Shoshonean Reunion backs Protect Thacker Pass efforts
View of Thacker Pass.
By LORI ANN EDMO
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — Protect Thacker Pass was one of the many presentations featured June 14 during the 21st Annual Shoshonean Reunion that is being conducted virtually through June 16.
The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony is hosting it from Reno, Nevada. The theme is “Honoring Our Traditions – Preparing for the Future.”
Reunion organizers said a total of 658 people registered for the event.
The Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone encourages tribes to support them in their effort to stop a lithium mine Lithium Americas Corp., a Canadian company, proposed at Thacker Pass approximately 20 miles from the reservation.
The company plans to mine almost 6,000 acres in Thacker Pass, Nev. creating an open pit roughly one-half mile across and 2.3 miles long according to a fact sheet. It would burn about a 11,300 gallons of diesel fuel per day for onsite operations. Carbon emissions would be more than 150,000 tons per year during phase 2. Lithium is present in the soils at 2000-9000 parts per million so producing one ton of lithium would require strip mining and processing between 110 and 500 tons of earth. The mine would cut off access to thousands of acres of public lands including areas used for hunting and recreation. The mine would last at least 41 years or longer.
To process the lithium, Lithium Americas proposed to build a sulfuric acid plant on site to convert molten sulfur into sulfuric acid to leach the lithium from clay and stone. Hundreds of tons of sulfur would be trucked in (waste from oil refineries) and burned every day at the mine site.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has already approved a Record of Decision on the Environmental Impact Statement that was rapidly processed under the Trump Administration. An EIS normally takes about three and a half years to process said Will Falk, an attorney helping the Fort McDermitt tribe, but it was done in less than a year.
Falk and tribal elder Myron Smart gave the virtual presentation to ask for help in stopping the mine. Falk said they are desperately trying to do everything they can to stop the mine or slow it down. They’re hoping Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland will hear their pleas to stop the mine.
Thacker Pass or Peehee mu’huh is considered sacred land to the Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone. It is unceded territory of the Paiute and Shoshone people is BLM land. They believe the land would destroy the area and valuable habitat for Crosby’s buckwheat (a rare desert wildflower only found in the area, a critically endangered snail called King River pyrg, rabbitbrush, jackrabbits, Bighorn sheep, coyotes, golden eagles (about 12 nests throughout the area, prime sage grouse area, antelope and old growth sagebrush.
The People of Red Mountain (atsa koodakuh wyh nuwu) opposed the open pit lithium mine because they believe it will harm the traditional land, significant cultural sites, the water, air and wildlife according to the protectthackerpass.org website.
They say several tribal members were diagnosed with cancer after working near McDermitt and Cordero mercury mines. Some were killed by the cancer.
“Thacker Pass is sacred to our people. Thacker Pass is a spiritually powerful place blessed by the presence of our ancestors, other spirits and golden eagles who we consider to be directly connected to the Creator,” their statement reads on the website. Some of their ancestors were massacred on Thacker Pass. Peehee mu’huh translates to “rotten moon” in English. It was named that because their ancestors were massacred while their hunters were away. When the hunters returned, they found their loved ones murdered, unburied, rotting and with their entrails spread across the sagebrush in a part of the Pass shaped like a moon.
The Red Mountain People say Thacker Pass is essential to the survival of their traditions. “Our traditions are tied to the land. When our land is destroyed, our traditions are destroyed.” The area is home to many of their traditional foods and some of the last chokecherry orchards are found in Thacker Pass. It is also a source of yapa – wild potatoes. They hunt groundhogs and mule deer in Thacker Pass. They gather toza root there, known as one the world’s best anti viral medicines.
Historical significance of Thacker Pass includes when American soldiers were rounding up their people to force them on reservations, many of their people hid in Thacker Pass in caves and rocks where they could see the surrounding land for miles. The caves, rock and view provided their ancestors with a good place to watch for approaching soldiers.
They fear the influx of labor at the mine would result in man camps to support the labor force that could increase violence, hard drugs, human trafficking, etc.
On June 16, reunion participants heard an update from the Thacker Pass protest camp.
A Protect Thacker Pass prayer run (relay) is scheduled June 25 to 27 from the Steens Mountains to Thacker Pass, Nevada. It’s approximately 143 miles. Check in is June 25 at Page Springs Campground and additional check in is on Highway 78 & Highway 205 Grange Hall. A sunrise prayer is June 27 followed by breakfast. Runners will begin the relay and run all day and night to Thacker Pass. Volunteers are needed for cooking, clean up and set up.
Contact Jolene Snapp 541-413-0615, Myron Smart 775-304-2028 or Henrietta Snapp and Felicia Smart via Facebook. They are accepting monetary donations via cash app: $paqwee4me or PayPal.me/paqwee4me
