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| Myron Dewey, Paiute |
Law Enforcement's Secret Surveillance of Defenders at Thacker Pass, Peehee Mu'huh
Lithium Americas of Canada plans huge man camp in Winnemucca
The BIA and BLM were part of 10 agencies in a joint terrorism task force stalking defenders of Peehee Mu-huh, Thacker Pass, new documents reveal. The surveillance intensified when Myron Dewey supported. The Nevada Sheriff said there could be "another Standing Rock," and called in a "spin master" to discredit Water Protectors, as he had done at Standing Rock. ProPublica and Nevada Independent expose the surveillance. Censored News tracks back on the timeline. Interior Sec. Deb Haaland's BIA was part of the joint terrorism task force targeting the defenders of Peehee Mu-huh.
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Updated Aug. 12, 2025
THACKER PASS, Nevada -- While descendants of the survivors of the massacre of Paiutes at Peehee Mu'huh struggled to protect the sacred remains from the digging of a lithium mine, owned by Lithium Americas on Canada -- law enforcement had a spider web of surveillance.
THACKER PASS, Nevada -- While descendants of the survivors of the massacre of Paiutes at Peehee Mu'huh struggled to protect the sacred remains from the digging of a lithium mine, owned by Lithium Americas on Canada -- law enforcement had a spider web of surveillance.
The law enforcement surveillance of defenders of Peehee Mu'huh, Thacker Pass, began before Myron Dewey was killed, and continued afterwards.
ProPublica and Nevada Independent expose the spy trail of law enforcement and private security of Lithium Americas. The surveillance web of 10 agencies included the BIA, and a counter-terrorism task force.
During a meeting in April of 2021, the sheriff met with a spinmaster who linked the resistance to Standing Rock. This was six months before Myron Dewey was killed when a truck driven by a mining engineer hit Myron head on.
Myron was well known for his reporting and drone coverage at Standing Rock 2016--2017. Myron was livestreaming the day before he was killed near his home in Yomba, Nevada, Sept. 26, 2021. Myron was fighting the U.S. military's expansion of the bombing range on his Paiute homeland. The Nevada legislators were pushing hard for the expansion, which Biden signed into law. Myron had also been delivering supplies to Thacker Pass in the months before he was killed.
The new article -- “Under the Microscope”: Activists Opposing a Nevada Lithium Mine Were Surveilled for Years, Records Show -- by ProPublica and Nevada Independent, exposes the surveillance.
"Officers and agents have tracked protesters’ social media, while the mining company has gathered video from a camera above a campsite protesters set up on public land near the mine. An FBI joint terrorism task force in Reno met in June 2022 'with a focus on Thacker Pass,' the records also show, and Lithium Americas — the main company behind the mine — hired a former FBI agent specializing in counterterrorism to develop its security plan."
"Officers and agents have tracked protesters’ social media, while the mining company has gathered video from a camera above a campsite protesters set up on public land near the mine. An FBI joint terrorism task force in Reno met in June 2022 'with a focus on Thacker Pass,' the records also show, and Lithium Americas — the main company behind the mine — hired a former FBI agent specializing in counterterrorism to develop its security plan."
Law enforcement were engaged in a secret spy operation of the People of Red Mountain, and others, defending Thacker Pass.
Humboldt Sheriff Mike Allen and his staff met with Mark Pfeifle, president and CEO of the communications firm Off the Record Strategies, to discuss "lessons learned: from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Pfeifle suggested using a fake news crew and mocking up wanted posters for activists.
Raymond Mey, who joined Lithium Americas’ security team for a time after a career with the FBI, wrote to law enforcement agencies in July 2022.
"Mey also researched protesters’ activities, sharing his findings with law enforcement. In an April 2021 update, for example, he provided an aerial photograph of the protesters’ campsite."
The records indicate that the FBI was open to Mey attending its joint terrorism task force."
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| It was the summer of 2022. New surveillance documents reveal that a joint terrorism task force met in Reno targeting defenders of Peehee Mu'huh. It was also in the summer of 2022 when a Fort McDermitt tribal member exposed the public relations campaign of Lithium Americas in Reno. In 2022, a Fort McDermitt tribal member wrote, "Do not be fooled by Lithium Nevada's publicity tactics," in Nevada Current. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2022/08/do-not-be-fooled-by-lithium-nevadas.html |
Earlier, the surveillance intensified as Myron Dewey supported. Myron was killed when mining engineer John Walsh of Reno hit him head-on a dirt road near his family's home on Sept. 26, 2021.
On April 21, 2021, Myron posted a flyer for a Prayer Run to Thacker Pass and in July posted another flyer for a Solidarity Rally. Then, in August of 2021, Myron collected donations, and made a supply run to Thacker Pass, about six weeks before Myron was killed.
Paiute and Western Shoshone spiritual leaders, women and youths were leading the efforts to defend the Paiute Massacre Site -- while under this secret surveillance.
The new documents reveal that Interior Sec. Deb Haaland's BIA was part of the joint terrorism task force of 10 agencies targeting the defenders of Thacker Pass. Haaland told Associated Press that she supported the lithium mine -- digging into the Paiute massacre site, Peehee Mu'huh.
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| Palestinian supporters were targeted in the 'smear campaign' at Standing Rock. |
Law enforcement at Thacker Pass in Nevada was in contact with the same company that was hired to discredit Water Protectors at Standing Rock in North Dakota.
Behind the scenes the company designed a type of smear-campaign in 2016 for law enforcement at Standing Rock. The Humboldt County Sheriff was in contact with the same company, Off the Record Strategies, in 2021.
The secretive PR company suggested fake news and fake 'wanted posters' of activists at Thacker Pass in 2021.
At Standing Rock, the strategy to discredit the movement included inflammatory statements about Water Protectors and included targeting Palestinian activists.
During the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, the company's work with the National Sheriffs Association was exposed by Desmog blog in 2016.
Below: This is the poster Myron Dewey shared in July of 2021, before a mining engineer ran into Myron head-on and killed him on Sept. 26, 2021. We know now that the Nevada Sheriff increased the secret surveillance of the defenders of Peehee Mu'huh at this time, in July of 2021, and worked alongside private security for Lithium Americas of Canada.
The U.S. is digging into the Paiute Massacre Site for Lithium at Peehee Mu'hah and building a huge man camp in Winnemucca of modular pieces.
Lithium Americas of Canada said it purchased land at the eastern end of Winnemucca for a prefabricated housing facility that has 1,997 individual rooms. The building was used as temporary housing in Ottawa before being disassembled in 755 interlocking modules and moved to Northern Nevada on several hundred semi-trucks.
Construction of the housing facility will begin once Lithium Americas secures nearly $2.3 billion in project funding from the Department of Energy.
“When we close on the DOE loan we will hit the ground hard on the housing component,” he said. “We bought the land and have done all the dirt work, and the building is there in pieces.”
Buses will take workers to the site for 10 hour shifts, reports Nevada Appeal.
Read more:
“Under the Microscope”: Activists Opposing a Nevada Lithium Mine Were Surveilled for Years, Records Show, by ProPublica and Nevada Independent, July 2025
Desmog Blog: Emails Show Discrediting of Standing Rock Water Protectors, 2016
Nye Country releases Myron Dewey's fatal accident report, by Censored News, 2021
Mining Engineer John Walsh of Reno only charged with a misdemeanor and sentenced to only 30 days in jail in death of Myron Dewey. Walsh entered a plea agreement for one count of vehicular manslaughter, after delays and changes in the prosecution involving marijuana in his blood. The company that Walsh worked for in Reno was forced out of Guatemala due to repression of Indigenous Peoples with security forces at a gold mine. The company in Reno later worked on the proposed lithium mine targeting Hualapai's sacred Big Spring.
Lithium Americas lawsuit against defenders of Peehee Mu-huh
BIA Director During Spy Operation
The BIA is a division of the Interior. When Haaland headed the Interior, the head of the BIA during the spy operation at Thacker Pass was Turtle Mountain Chippewa. "Darryl LaCounte, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota, was the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, from April 28, 2019, to September 31, 2024. He served as the Acting Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from April 26, 2018. He began his federal career in 1988 at the Bureau’s Wind River Agency in Fort Washakie, Wyoming, as an oil and gas specialist in the Real Estate Services Branch of the Office of Trust Services. After serving in several other capacities within the BIA Rocky Mountain Region, he was named Regional Director for the Rocky Mountain Region in March 2015, and was the acting Regional Director for the Rocky Mountain Region from January 2014. He is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians."
Note on new surveillance documents: Most of the documents were obtained via public records requests by Siskiyou Rising Tide and Information for Public Use. ProPublica obtained additional documents through separate public records requests.
Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News. Censored News content may not be used without written permission, or any manner for revenues.
1 comment:
I have long suspected that this government has nothing better to do than spy on the Indians. After all, they are not covered by the FISA Court. It's the old juggling act of "now your sovereign now your not".
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