#ThackerPass update from the Lakota People's Law Project.

"If we keep continuing to teach others, then they will probably help us."
---Karianna Kailani John (Reno Sparks Indian Colony)

#Indigenous #GreenColonialism #RenewableEnergy #ClimateChange #ClimateJustice #ClimateCrisis #EVs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lJA6H9d8Zg

2/4 Adding to yesterday’s post on #Vaping ⬆️ here a piece on #Lithium mining in #Nevada at #ThackerPass and the campaign bg local #NativeAmerican communities against it. #IndigenousActivism #Indigenous

https://katiesinger.substack.com/p/wilbert-on-lithium

Update on #ThackerPass:

Wednesday, police and private security for a Canadian mining company arrested an #Indigenous protester and demolished a protest blockade erected by descendants of a survivor of the 1865 massacre at the site, according to land defenders who were there.

“The Bureau of Land Management and Lithium Nevada, they're the new cavalry.” ---Michon Eben, Reno Sparks Indian Colony cultural resource manager & THPO.

#GreenColonialism #RenewableEnergy #EVs

https://www.underscore.news/reporting/at-thacker-pass-extraction-and-resistance-come-to-a-head

#Indigenous folks on the ground at #ThackerPass reminded me that in addition to being extractive and culturally destructive, Lithium America's open pit mine is a man camp, which creates a heightened #MMIW threat.

They told me construction workers have already come by the protest camp asking where all the "pretty little Indian women" are. There are children at the protest camp.

@Mikal Thank you for the reminder!

https://www.oxsam.org/

Closest town is Orovada, #Nevada.

#ThackerPass #Indigenous #LandBack #EVs #GreenColonialism #ClimateJustice #JustTransition #RenewableEnergy

#Indigenous leaders told me #ThackerPass is the site of 2 massacres: one by another tribe who spread the entrails of Paiute people across the sagebrush. The place is called "Rotten Moon" in memorium.

Then in 1865, as the people were duck hunting, the US cavalry murdered dozens of men, women and children. According to the story I heard, only a man and 2 children escaped.

Victims of both these massacres are said to be buried in the construction zone.

More (CW, slur): https://www.opb.org/article/2021/10/05/tribes-new-evidence-proves-massacre-was-at-nevada-mine-site/

#Indigenous leaders, including descendants of those who survived massacres at #ThackerPass, are camping in protest. As I visited, a truck arrived hauling chain link panels to fence off one of the access roads to the camp.

Indigenous leaders said they could use supplies, but more than that they need people to show up and camp with them, peacefully, prayerfully, and prepared for the possibility of arrest.

#GreenColonialism #JustTransition #EVs #Nevada #Oregon

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

This weekend I visited #ThackerPass, where the largest lithium mine in the US is under construction on lands of cultural and historical significance to the Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe people, near the #Nevada / #Oregon border.

Impacted tribes have not given consent for the open pit mine, but the Biden administration and a federal judge have approved it to supply lithium for electric vehicle batteries.

#GreenColonialism #JustTransition #EVs

Background: https://www.hcn.org/articles/mining-construction-starts-on-nevadas-thacker-pass-lithium-mine

"It's a truly unfortunate outcome for the land, wildlife, and cultural resources of this area," WWP staff attorney Talasi Brooks said in a statement. "This massive open-pit mine has been fast-tracked from start to finish in defiance of environmental laws, all in the name of 'green energy,' but its environmental impacts will be permanent and severe."

#ThackerPass #PeeheeMuhuh #NotGreen

https://www.commondreams.org/news/thacker-pass-lithium-mine-2659487512

To protect #ThackerPass, suing on religious grounds didn't work. So the #BurnsPaiute Tribe and the #RenoSparks Indian Colony---now joined by the #SummitLake #Paiute Tribe as well---are suing over the insufficiency of the BLM's tribal consultation process.

#Indigenous #NativeMastodon #Nevada

https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2023/02/21/three-tribes-file-new-lawsuit-challenging-thacker-pass-lithium-mine/

"The project will begin by stripping away all surface vegetation in the project area, and that will completely destroy that area's ecological and cultural values," [WWP's Talasi] Brooks asserted.

Not if we can stop it! We're trying!

#PeeheeMuhuh #ThackerPass

https://kiowacountypress.net/content/conservation-groups-seek-emergency-halt-nevada-lithium-mine

Photo: People gather for a ceremony at Sentinel Rock, at Thacker Pass, Nevada on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021. Credit: Spenser Heaps

Told ya we weren't done fighting to protect #PeeheeMuhuh and #ThackerPass.

#MediaRelease
Today, we filed an emergency injunction to try to stop construction pending our appeal to the Ninth Circuit.

https://westernwatersheds.org/2023/02/conservation-groups-seek-emergency-halt-of-destructive-lithium-mine-pending-court-appeal/

Many column inches this week on the #PeeheeMuhuh / #ThackerPass problematic court order.

>> Critics argue digging for lithium poses the same ecological threats as mining for any other mineral or metal in the biggest gold-mining state in the U.S. They say efforts to downplay potential environmental and cultural impacts amount to “greenwashing.” <<
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/us-judge-refuses-to-block-nevada-lithium-mine-construction/

“We don’t know yet what the next steps will be, but we know we won’t stop fighting this destructive mine,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project in a statement Tuesday. “We need to find truly just and sustainable solutions for the climate crisis, and not by digging ourselves deeper into the biodiversity crisis.” #PeeheeMuhuh #ThackerPass #SageGrouse #Biodiversity

https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2023/02/07/thacker-pass-lithium-mine-clears-most-legal-challenges-minus-a-judge-ordered-waste-rock-review/

This ruling ain't great, folks, but there's fight in us yet. #PeeheeMuhuh #ThackerPass #SageGrouse

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/judge-largely-affirms-federal-permit-for-thacker-pass-lithium-mine-near-winnemucca

“All the Indigenous tribes are going through what we’re going through here,” Michon Eben said during the demonstration Thursday. “If it’s not a mining company, it’s a pipeline company. If it’s not a pipeline company, it's an electric company. The list goes on and on and on. And all we do as Americans is just keep building and getting bigger and bigger. We're not solving the problem.”

#RenoSparksIndianColony #ThackerPass #PeeheeMuhuh

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/fate-of-thacker-pass-lithium-mine-permit-to-be-decided-soon-with-1872-mining-law-a-focus

“The proposed mine on Thacker Pass, a remote slice of federal land near Nevada's border with Oregon, is seen as key toward boosting domestic electric vehicle production. But a group of West Coast Native American tribes considers the land sacred and are suing to stop it.”
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/06/1147452848/the-fate-of-americas-largest-lithium-mine-is-in-a-federal-judges-hands

#mining #lithium #electricvehicle #thackerpass
#science #lithium

WWP was at this hearing and can attest that this news release from #LithiumNevada is complete spin. #ThackerPass will be protected. You can't mine your way out of a climate crisis. #PeeheeMuhuh https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lithium-americas-provides-following-hearing-110000877.html

WWP will be in Reno Thursday for the #ThackerPass #Lithium Mine hearing. https://mobilize.us/s/7b4uoz

@missanthropic I think it is possible, but not without large advancements in technology.

It takes 39,000 Gallons of Water to build 1 car. Any car. Battery technology is behind. Lithium Americas displacing an Indigenous Sacred site #ThackerPass to open a mine.

Manufacturing any car uses old standard methods. Everyone got it backwards. They didn't refactor the plants to build them, instead focusing just on the end product.

So right now buying a used, small gas car is actually more ethical.