Numu/Nuwu and Newe prayer horse riders pictured in front of the mountain range approaching Peehee Mu’huh on the annual memorial and prayer horse ride in honor of the 1865 massacre and other atrocities that occurred across the state. Fort McDermitt, Nevada, March 24, 2024.
© 2024 Alison Leal Parker/Human Rights Watch
Lithium Mine Permit Violates Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Mine Permitted Without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent
By Human Rights Watch and ACLU, Censored News, February 9, 2025
-- The US government’s decision to permit Lithium Americas to mine at Thacker Pass in Nevada violated Indigenous people’s rights by not obtaining free, prior, and informed consent.-- The project shows how US mining laws and the permit process run roughshod over the rights of Indigenous peoples, who find access to the land important for religious and cultural practices. Residents also fear that the mine threatens their rights to health, a healthy environment, and water.
-- The federal government should halt construction at Thacker Pass until it gets the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples and ensure that all current and future mine permit processes comply with international human rights standards.
WASHINGTON, D.C. February 6, 2025 -- The United States government’s decision to permit Lithium Americas to mine at Thacker Pass in Nevada violated Indigenous people’s rights, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU said in a report released today. The 18,000-acre mining project is under construction and will extract lithium from one of the world’s largest known deposits.
The 133-page report, “‘The Land of Our People, Forever’: United States Human Rights Violations against the Numu/Nuwu and Newe in the Rush for Lithium,” found that the US Bureau of Land Management permitted the Thacker Pass mine without obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous people—the Numu/Nuwu and Newe, or Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone in English—in violation of their rights to religion, culture, and to their ancestral lands under international human rights law and standards. While there may be others, at least six Tribes have connection to the land at Thacker Pass.
“The Thacker Pass project shows how US mining laws and the permit process run roughshod over the rights of Indigenous peoples,” said Abbey Koenning-Rutherford, Aryeh Neier fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. “US federal and state mining agencies should urgently review the regulations governing mine permits to bring them in line with international standards on Indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent.”
Between September 2023 and January 2025, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU interviewed 41 Indigenous community members, journalists, lawyers, and experts about the impact of the mine. Researchers also reviewed litigation, scientific studies, news and social media, satellite imagery, and environmental maps.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency within the Department of the Interior, when approving the mine on January 15, 2021, stated it had “been in contact with tribal governments regarding this project from its early stages … and throughout the ensuing … process.” The extent of its direct contact with Tribes, however, was three rounds of mailings sent to three Tribal governments.
“They keep saying, ‘consultation, consultation.’ I guess that's what they think they were doing,” said a Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone religious and traditional practices leader who requested anonymity. “But they didn't actually do that.”
Lithium Americas moved forward despite opposition from at least five Tribal governments, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU found. US courts rebuffed Tribes’ efforts to challenge the adequacy of the consultation process after the agency had issued the permit. One, the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, has since signed an agreement with Lithium Americas and issued a letter supporting the mine.
“They keep saying, ‘consultation, consultation.’ I guess that's what they think they were doing,” said a Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone religious and traditional practices leader who requested anonymity. “But they didn't actually do that.”
Lithium Americas moved forward despite opposition from at least five Tribal governments, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU found. US courts rebuffed Tribes’ efforts to challenge the adequacy of the consultation process after the agency had issued the permit. One, the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, has since signed an agreement with Lithium Americas and issued a letter supporting the mine.
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