Law Enforcement's Secret Surveillance of Defenders at #ThackerPass, #PeeheeMuhuh, Exposed by #ProPublica and #NevadaIndependent

#LithiumAmerica of Canada plans huge #ManCamp in #Winnemucca

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Updated July 31, 2025

THACKER PASS, #Nevada -- "While descendants of the survivors of the massacre of #Paiutes at Peehee Mu'huh struggled to protect the sacred remains from the digging of a #LithiumMine, owned by Lithium Americas on Canada -- law enforcement had a spider web of surveillance.

"The law enforcement surveillance of defenders of Peehee Mu'huh, Thacker Pass, began before #MyronDewey was killed, and continued afterwards.

"ProPublica and Nevada Independent expose the spy trail of law enforcement and private security of Lithium Americas. The surveillance web of 10 agencies included the #BIA, and a #CounterTerrorism task force.

"During a meeting in April of 2021, the sheriff met with a spinmaster who linked the resistance to #StandingRock. This was six months before Myron Dewey was killed when a truck driven by a mining
engineer hit Myron head on.

"Myron was well known for his #reporting and #drone coverage at Standing Rock 2016--2017. Myron was livestreaming the day before he was killed near his home in #YombaNevada, Sept. 26, 2021. Myron was fighting the U.S. military's expansion of the bombing range on his #Paiute homeland. The Nevada legislators were pushing hard for the expansion, which Biden signed into law. Myron had also been delivering supplies to Thacker Pass in the months before he was killed."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/07/law-enforcements-secret-surveillance-of.html

#PrayerHorseRide Prepares for Sacred Journey 2025

"We do not sell our #MotherEarth or profit off of her, Mother Earth is here to take care of us and teach us our natural ways of Life! I pray we all stand to protect our Mother,” - Josh Dini, Sr., Walker River Pauite Tribe, #WaterProtector, #PrayerHorseRider and a member of #AIM Northern Nevada.

By Prayer Horse Ride, via #CensoredNews

SCHURZ, Nevada -- "The Prayer Horse Ride is getting ready to begin our 4th annual sacred journey March 21st – April 2nd, across Nevada in the ancestral lands of the Numu (#Paiute) and Newe (#Shoshone), through Yerington, Fallon, Wadsworth, Nixon, Lovelock to McDermitt, and ending near Orovada, honoring #PeeheeMuhuh (#ThackerPass in the McDermitt Caldera).

"Those Riders, Walkers, and Runners carry the prayerful energy with each community. They'll move forward to raise awareness regarding water usage and #NativeAmericanGraves Protection and
Repatriation Act concerns about #lithium mining in Peehee Mu'huh and within the McDermitt Caldera.

"The Ride also raises awareness of several #EndangeredSpecies in #FishLakeValley (#TecopaBirdsBeak, #TiehmsBuckwheat, and #TuiChub), a place Newe gathered foods and medicines, held sacred ceremonies, and where a proposed lithium boron mine would violate the #AmericanIndianReligiousFreedomAct."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/prayer-horse-ride-prepares-for-sacred.html
#JusticeForMyronDewey #LithiumMining #CopperMining #NoMining #SaveThackerPass #SacredPlaces #DefendTheSacred #GreenWashing #ExtractiveIndustries #MMIWG #MMIR #CorporateColonialism #PrayerRide #ProtectTheSacred #ProtectThackerPass #ReaderSupportedNews

Interior Sec. #DebHaaland's Pueblo is in the #BallisticMissile Parts Business

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Nov. 4, 2024

LAGUNA PUEBLO, New Mexico -- "Interior Sec. Deb Haaland's tribe's enterprise, #LagunaIndustries, manufactures parts for both the ballistic missile, and parts for combat jets, including the #F15. #Biden recently approved the sale of fifty F-15 jets to #Israel in a $20 billion deal.

"The discovery comes after Biden was protested at #GilaRiver Indian Community, and Interior Sec. Haaland was sued by three #Arizona tribes.

[...]

"Interior Sec. Deb Haaland's permit for lithium mining at #Hualapai ceremonial spring south of the #GrandCanyon, and her promotion of #LithiumMining now digging in to the #Paiute Massacre site, #PeeheeMuhuh, #ThackerPass in northern #Nevada, were difficult to understand. Until now.

"The lithium mining into the Paiute Massacre Site is for the benefit of big industry electric vehicles, and violates all federal laws that protect religious and historic sites, the water and environment, and endangered species. The mining operation is by #LithiumAmericas of Canada.

"The #Hualapai Tribe said Hualapai were never consulted before Haaland granted the drilling permit to the Australian company #HawkstoneMining. The Hualapai Tribe filed a federal lawsuit against Haaland.

"In a separate federal lawsuit, the #TohonoOodham and #SanCarlosApache Nations have filed a lawsuit against Haaland for the bulldozers now destroying ancient villages sites, burial places and medicine grounds in #SanPedroValley in Arizona, for #SunZia's transmission lines for a wind energy project.
The United States government is also allowing #EnergyFuels to operate a #UraniumMine in the Grand Canyon, now threatening the aquifer and poisoning Havasupai's air and ancestral homeland. The radioactive haul route to Energy Fuels uranium mill in the #WhiteMesaUte community in Utah endangers #Supai, #Paiute, #Dine' (#Navajo), #Hopi, and #Ute.

"The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, BLM, has a history of rubber stamping environmental impact statements, resulting in devastation."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/interior-sec-haalands-pueblo-is-in.html

#ReaderSupportedNews #NoWar #NoNuclearWeapons #NoLithiumMining #NoMiningWithoutConsent #RecycleLithium #RecycleCopper #WaterIsLife #DefendTheSacred #MotherEarth #ReaderSupportedNews
#FreePalestine #NoUraniumMining #Greenwashing #CulturalGenocide #CorporateColonialism #NoNukes #HaulNo #UraniumMining #WhiteMesaMill

#ApacheStronghold's #PrayerJourney to the #SupremeCourt [#SCOTUS] to Stop the Shattering of Human Existence and Protect #MotherEarth.

Join Apache Stronghold on Prayer Journey to Supreme Court: Sept. 8 -- Sept. 11, 2024 in DC Area

On the Journey to the Supreme Court

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/09/join-apache-stronghold-on-prayer.html

#PeeHeeMuhuh #NoCopperMiningWithoutConsent #IndigenousPeoples #IndigenousNews #RioTinto CopperMine #BHP #Apache #NDAA #BigMountain #CulturalGenocide #Genocide #Arizona #ChichilBildagoteel #RioTinto #CopperMine #SanCarlosApache #Arizona #ProtectOakFlat #protectthesacred #DefendTheSacred #IndigenousActivism #SaveOakFlat #WaterIsLife #SacredSite #CopperMining #RecycleCopper #MiningWithoutConsent #ProtectTheSacred #CulturalGenocide #Ecocide #NativeAmericanNews #Greenwashing #NoMiningWithoutConsent #CorporateColonialism #WashingtonDC #PrayerRide #PeacefulProtest #FightForReligiousRights

Interior Sec. #Haaland Speaks on #ProtectingTheEarth at the #DemocraticNationalConvention, Apparently Forgetting that She is Destroying It

#Genocide takes me many forms: Genocide in boarding schools; the production of weapons for genocide in #Palestine; and the genocide of poisoning and destroying the #Sacred #Ceremonial Places, where the prayers and songs keep the people alive. -- #CensoredNews

By #BrendaNorrell, Censored News, August 23, 2024

"Interior Sec. Deb Haaland spoke about protecting the planet at the Democratic National Convention -- apparently forgetting her support for #LithiumMining into the #Paiute Massacre Site Peehee Mu'huh in Nevada, and the fact that she is being sued by three #NativeAmerican Tribes in #Arizona for destroying the sacred."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/08/interior-sec-haaland-speaks-on.html

#PeeheeMuhuh #ProtectTheSacred #CulturalGenocide #EnvironmentalRacism #ArizonaLithium #WaterIsLife #HaKamwe #SacredSite #CulturalGenocide
#EnvironmentalRacism
#NoMiningWithoutConsent
#LithiumMining #NoLithiumMining
#EarthJustice #BigSandyRiver
#WesternMiningActionProject #CorporateColonialism #DebHaaland

#ApacheStronghold at Peehee Mu'huh Locked Gates for People of Prayer

On the Journey to the Supreme Court

By Apache Stronghold, #CensoredNews
August 8, 2024

"Apache Stronghold visited Peehee Mu’huh (#ThackerPass), the second stop on the Prayer Journey to the Supreme Court [#SCOTUS] to Stop the Shattering of Human Existence and Protect #MotherEarth.

"We visited with the People of #RedMountain, who are fighting a #LithiumMine that is destroying their #SacredSite. When we arrived at the entrance to Peehee Mu’huh, we found a chain link wall with a locked gate, blocking everyone except those authorized by the mine.

"Security trucks came to go through the gate, and one of the drivers admitted that they knew the Apache Stronghold would be there with the People of Red Mountain.

"One truck drove off toward the mine, while the other driver re-locked the gate and left, emphasizing that the mining company has access to Peehee Mu’huh, but the Indigenous people who were stewards of the land since time immemorial, and all others who would go there to pray, are locked out.

"Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. said, 'It’s a sad reminder that people don’t know the day could come, if #OakFlat is ever transferred to #ResolutionCopper, that the acorns, #MedicinePlants, and water could be locked away behind a gate facing death at the hands of a corporation.

"'People need to come together to stop this desecration happening at Peehee Mu’huh and prevent it from happening everywhere else, before it’s too late.'

"Costanoan Rumsen #CarmelTribe said, 'We are honored to welcome and pray along side the Apache Stronghold and Protect Oak Flat on their Prayer Journey. Please join us in prayer this Saturday from 7 am-12 noon.' Chief Ya'anna Learning Village and Tuatukar Eco-Cultural Center for Indigenous Regeneration, 4500 Via Marisol, #Los AngelesCalifornia 90042.

"For those who can’t join us in person, please pray for us as we travel to the Supreme Court, and follow along on the journey here.

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/08/apache-stronghold-at-peehee-muhuh.html

#PeeHeeMuhuh #NoCopperMiningWithoutConsent #IndigenousPeoples #IndigenousNews #RioTinto CopperMine #BHP #Apache #NDAA #BigMountain #CulturalGenocide #Genocide #Arizona #ChichilBildagoteel #RioTinto #CopperMine #SanCarlosApache #Arizona #ProtectOakFlat #protectthesacred #DefendTheSacred #IndigenousActivism #SaveOakFlat #WaterIsLife #SacredSite #CopperMining #RecycleCopper #MiningWithoutConsent #ProtectTheSacred #CulturalGenocide #Ecocide #NativeAmericanNews #Greenwashing #NoMiningWithoutConsent #CorporateColonialism #PeacefulProtest

[Photos] #PrayerHorseRide to Peehee Mu'huh

Nanesootuhina Pookoo Goobakatudu

#CensoredNews, March 28, 2024
Photos by Melissa Robles-Dyer

Peehee Mu'huh (#ThackerPass) -- "The Prayer Horse Ride, March 17-26, began in Schurz on its jouney to Peehee Mu’huh, Thacker Pass. The ride is in the traditional, ancestral and #unceded lands of the #Paiute, #Shoshone and #Bannock.

"'We do this prayer ride to reconnect our way of life,' said #JoshDiniSr., #WalkerRiverPaiute, #WaterProtector and #PrayerHorseRider.

"The Prayer Horse Ride is to raise awareness about #LithiumMining in #McDermittCaldera, and also #CopperMining in the #PineNutHills, in remembrance of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/People (#MMIW / #MMIP). Riders are revitalizing cultural identity, languages and lifeways in #Indigenous communities."

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/03/prayer-horse-ride-to-peehee-muhuh.html

#ThackerPass protesters claim “biodiversity necessity defense” in court case with #LithiumNevada Corporation

By Kevin Sheridan
Published: Mar. 26, 2024

WINNEMUCCA, Nev. (KOLO) - "Six protesters being sued by the Lithium Nevada Corporation are using what they are calling a 'biodiversity necessity defense'.

"They say the defense is 'a legal argument used to justify breaking the law when a greater harm is being prevented; for example, breaking a car window to save an infant locked inside on a stifling hot day, or breaking down a door to help someone screaming inside a locked home. In these cases, trespassing is justified to save a life.'

"This week’s filing states that the 'Defendants possessed an actual belief that their acts of protest were necessary to prevent the present, continuing harms and evils of ecocide and irreversible climate change.'

"'We’re in the midst of the 6th mass extinction of life on Earth, and it’s being caused by human activities like mining,' said attorney Terry Lodge, who is representing the protesters. 'Our lives are made possible by biodiversity and ecosystems. Protecting our children from pollution and biodiversity collapse isn’t criminal, it’s heroic.'

"In a filing with the court, Lodge and other attorneys claimed the company had 'unclean hands', and that Lithium Nevada has 'engaged in serious misconduct including violating the Defendants’ human rights, Defendants’ civil rights, misleading the public about the impacts of lithium mining and how lithium mining contributes to climate change and biodiversity collapse, and conducting the inherently dangerous and ecologically destructive practice of surface mining at the Thacker Pass mine'.

"They further argue stopping the mine will prevent significant greenhouse gas emissions, and that their actions are justified because they are working to prevent #CimateChange."

https://www.kolotv.com/2024/03/26/thacker-pass-protesters-claim-biodiversity-necessity-defense-court-case-with-lithium-nevada-corporation/

#ClimateNecessityDefense #BiodiversityNecessityDefense #ThackerPassProtectors #SLAPPs #SaveThackerPass
#PeeheeMuhuh #Pauite #Shoshone #NoMining #LithiumMining #DirectAction #EarthDefenders #SacredSites #ProtectThackerPass

#ThackerPass #Protectors File First-Ever '#BiodiversityNecessityDefense' in #Nevada Court

While pursuing a '#ClimateNecessityDefense,' and making allegations that #mining company has violated their rights, their attorney said, 'They’re not criminals; they’re heroes.'

Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu: “#LithiumNevada is a #greedy #corporation on the wrong side of history when it comes to #EnvironmentalRacism and desecration of #SacredSites. It’s ironic to me that I’m the trespasser because I want to see my ancestral land preserved.”

By #ProtectThackerPass, #CensoredNews, March 26, 2024

"In a first for the American legal system, the lawyers for six people sued by Lithium Nevada Corporation for protesting the Thacker Pass mine are arguing a ‘biodiversity necessity defense.’

"The necessity defense is a legal argument used to justify breaking the law when a greater harm is being prevented; for example, breaking a car window to save an infant locked inside on a stifling hot day, or breaking down a door to help someone screaming inside a locked home. In these cases, trespassing is justified to save a life.
.
"This week’s filing states: 'Defendants possessed an actual belief that their acts of protest were necessary to prevent the present, continuing harms and evils of #ecocide and irreversible #ClimateChange.'

"'We’re in the midst of the 6th #MassExtinction of life on Earth, and it’s being caused by human activities like mining,' said attorney Terry Lodge, who is representing the #protesters. 'Our lives are made possible by #biodiversity and #ecosystems. Protecting our children from pollution and biodiversity collapse isn’t criminal, it’s heroic.'

"Currently Earth is experiencing one of the most rapid and widespread extinction events in the planet’s 4-billion-year history.

"Biologists report that habitat destruction, like the bulldozing of nearly 6,000 acres of biodiverse #sagebrush steppe for the Thacker Pass mine, is the main cause of this '#6thMassExtinction.'"

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/03/thacker-pass-protectors-file-first-ever.html

Judge Tosses Out One Claim Against #ThackerPassProtectors, Five Claims Remain

Rejects 'Unjust Enrichment' Claim, But Five Other Claims Proceed in Ongoing Lawsuit Over Spring 2023 Protests

By Protect Thacker Pass, Censored News, March 11, 2024

WINNEMUCCA, Nevada — "A judge has dismissed an “unjust enrichment” charge filed against seven people sued for protesting the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada, but allowed five other charges to move forward.
District Judge Michael R. Montero rejected #LithiumNevada Corporation’s claims that protesters had engaged in unjust enrichment by writing online messages encouraging supporters to donate, ruling that these messages are '#ProtectedSpeech under the #FirstAmendment.'

"'This is a very significant win for my clients and a rebuke to Lithium Nevada,' says Terry Lodge, an attorney representing six of the protesters. 'But,' Lodge says, 'we’ve still got a long way to go in this case.'

[...]

"While one portion of Montero’s ruling was favorable to the protesters, other portions were not. Judge Montero issued a prelimary ruling in Lithium Nevada’s favor on five other claims. But, Lodge says that at this stage, the judge was not determining whether Lithium Nevada’s claims are true or not. He was simply reviewing Lithium Nevada’s allegations, taking them as true, and determining whether those allegations were violations of Nevada law.

[...]

Native Land Claims “Frivolous”

"In another part of his ruling, Judge Montero called arguments that a #Paiute protester has a right to access the September 12, 1865 #ThackerPass massacre site within Lithium Nevada’s mine site to pray for massacred Paiute #ancestors 'frivolous'.

"The ruling states that recognizing traditional native land claims 'would unequivocally undermine each and every property owner’s rights' and concludes that '[t]his is a Pandora’s box the Court is unwilling to open.”
The defendants are seeking monetary donations to their legal defense fund."

FMI and full article:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/03/judge-tosses-out-one-claim-against.html

This article fails to mention to significance of #PeeheeMuhuh to Tribal people, so we'll do that here. Thacker Pass is an example unsustainable capitalism; Lithium Nevada may want us to believe they are building an ecological responsible mine, but you can't greenwash extinction and cultural genocide.

https://nevadacurrent.com/2024/02/09/tiny-rare-snail-in-nevada-inches-toward-esa-listing/

Good news is that Kings River pyrg cleared the first hurdle towards Endangered Species Act protection, thanks to WWP's petition.

Bad news is that the USFWS doesn't seem to be in any rush to actually protect this rare spring snail from the impacts of lithium mining at #PeeheeMuhuh / #ThackerPass. We'll keep on 'em.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/02/08/2024-02620/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-90-day-finding-for-the-kings-river-pyrg

Battle of #LithiumMining at #Paiute Massacre Site Links Struggles Against #Greenwashing Around the World

By Brenda Norrell, #CensoredNews
December 6, 2023

"The struggle to protect #PeeheeMuhuh, #ThackerPass, from lithium mine links the #global struggles of uncontacted #Indonesians battling #nickel mining, child slaves in #Congo's #cobalt mines, and the peoples' battles against lithium mining in #Serbia and #Argentina. They are all battling the greenwashing of the false solution of #electricvehicles for #ClimateChange.

"The desecration of the sacred Paiute Massacre site by #LithiumAmericas of Canada is proceeding because federal laws do not protect massacre sites. Further, a man camp of lithium miners threatens the rural communities of #FortMcDermitt Paiute #Shoshone Nation, and the town of #Winnemucca with crime, specifically sex trafficking.

"Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, #RenoSparks Indian Colony Chairman Arlan Melendez called for a new mobilization of #PeacefulProtests that will bring awareness to the public about the ongoing desecration to the sacred place and the damage to the #environment. He called for support from #SouthDakota and elsewhere to bring this desecration to the forefront.

"'We lost the lawsuit because the law favors #mining, especially in this state,' Chaimrnan Melendez said.
'Without water, there is no life,' said Dean Barlese, #PyramidLakePaiute, who offered the opening traditional prayer honoring all created things, all sacred creation. 'We're teaching our young people these prayer songs.'

"'Our songs are still out there on the land.'

"Chairman Melendez said they are concerned about the crime that the mine will bring to Fort McDermitt region, in a rural area, including man camps, especially with the concern for missing and murdered women.
The lithium boom is like the gold rush, the whole state has lithium deposits, and #Nevada's 28 bands and tribes are sure to be affected. Already, sacred sites are being desecrated by lithium mining.
Chairman Melendez said the strategy is to mobilize tribes to speak with a louder voice so that the people will understand the devastation."

Read more: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/12/battle-of-lithium-mining-at-paiute.html

We're not giving up on the lands and wildlife of #PeeheeMuhuh. The Biden Administration might be willing to sell out species for "green" energy, but we're not.

#Extinction #EndangeredSpecies #greenwashing #Springsnails #EndemicSpecies #Biodiversity

https://westernwatersheds.org/press-releases/greens-initiate-lawsuit-over-springsnail-imperiled-by-controversial-nevada-lithium-mine/

What Is #OpenPit #Mining

Definition, Examples, and Environmental Impact

By Rebecca Coffey, Updated July 26, 2022

"Environmentally, open-pit mining is devastating. It consumes enormous amounts of water, heavily pollutes water and air, disfigures landscapes, and permanently destroys habitat. Even after pits are exhausted and sites are rehabilitated, the pit area retains elevated risks of #erosion and #flooding.

"Heavy clouds of dust form during mining operations. Blasting alone is an enormous piece of the problem. In 2018 an international team of scientists publishing in E3S Web of Conferences reported that about 10 billion cubic meters of rock are exploded annually. The resulting clouds transport about 2.0-2.5 million tons of dust.

"The dust from drilling and blasting at some mines is highly radioactive. This is the case, for example, at uranium mines. The problem is not limited to well-known radioactive ores, however, as all ores are #radioactive to some degree.

"Even when it’s not radioactive, dust containing heavy metals can be very dangerous. When it is breathed it can create a variety of respiratory problems including black lung disease.

"The explosives used in blasting release fumes rich in #smog- and #AcidRain-producing gases like highly toxic nitrogen dioxide. As far back as 1973 Soviet scientists reported that the smog can form in the pits themselves.In 2019 Chinese scientists reported that a mine-produced hydrochloric acid mist was caustic enough to corrode concrete.

" One of the most significant problems in open pit mining is also endemic to underground mining. The mineral pyrite is often found in coal mines. It contains sulfur. When pyrite is exposed and sulfur reacts with air and water, it forms an acid. Acidic water as well as any rock-bound heavy metals that the acid has dissolved leach out of the mines and into nearby rivers, lakes, and streams, killing aquatic life and making the water unusable.

"A 2021 study in the peer-reviewed journal Ecological Applications showed the elimination of 40% of the marine animal species in 93 bodies of water downstream from an area of Appalachia that has multiple open-pit mines. Especially problematic in relation to coal mining, acid mine drainage can continue for hundreds of years, even long after the mine has closed."

#OpenPit #Environment #Pollution #WaterIsLife #LithiumNevada #LithiumAmericas #Lithium #ThackerPass #WaterIsLife #PeeheeMuhuh #ProtectThackerPass

Read more:
https://www.treehugger.com/what-is-open-pit-mining-definition-and-environmental-impact-5219892

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/

@WesternWatershedsProject "Opponents argue the #ThackerPass project—which would tap into the largest known source of lithium in the United States and was approved during the final days of the Trump administration—was unlawfully authorized and will irreparably damage lands and wildlife.

"Three #NativeAmerican tribes—the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Burns Paiute Tribe, and Summit Lake Paiute Tribe—are also suing in a bid to block construction of the mine, claiming that claimed BLM withheld key information from the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office and misrepresented how much the agency consulted with tribes prior to approving the project."