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<h3 style="margin-top:3em">Lithium Nevada Files Lawsuit Against Paiute Shoshone Protecting Paiute Massacre Site</h3>
<img src="cid:ii_lj4fyccu1" alt="image.png" width="394" height="421"><br><p>Dean Barlese in prayer at Peehee Mu'huh</p><img src="cid:ii_lj4fzcte2" alt="image.png" width="421" height="280"><br><p></p><p>Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu in prayer at Peehee Mu'huh</p><p><b><font size="4">Lithium Nevada Lawsuit Aims to Stop Tribal Members and Allies from Praying at Sacred Site</font></b></p><p><font size="1"><a href="https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/06/lithium-nevada-files-lawsuit-against.html#more">https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/06/lithium-nevada-files-lawsuit-against.html#more</a></font></p><p>By Protect Thacker Pass<br>Photos by Max Wilbert<br>Censored News<br>June 19, 2023<br><br>RENO,
Nevada — Lithium Nevada Corporation has filed a lawsuit against Protect
Thacker Pass and seven people for opposing the Thacker Pass lithium
mine.</p><p>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.<br><br>“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.”</p><p>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.</p><p>They are charged with Civil
Conspiracy, Nuisance, Trespass, Tortious Interference with Contractual
Relations, Tortious Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage,
and Unjust Enrichment.<br></p><img src="cid:ii_lj4fxhcu0" alt="image.png" width="421" height="280"><br><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.”</p><p>Dorece Sam, President of the Native American Church of the State of Nevada:</p><p>“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.”</p><p>Dean Barlese, respected elder and spiritual leader from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe:</p><p>“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.”<br><br>Bethany Sam:</p><p>“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.”</p><p>Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu:</p><p>“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.”</p><p>Paul Cienfuegos:</p><p>“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.”<br>Max Wilbert, Protect Thacker Pass:</p><p>“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.”</p><p>Will Falk:</p><p>“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.”</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.<a href="https://www.protectthackerpass.org/">https://www.protectthackerpass.org/</a></p>
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