Thursday, June 8th, 2023
Contact: Ox Sam Camp
Email: oxsamcamp@proton.me
OxSam.org
THACKER PASS, NV — On Wednesday morning, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s department on behalf of Lithium Nevada Corporation, raided the Ox Sam Newe Momokonee Nokutun (Ox Sam Indigenous Women’s Camp), destroying the two ceremonial tipi lodges, mishandling and confiscating ceremonial instruments and objects, and extinguishing the sacred fire that has been lit since May 11th when the Paiute/Shoshone Grandma-led prayer action began.
One arrest took place on Wednesday at the direction of Lithium Nevada security. A young Diné female water protector was handcuffed with no warning and loaded into a windowless, pitch-black box in the back of a pickup truck. “I was really scared for my life,” the woman said. “I didn’t know where I was or where I was going, and I know that MMIW is a real thing and I didn’t want to be the next one.” She was transported to Humboldt County Jail, where she was charged with criminal trespass and resisting arrest, then released on bail.
Just hours before the raid, Ox Sam water protectors could be seen for the second time this week bravely standing in the way of large excavation equipment and shutting down construction at the base of Sentinel Rock.
To many Paiute and Shoshone, Sentinel Rock is a “center of the universe,” integral to many Nevada Tribes’ way of life and ceremony, as well as a site for traditional medicines, tools, and food supply for thousands of years. Thacker Pass is also the site of two massacres of Paiute and Shoshone people. The remains of the massacred ancestors have remained unidentified and unburied since 1865, and are now being bulldozed and crushed by Lithium Nevada for a mineral known as “the new white gold.”
Since May 11th, despite numerous requests by Lithium Nevada workers, the Humboldt County Sheriff Department has been reticent and even unwilling to arrest members of the prayer camp, even after issuing three warnings for blocking Pole Creek Road access to Lithium Nevada workers and sub-contractors, while allowing the public to pass through.
“We absolutely respect your guys’ right to peacefully protest,” explained Humboldt County Sheriff Sean Wilkin on May 12th. “We have zero issues with [the tipi] whatsoever… We respect your right to be out here.”
On March 19th the Sheriff arrived again, serving individual fourteen-day Temporary Protection Orders against several individuals at camp. The protection orders were granted by the Humboldt County Court on behalf of Lithium Nevada based on sworn statements loaded with misrepresentations, false claims, and, according to those targeted, outright false accusations by their employees. Still, Ox Sam Camp continued for another week. The tipis, the sacred fire, and the prayers occurred for a total of twenty-seven days of ceremony and resistance.
The scene at Thacker Pass this week looked like Standing Rock, Line 3, or Oak Flat, as Lithium Nevada’s workers and heavy equipment tried to bulldoze and trench their way through the ceremonial grounds surrounding the tipi at Sentinel Rock, and water protectors put their bodies in the way of the destruction, forcing work stoppage on two occasions.
Observers stated that Lithium Nevada’s head of security was directing the Sheriff’s deputies where to go and what to do during the raid.
Lithium Nevada’s ownership and control of Thacker Pass only exists because of the flawed permitting and questionable administrative approvals issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM officials have refused to acknowledge that Peehee Mu’huh is a sacred site to regional Tribal Nations, and have continued to downplay and question the significance of the double massacre through two years of court battles.
Three tribes — the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, and Burns Paiute Tribe — remain locked in litigation with the Federal Government for permitting the mine. The tribes filed their latest response to the BLM’s Motion to Dismiss on Monday. BLM is part of the Department of the Interior which is led by Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo).
On Wednesday, at least five Sheriff’s vehicles, several Lithium Nevada worker vehicles, and two security trucks arrived at the original tipi site that contained the ceremonial fire, immediately adjacent to Pole Creek Road. One camper was arrested without warning, and others were issued with trespass warnings and allowed to leave the area. Once the main camp was secured, law enforcement then moved up to the tipi site at Sentinel Rock, a mile away.
There is a proper way to take down a tipi and ceremonial camp, and then there is the way Humboldt County Sheriffs proceeded on behalf of Lithium Nevada Corporation. Tipis were knocked down, tipi poles were snapped, and ceremonial objects and instruments were rummaged through, mishandled, and impounded. Empty tents were approached and secured in classic SWAT-raid fashion. One car was towed.
As is often the case when lost profits lead to government assaults on peaceful water protectors, Lithium Nevada Corporation and the Humboldt County Sheriffs have begun to claim that the raid was done for the safety of the camp members and for public health.
Josephine Dick (Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone), who is a descendent of Ox Sam and one of the matriarchs of Ox Sam Newe Momokonee Nokutun, made the following statement in response to the raid:
“As Vice Chair of the Native American Indian Church of the State of Nevada, and as a Paiute-Shoshone Tribal Nation elder and member, I am requesting the immediate access to and release of my ceremonial instruments and objects, including my Eagle Feathers and staff which have held the prayers of my ancestors and the Ox Sam camp since the beginning. There was also a ceremonial hand drum and medicines such as cedar and tobacco, which are protected by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
In addition, my understanding is that Humboldt County Sherriffs along with Lithium Nevada security desecrated two ceremonial tipi lodges, which include canvasses, poles, and ropes. The Ox Sam Newe Momokonee Nokutun has been conducting prayers and ceremony in these tipis which are also protected by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. When our ceremonial belongings are brought together around the sacred fire, this is our church. Our Native American church is a sacred ceremony. I am demanding the immediate access to our prayer site at Peehee Mu’huh and the return of our confiscated ceremonial objects.
The desecration that Humboldt County Sherriffs and Lithium Nevada conducted by knocking the tipis down and rummaging through sacred objects is equivalent to taking a bible, breaking The Cross, knocking down a cathedral, disrespecting the sacrament, and denying deacons and pastors access to their places of worship, in direct violation of my American Indian Religious Freedom rights. This violation of access to our ceremonial church and the ground on which it sits is a violation of Executive Order 13007.
The location of the tipi lodge that was pushed over and destroyed is at the base of Sentinel Rock, a place our Paiute-Shoshone have been praying since time immemorial. After two years of our people explaining that Peehee Mu’huh is sacred, BLM Winnemucca finally acknowledged that Thacker Pass is a Traditional Cultural District, but they are still allowing it to be destroyed.”
Josephine and others plan to make a statement on live stream outside the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office in Winnemucca on the afternoon of Friday, June 9th around 1pm.
Another spiritual leader on the front lines has been Dean Barlese from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, Barlese led prayers at the site on April 25th which led to Lithium Nevada shutting down construction for a day, and returned on May 11th to pray over the new sacred fire as Ox Sam camp was established.
“This is not a protest, it’s a prayer,” said Barlese. “But they’re still scared of me. They’re scared of all of us elders, because they know we’re right and they’re wrong.”
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Background
Thacker Pass is located in northern Nevada near the Oregon border, where Lithium Nevada Corporation is in the first phase of building a $2 billion open-pit lithium mine which would be the largest of its kind in North America. The lithium is mainly destined for General Motors Corporation’s electric car batteries, which the corporation laughably claims is “green.” Mine opponents call this greenwashing and have stated that “it’s not green to blow up a mountain.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted Lithium Nevada corporation and all other business corporations a whole variety of constitutional “rights” that were never meant for business entities. Without these special so-called corporate “rights,” the mine owners would never have been allowed to construct this mine.
Three Native American tribes filed a new lawsuit against the Federal Government over Lithium Nevada Corporation’s planned Thacker Pass lithium mine on February 16, 2023, the latest legal move in the two-and-a-half-year struggle over mining, greenwashing, and sacred land in northern Nevada.
The Tribes notified the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on May 19th that they mean to appeal their Motion seeking a Preliminary Injunction which was rejected by a lower court in early March. Four environmental groups which lost their case in January have also appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and are expected to be heard in June.
BL
May 4, 2014 at 7:11 AM
You need to check your privilege. As a US citizen with nothing to lose, you can accept nothing over a compromise. The so-called “undocumented”, who yes would have to deal with bureaucratic nightmares, would expressly rather fill out paperwork for 10 years than have to live their lives in fear. It’s a shitty piece of public policy, but by rejecting its flaws and ignoring its benefits, your speak as a privileged citizen.
O'odham woman
April 17, 2015 at 3:16 PM
BL, you know NOTHING about living on a reservation occupied by the border patrol and the trauma that goes along with it. You haven’t experienced it nor have you heard the countless stories of people being held at gunpoint, shot, harassed, run over, and treated less than a human being for being brown and existing. “Check your privilege.” Seriously? Your comment is enraging. It is incredibly ignorant and foolish. You dismiss thousands upon thousands of incidences of abuse and trauma before you’ve even heard them.
Many of us growing up along the border have encountered dead and dying migrants. The CIR you are promoting will encourage more deaths. Therefore, by promoting CIR, you are promoting the killing of your own people. In addition, CIR does not stop deportations. Actually, if you read it, it encourages the mass deportation of criminalized immigrants at an expedited process.
I’d be willing to share more stories on the abuse, but you aren’t even listening. Can you imagine how many others there who have been severely abused but can’t share these stories because of people like you? And what makes you think this piece is unsympathetic to migrants? Why does militarization even have to be included in CIR? You have such a white supremacist, colonial way of thinking. Indigenous peoples didn’t cause this problem, yet for some reason you think they should get the worst of it on top of everything else.
I saw this a while back, and it still pisses me off. I would really love to have a face to face confrontation with this BL person.
admin
May 4, 2014 at 6:21 PM
So you’re willing to accept destruction of Indigenous communities as collateral damage of CIR? To callously ignore the full impacts is also privileged, you’re not the one that has to live with the consequences.
BL
May 6, 2014 at 11:14 AM
I don’t think you make a good case that it would hurt indigenous people more than help undocumented. Absolutely, it brings more violence into their communities, but that violence is targeted at Latino populations first and foremost. Please cite cases in which indigenous communities were targeted by the border patrol to an extent that the pain and suffering of undocumented communities should not be relieved.
You should be attacking groups like National Council of La Raza and United We Dream if you truly feel this way. They made the choice to accept the flawed bill because they know nothing else is possible while Republicans control much of the government. They decided that the big downsides of a bigger border patrol and givaways to big agriculture were worth it for a pathway to citizenship and a better immigration process. And they’re not in it for the money.
admin
May 6, 2014 at 12:03 PM
BL, I am not buying this priority of violence BS or that there is acceptable violence against Indigenous Peoples. So you’re interest in learning about impacts of Border Militarization would only be to identify a threshold of acceptable suffering? Why not go to impacted Indigenous communities and tell them that their suffering is acceptable in furtherance of CIR?
Franco
May 4, 2014 at 6:47 PM
what about this piece, that i co-wrote with my brown homie, reveals my citizen status in the united snakes? You assume I/we have papers..Out of the shadows and into the.. (what?). Into the main stream? This integration via reform a is pretty violent process. Remind me, What are the benefits again? for who? and for how long? and on the backs of who’s communities?
BL
May 6, 2014 at 11:21 AM
You question my assumption but do not refute it. I’ve interacted with many undocumented peoples who expressly said that some sort of recognition would make their lives easier. Maybe you have no desire to be a part of the mainstream, but they do. Don’t pretend to speak for those who prefer safety and stability to uncompromising intransigence.
I suspect your questions are rhetorical, but will answer them anyway because I reject the nasty concept of making points by pretending to ask a question. The benefits are for the 10 million undocumented immigrants. It’s for the Dreamers who want to go to college on in-state tutition. It’s for the men and women who want to get jobs but can’t because of the laws forbidding them to do so and employers from hiring them. And for them? It’s for their whole lives. Absolutely some communities will be hurt. Communities are hurt by every action and inaction everywhere. But the suffering caused by this legislation is smaller than the suffering believed.
BL
May 6, 2014 at 11:57 AM
Really, what I want to make clear is that if you two had written a well thought out piece that showed CIR is not reflective of the needs of indigenous people and in fact hurts them, I would totally agree. You instead wrote an unfocused piece that dismisses any possible value of CIR to immigrant communities.
Christine Prat
May 5, 2014 at 10:29 AM
Traduction française:
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=2336
Jon Riley
May 6, 2014 at 2:29 PM
I think the demands of the Border Patrol 6 (the six people composed of Tohono O’odham, Dine, Mexican@, and anarchist who locked down and were arrested for challenging border militarization at the Tucson sector Border Patrol station in 2010) are a good place to start. Unlike the backers of CIR, and the non-profit immigration groups which remain silent on CIR, the BP6’s demands didn’t throw any impacted group under the bus, they sketched out a list of demands which should have been the playbook for the immigrant movement.
– Immediately withdraw National Guard Troops from the US/Mexico border
– Immediately halt development of the border wall
– Immediately remove drones and checkpoints
– Decommission all detention camps and release all presently held undocumented migrants
– Immediately honor Indigenous Peoples rights of self-determination
– Fully comply with the recently signed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
– Respect Indigenous People’s inherent right of migration
– End NAFTA, FTAA and other trade agreements
– Immediately end all CANAMEX/NAFTA Highway projects (such as the South Mountain Freeway)
– Immediately repeal SB1070 and 287g
– End all racial profiling
– No BP encroachment/sweeps on sovereign Native land
– No raids and deportations
– Immediate and unconditional regularization (“legalization”) of all people
– Uphold human freedom and rights
– Uphold the rights of ALL Indigenous People – repeal HB 2281, support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
– Support dignity and respect
– Support and ensure freedom of movement for all people
For more info on the BP6, check these links out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lKGFy2KR7o
http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/2011/06/border-patrol-headquarters-occupation.html
http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/2010/06/border-patrol-hq-occupiers-call-for.html
http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/2010/05/activists-lockdown-occupy-us-border.html