americans from the Fort McDermitt #Paiute-#Shoshone and other regional tribes set up a tipi at Thacker Pass and began prayers directly in the path of the construction of #LithiumNevada’s water pipeline. Groups of Native Americans and allies have blocked mine traffic from accessing portions of the construction site for over a week now."

#NativeAmericans #IndigenousNews #StopThackerPass #CulturalGenocide #ProtectPeeheeMuhuh

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/05/paiute-shoshone-elders-standing-with-ox.html

San Carlos Apache Nation: High Risk Jet Combat over Native Lands

by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, March 27, 2023

"High-risk jets flew combat training flights over Native lands last week. The same training jet that flew combat training missions over the Tohono O'Odham Nation last week, flew over the San Carlos #Apache Nation, and southern edge of the Whiteriver Apache Nation, on Friday morning.

"[Private training company] ATAC has a history of crashes and accidents, including those of pilots based on #Paiute #Shoshone land at Fallon Bombing Range in #Nevada."

#NativeAmericans #EnvironmentalRacism #IndigenousNews #NoWar

Construction begins on controversial lithium mine in #Nevada

Opponents say the Thacker Pass lithium project was rushed in the name of the green transition.

by Gabriela Aoun Angueira, March 3, 2023

"'It’s an important place not only because a terrible massacre occurred, but also because it’s a place where people gather, it’s a place for ceremony, for hunting,' said Michon Eben, tribal historic preservation officer for the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, a government that includes members from the the #Paiute, #Shoshone and #Washoe tribes. The colony is advocating for Peehee Mu’huh to be on the National Register of Historic Places. 'It’s really hard to be a tribal member and see our homelands destroyed,' said Eben.

"#ThackerPass also comprises thousands of acres of #sagebrush and is a nesting ground for the sage grouse and a migration corridor for pronghorn #antelope. Environmental groups including the Great Basin Resource Watch and Western Watersheds Project say the mine would cause irreversible #ecological damage, and that the project’s impact was not adequately studied.

"'It got by the environmental impact statement process in just under a year and I would expect a project of this scale and complexity to take 3 to 5 years,' said John Hadder, director of Great Basin Resource Watch. 'That’s sloppy permitting on the side of the federal government.'

"Tribes, #environmental groups and a cattle rancher are all plaintiffs in a combined case against the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, and #LithiumNevada, a subsidiary of #LithiumAmericas. On February 6, a federal judge in Reno ruled that the BLM had complied with federal law in approving the mine, with the exception of one matter regarding waste disposal, which the judge ordered the BLM to revisit. The plaintiffs filed an appeal in the 9th Circuit and an emergency motion to block construction before the appeal hearing. The appeals court rejected the injunction and set the hearing date for June. "

https://grist.org/climate-energy/construction-begins-lithium-mine-nevada-controversial/

#PeeheeMuhuh #NotGreen #EnvironmentalRacism #NativeAmericans

While all the investors in #LithiumNevada watch their wallets fatten, we'll be watching the ongoing erasure of #Paiute cultural history, the permanent destruction of #Sagegrouse habitat, and the probable extinction of #kingsRiverPyrg.

There are things worth more than money.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/9th-circuit-denies-emergency-bid-halt-nevada-lithium-97564236

The cost of green energy: The nation’s biggest lithium mine may be going up on a site sacred to #NativeAmericans

By Chloe Atkins and Christine Romo, Aug. 11, 2022

"Environmentalists note that [#ThackerPass #Mine] would create hundreds of millions of cubic yards of rock waste, and that next to the pit would be an 'acid plant' using sulfuric acid — 5,800 tons daily — to process lithium. According to an environmental impact statement from the federal Bureau of Land Management, the mine would be an open pit 2.3 miles long, a mile wide and almost 400 feet deep, covering an area slightly larger than New York’s Central Park."

#EnvironmentalRacism #NativeAmericans #Shoshone #Paiute #WaterIsLife

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/the-cost-of-green-energy-the-nation-s-biggest-lithium-mine-may-be-going-up-on-a-site-sacred-to-native-americans/index.html

Three tribes file new lawsuit challenging #ThackerPass lithium mine

by Jeniffer Solis, February 21, 2023

"A week after a federal judge closed a lawsuit against federal land managers and a mining developer, three Native American tribes have filed a new lawsuit centered on the largest known source of #lithium in the United States.

"The new lawsuit comes after U.S. District Judge Miranda Du ruled largely in favor of #Canada-based #LithiumAmericas and the Bureau of Land Management in a consolidated case involving claims brought by environmental groups, a local rancher, and two #NativeAmerican tribes.

"Both tribes involved in the previous lawsuit—the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and Burns Paiute Tribe— joined the new lawsuit along with the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe.

"'When the decision was made public on the previous lawsuit last week, we said we would continue to advocate for our sacred site PeeHee Mu’Huh. A place where prior to colonization, all our Paiute and Shoshone ancestors lived for countless generations,' said Arlan Melendez, Chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony in a statement. 'It’s a place where all #Paiute and #Shoshone people continue to #pray, gather medicines and food, honor our non-human relatives, honor our water, honor our way of life, honor our ancestors.'"
#EnvironmentalRacism #CulturalGenocide

https://missoulacurrent.com/tribes-lithium-mine/