An outdated mining law from 1872 allows companies in the United States to claim mineral rights on most federally owned land, much of which was taken from Indigenous people.
A new report from Human Rights Watch and the ACLU shows how the US government’s decision to permit the company Lithium Americas to mine at Thacker Pass in the state of Nevada violated Indigenous peoples' rights.
The 18,000-acre mining project is under construction and will extract lithium, a key metal for making rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars and other technologies, from one of the world’s largest known deposits.
The report finds that when the US permitted the mine, it hadn't obtained the proper consent of Indigenous people, namely the Numu/Nuwu and Newe, or Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone in English, in violation of their rights to religion, culture, and to their ancestral lands.
At least six tribes have connection to the land around Thacker Pass, which is particularly significant as it includes areas where people fled and died during an 1865 US cavalry massacre. Tribal members pay tribute to their ancestors, annually commemorate the massacre, and engage in other religious practices on the land.
While the mine is not displacing the communities from their land, construction has prevented access to parts of it. Tribal residents also expressed fears around the mine’s potential impact on their health and the local environment.
The US agency in charge of approving the mine’s construction said it had been in touch with local tribes throughout the process. But the only evidence of this is a few mailings sent to just three tribal governments.
“They keep saying, ‘consultation, consultation.’ I guess that's what they think they were doing,” a Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone religious and traditional practices leader told us. “But they didn't actually do that.”
The US should act now to prevent further harm at Thacker Pass. As the Trump administration signals its intent to ramp up mining projects across the country, the construction in Nevada presents yet another warning of the risks Indigenous peoples face from these mines.
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