THACKER PASS AND THE UGLY TRADITION OF EXTRACTION WITHOUT INDIGENOUS PERMISSION
By Tokata Iron Eyes
Peehee mu'huh (or #ThackerPass, as it’s known in English), a sensitive wilderness area located in what is now called #HumboldtCounty, #Nevada, sits on the ancestral homelands of the #Paiute and #Shoshone peoples. Right now, these lands are threatened by a #lithium mining project being developed by a company called #LithiumNevada, a subsidiary of #LithiumAmericasCorp .
that shape the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of projects.
Of course, the U.N. has good reason to make its declaration. The story of #IndigenousOpposition to #extraction isn’t new, and the #Lakota people are no strangers to extractive industry looking to exploit our homelands. From the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline ( #DAPL ) at #StandingRock to mining in the #BlackHills , these violent practices have a storied #history.
It was one of the deepest and largest #GoldMines in #NorthAmerica, and it operated for over a century, from 1876 to 2002. The #HomestakeMine produced over 40 million ounces of #gold during its lifetime. While gold was the primary focus of early mining in the #BlackHills, other #minerals were also extracted from the region over time, including silver, copper, lead, zinc, tin, mica, and various #gemstones.
As the most accessible and easily extracted deposits were depleted,
Uranium and gold mining are tearing up the sacred He Sapa — the Black Hills of South Dakota. Tell U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to suspend all mining claims in the Black Hills until treaty rights to ancestral homelands are respected and restored. Mni wiconi — water is life.
#BenAndJerrys have this wonderful post on their homepage 👏
Here it goes:
The #US Was Founded on Stolen #Indigenous Land—This #July4, Let’s Commit to Returning It
Ah, the Fourth of July. Who doesn't love a good parade, some tasty barbecue, and a stirring fireworks display? The only problem with all that, though, is that it can distract from an essential truth about this nation’s birth: The US was founded on stolen Indigenous land.
that mountain was known as Tunkasila Sakpe, the #SixGrandfathers, to the #LakotaSioux—a holy mountain that rises up from the #BlackHills, land they consider sacred.
“The Heart of Everything that Is”
The Black Hills are known to the Lakota as “the heart of everything that is.”
After decades fighting to keep #colonizers off their land, the #Lakota and other #tribes signed the #FortLaramieTreaties of 1851 and 1868, establishing a 35-million-acre “permanent home” for them that included the #BlackHills.
What’s your definition of “permanent”? Well, to #US officials at the time, it apparently was something along the lines of “until gold is discovered.”
Ten years later, the #USSupremeCourt ruled that #MountRushmore and the #BlackHills had indeed been stolen, saying “A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never…be found in our history.” They awarded the #Sioux $105 millions in damages, but the #tribes refused the payment. Why? Because this #SacredLand is theirs—and it’s not for sale.
"We are poor because our resources were stolen from us…But our connection to the #BlackHills is not a monetary one. Our main concern is that the land not be desecrated and we be allowed to resume our role as stewards of the land—that is our purpose as #Lakota."
Red Dawn Foster, Oglala Lakota, #SouthDakota state senator