Bad Bear's Photos: Protecting Thacker Pass from Lithium Mine

Photos by Western Shoshone Photojournalist Carl Bad Bear Sampson, today, March 3, defending the natural world from lithium mining. Canadian Lithium Nevada plans an enormous open pit lithium mine here.
 

Article by Brenda Norrell

Photos by Carl Sampson

Censored News

This is the dark side of lithium batteries used in electric cars, laptops and cellphones.

U.S. tech companies are being sued for the child labor deaths in the cobalt mines in the Congo, as a result of the demand for cobalt in lithium batteries.

Now a Canadian company plans a massive lithium mine in pristine Thacker Pass in Nevada. Besides the destruction of open pit mining, lithium mining requires enormous amounts of water.

Amnesty International exposed the tech companies, five years ago, who are using children as young as seven years old to mine the cobalt for lithium-ion batteries,  commonly used in cellphones and other electronics. Read more:

Amnesty

After children were killed or maimed in the cobalt mines in the Congo, a lawsuit was filed against Tesla, Google, Apple, Dell and Microsoft. Read more in The Guardian.

 The Guardian

Australia is among the countries with large deposits of lithium. In Western Australia, the devastating destruction of lithium mining can be seen in this photo below.

Western Shoshone Photojournalist Carl Bad Bear Sampson shares his photos of the camp to defend this beautiful land. 

Read more on the website:

Protect Thacker Pass from destructive lithium mining and man camps.

https://www.protectthackerpass.org/

Listen to First Voices Radio: Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Cheyenne River Lakota,  interviews Max.

https://www.protectthackerpass.org/interview-with-max-on-first-voices-indigenous-radio/

Thacker Pass photos copyright Carl Sampson. Article copyright Brenda Norrell. Censored News.

OAK FLAT: APACHE STRONGHOLD MAKES U.S. GOVERNMENT RETREAT CAUSING 9th CIRCUIT DENIAL OF EMERGENCY INJUNCTION -- CASE STILL PROCEEDS ON EXPEDITED BASIS

Photo by Anna Jeffrey 

March 5, 2021

Contact:
Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Sr., Apache Stronghold, apaches4ss@yahoo.com

Michael V. Nixon, J.D., michaelvnixon@yahoo.com

APACHE STRONGHOLD MAKES U.S. GOVERNMENT RETREAT CAUSING 9^th CIRCUIT DENIAL OF EMERGENCY INJUNCTION 

 CASE STILL PROCEEDS ON EXPEDITED BASIS

 By Apache Stronghold 

Censored News

OAK FLAT, AZ – This afternoon the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Apache Stronghold's appeal of U.S. District Court Judge Steven Logan's February 12, 2021, ruling.  The Appellate Court refused to grant Apache Stronghold's request on a 2-1 vote because of the Forest Service' last-minute March 1, 2021, withdrawal of the Final Environmental Impact Statement.  Prior to this withdrawal, the giveaway of Oak Flat would have happened by March 11, 2021.  The Appellate Court fell for this Forest Service ploy although Appellate Judge Bumatay observed, "The Supreme Court recently suggested we do not acquiesce to such tactics."

OAK FLAT -- FOREST SERVICE PUTS SACRED OAK FLAT LAND GIVEAWAY ON TEMPORARY HOLD "FOR SEVERAL MONTHS"

Photo credit Anna Jeffrey

By Apache Stronghold

Censored News

March 1, 2021

French translation by Christine Prat

Contacts:  Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Sr. Apache Stronghold, apaches4ss@yahoo.com

Michael V. Nixon, J.D., michaelvnixon@yahoo.com

 

FOREST SERVICE PUTS SACRED OAK FLAT LAND GIVEAWAY ON TEMPORARY HOLD "FOR SEVERAL MONTHS."

OAK FLAT, Ariz. – The Forest Service announced this morning that it will "rescind" January 15, 2021, Final Environmental Impact Statement which triggered the 60 day time clock to the Oak Flat giveaway.  But the Forest Service added that "consultations such as this generally take several months."

"They are just attempting a temporary strategic retreat," said Apache Stronghold leader and former San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Sr.  "they still intend to try and give away our sacred land."

Apache Stronghold attorney Luke Goodrich from Becket Law said, "The Government just announced it is rescinding the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Oak Flat—six hours before its deadline to reply to Apache Stronghold's emergency appeal.  This is no coincidence.  The Government knows the destruction of Oak Flat violates federal law. It knows it can't justify it in court.  So it is retreating--temporarily. But a temporary retreat doesn't solve the problem.  The Government is still planning on transfer and destruction of Oak Flat.  Oak Flat still needs legal protection.  And if the Government is acting in good faith, it should not oppose a court order protecting Oak Flat while the litigation proceeds."

The U.S. District Court did find that "[t]he spiritual importance of Oak Flat to the Western Apaches cannot be overstated" and that the impending destruction of Oak Flat "will completely devastate the Western Apaches' spiritual lifeblood."  However, the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals still needs to overturn  the inappropriate District Court ruling that the Apache have no Constitutional religious rights protections and that the U.S. Government has no Trust Responsibility to the Apache even though their Treaty of 1852 guarantees the Apache "prosperity and happiness."

 

"Oak Flat is still on death row," said Apache Stronghold attorney Michael Nixon, "The Forest Service's announcement is welcome but doesn't have much real meaning because they are just changing the execution date so they can coerce and pressure the Apache some more.  It is unconscionable."

 

After destroying the Juukan Gorge sacred site in Australia on May 20, 2020, this past summer, on December 9, 2020, Rio Tinto Chairman Simon Thompson promised, "As a business, we are committed to learning from this event to ensure the destruction of heritage sites of such exceptional archaeological and cultural significance never occurs again."

Today's announcement does nothing to change the fact that Rio Tinto and the Forest Service still intend on giving away Oak Flat.  They are just trying to tap the breaks a bit as they still move to their goal of repeating their Juukan Gorge travesty at Oak Flat. 

More info at: http://apache-stronghold.com/about-us.html ; Instagram: @protectoakflat ; Twitter: @SaveOakFlat .

 

AIM Liberation Day 2021

 AIM Liberation Day, Wounded Knee, Feb. 27, 2021

Video on YouTube. https://youtu.be/X9RWIvt8UlE

In the news, Roque Madrid, the medic who flew supplies into Wounded Knee in 1973, and was shot, shares his story.

.https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/rocky-mountain-pbs/colorado-medic-recalls-wounded-knee-occupation/?fbclid=IwAR3O8_JqplnL5X_HwEOICdNeSP88lAhLvhnhBGzaQNyicoOdqga9qLd6fNc

Midnight backroom deal threatens to wipe out Apache sacred site. Apache Stronghold makes emergency appeal to Ninth Circuit to save Oak Flat

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Apache Stronghold in Globe, Arizona today.

Midnight backroom deal threatens to wipe out Apache sacred site

Apache Stronghold makes emergency appeal to Ninth Circuit to save Oak Flat

Apache Stronghold, Becket Law Firm

Censored News

February 23, 2021

WASHINGTON – Apaches in Arizona filed an emergency appeal last night to save their spiritual lifeblood, a sacred site called Oak Flat, from being destroyed by a copper mine that would swallow their holy ground in a 2-mile wide crater deeper than Eiffel Tower. If the court doesn't intervene, the government will turn this historically protected land over to a mining company that can begin the destruction in as few as 15 days.

In Apache Stronghold v. United States, Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit community organization dedicated to the defense of Native American sacred sites, is pleading with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to stop a crooked land swap, which would completely destroy the sacred land and religious exercise of the region's first inhabitants. Becket is representing Apache Stronghold, arguing that the destruction of sacred sites is a flagrant violation of the free exercise of religion.

Water Protectors Blockade Multiple Enbridge Line 3 Work Sites

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