[News] Lithium Nevada Files Lawsuit Against Paiute Shoshone Protecting Paiute Massacre Site

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Lithium Nevada Files Lawsuit Against Paiute Shoshone Protecting Paiute
Massacre Site [image: image.png]

Dean Barlese in prayer at Peehee Mu'huh
[image: image.png]

Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu in prayer at Peehee Mu'huh

*Lithium Nevada Lawsuit Aims to Stop Tribal Members and Allies from Praying
at Sacred Site*

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/06/lithium-nevada-files-lawsuit-against.html#more

By Protect Thacker Pass
Photos by Max Wilbert
Censored News
June 19, 2023

RENO, Nevada — Lithium Nevada Corporation has filed a lawsuit against
Protect Thacker Pass and seven people for opposing the Thacker Pass lithium
mine.

The lawsuit is similar to what is called a “Strategic Lawsuit Against
Public Participation,” or SLAPP suit, aimed at shutting down free speech
and protest. The suit aims to ban the prayerful land defenders from the
area and force them to pay monetary damages which could total millions of
dollars.

“This lawsuit is targeting Native Americans and their allies for a
non-violent prayer to protect the 1865 Thacker Pass massacre site,” said
Terry Lodge, attorney working with the group. “These people took a moral
stand in the form of civil disobedience. They are being unjustly targeted
with sweeping charges that have little relationship to the truth, and we
will vigorously defend them.”

The lawsuit targets Dean Barlese, respected elder and spiritual leader from
the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Dorece Sam from the Fort McDermitt
Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu (Te-Moak Shoshone and Washoe),
Bethany Sam from the Standing Rock Sioux and Kutzadika’a Paiute Tribes,
Founding Director of Community Rights US Paul Cienfuegos, and Max Wilbert
and Will Falk of Protect Thacker Pass, which is also named in the suit.

They are charged with Civil Conspiracy, Nuisance, Trespass, Tortious
Interference with Contractual Relations, Tortious Interference with
Prospective Economic Advantage, and Unjust Enrichment.
[image: image.png]

As part of the lawsuit, Lithium Nevada has been granted a Temporary
Restraining Order which restricts the defendants and “any third party
acting in concert” with them from interfering with construction, blocking
access roads, or even being in the area. The accused parties are not
involved in planning further protest activity at the mine site.

Regardless, these allegations are alarming to the Great Basin Native
American communities who believe their religious practices are protected by
the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. The lawsuit’s language
places fear in the hearts of Native American people who want to pray and
visit their ancestors’ gravesites.

The case references instances of non-violent prayer and protest that took
place on April 25th, and a prayer camp named after Ox Sam (survivor of the
1865 massacre and ancestor of Dorece Sam and Dean Barlese) which was
established at Thacker Pass on May 11th. On June 8th, that camp was raided
and dismantled by police. One young indigenous woman was arrested and
transported to jail inside a pitch-black box. In the aftermath of the raid,
a ceremonial fire was extinguished, sacred objects were put in trash bags,
and tipi poles were broken.

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act states that it is “the policy of
the United States to protect and preserve for American Indians their
inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional
religion of the American Indian…including…access to sites.”

Dorece Sam, President of the Native American Church of the State of Nevada:

“I take my grandkids to Peehee Mu’huh to teach them to pray for our
unburied ancestors whose remains are scattered there, to collect our holy
plants, to hunt and fish, and to collect medicinal herbs. The ancestors who
were killed at Thacker Pass have never been given the proper prayers for
their spirits. Lithium Nevada is desecrating our unceded lands and our
ancestors’ resting places.”

Dean Barlese, respected elder and spiritual leader from the Pyramid Lake
Paiute Tribe:

“The Indian wars are continuing in 2023, right here. America and the
corporations who control it should have finished off the ethnic genocide,
because we’re still here. My great-great-grandfather fought for this land
in the Snake War and we will continue to defend the sacred. Lithium Nevada
is a greedy corporation telling green lies.”

Bethany Sam:

“Our people couldn’t return to Thacker Pass for fear of being killed in
1865, and now in 2023 we can’t return or we’ll be arrested. Meanwhile,
bulldozers are digging our ancestors' graves up. This is what Indigenous
peoples continue to endure. That’s why I stood in prayer with our elders
leading the way.”

Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu:

“Lithium Nevada is a greedy corporation on the wrong side of history when
it comes to environmental racism and desecration of sacred sites. It’s
ironic to me that I’m the trespasser because I want to see my ancestral
land preserved.”

Paul Cienfuegos:

“Virtually every single accusation against us is a lie, and of course, the
corporation’s leaders know this. But our actions have scared them, so they
are lashing out against classic nonviolent direct-action tactics. And this
is yet another prime example of why we need to dismantle the structures of
law that grant so many so-called constitutional ‘rights’ to business
corporations, like access to the courts.”
Max Wilbert, Protect Thacker Pass:

“Around the world, a land defender is killed every two days. Murdering
activists is hard to get away with in the United States, so corporations do
this instead. This lawsuit is aimed at destroying the lives of people
non-violently defending the land. But we’re not giving up. There are
millions of people opposing this mine, and this fight will continue.”

Will Falk:

“I’ve been involved in directly petitioning the courts for two years to
enforce tribal rights to consultation without success. Now Paiutes and
Shoshones are being sued for peacefully defending the final resting places
of their massacred ancestors. Lithium Nevada is just another mining
corporation bullying Native Americans once again. This pattern has got to
stop.”

Lithium Nevada corporation has been locked in legal battles since 2021,
when four environmental groups, a local rancher, and several tribes sued
the Federal Government to attempt to overturn the permits for the mine. The
suits allege failures of consultation, violation of endangered species law
and water laws, and dozens of other infractions. The most recent filing in
an ongoing Federal Court case brought by three local tribes was filed on
Friday, arguing that Lithium Nevada needs to halt construction while it
consults with tribes about the Thacker Pass massacre sites. The 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals in California will hear oral arguments in other cases
later this month.

The news comes as Lithium Nevada’s parent corporation, Lithium Americas,
has been implicated in four alleged human rights violations and
environmental crimes related to their lithium mining operation in
Cauchari-Oloroz, Argentina.

The defendants are seeking attorneys to join the legal defense team, and
monetary donations to their legal defense fund. You can donate via credit
or debit card, PayPal (please include a note that your donation is for
Thacker Pass legal defense), or by check.https://www.protectthackerpass.org/
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