In the Quechan battle against lithium mining at the Salton Sea, songs carry sacred origins

Preston Arrow-weed led the battle against gold ming here on Quechan sacred land, and now battles a new monster, lithium mining, driven by corporate greenwashing for electric vehicles

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

It is a sacred place for Quechan, where obsidian burst from the earth, their sacred stories come from here. When the U.S. government and county targeted the sacred place for lithium mining, they did not tell the Quechan Nation.

Preston Arrow-weed, who has just fought gold mining at Indian Pass, began the battle to protect the sacred here near the Salton Sea, in Imperial Valley, and where the borders of California, Arizona, and Mexico meet.

Arrow-weed said, "We must learn from the past. What good is it to replace dirty oil with dirty mining? The toxic cycle will continue. Indigenous communities will continue to be sacrificed for the 'greater good.'"

Quechan songs carry the story of their journey, and the sacred place now targeted for lithium mining near the Salton Sea, where the obsidian burst from the earth, and here are the remains of a powerful snake.

"We have a belief that something sacred happened there," Arrow-weed said at the recent Western Mining Action Network Conference in Reno, Nevada.

Paiute and Shoshone Elders Evicted from their Homes in Winnemucca Indian Colony, Nevada

Photo courtesy Neweneen Sokopa Camp

Police blocking entrance to Paiute
and Shoshone to return home at Winnemucca
Indian Colony.

Paiute and Shoshone were evicted from their homes in winter by a disputed tribal council and banished, many with no place to go. Kyle Missouri was tasered, arrested, and now jailed while attempting to return home.

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

Updated Dec. 17, 2022

Translated to French by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=7571

WINNEMUCCA INDIAN COLONY, Nevada -- In a cruel action during winter, the Winnemucca Tribal Court evicted Paiute and Shoshone elders without a trial, and banished people from their homes with no place to go in northern Nevada. Elders' homes and possessions have been burned and demolished, and utility lines cut, attorneys said.

"They are living in motels right before Christmas, and it is heartbreaking," said Kyle Missourii, who was arrested and tasered as he returned to his home, where he grew up, which is owned by his 88-year-old grandmother. Kyle is now in jail.

The Winnemucca Tribal Court ruled for the disputed Tribal Council without giving elders and residents the benefit of a trial. The tribal court ordered most elders and residents out of the homes they have lived in for decades by Friday, December 9, attorneys said.

Paiute Elder Resident JJ Ayer said, “I am of seven generations of Native people that have lived on the Winnemucca Indian Colony. This is wrong in every way, most of us are disabled and old with no other home but here and now we are banished from our land.”

Paiute and Shoshone elders said the tribal council, led by a chairwoman who does not live here, and provides inconsistent claims of being Native American, have brought in a demolition business from Kingman, Arizona, to destory their homes.

Navajo Government Joining Australian Company to Devastate Hualapai Sacred Land for Lithium Mine

Hualapai Walk for the Sacred Opposing Lithium Mine

Navajo Government Joining Australian Company to Devastate Hualapai Sacred Land for Lithium Mine

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

December 10, 2022

The Navajo Nation's "energy transition office" plans to operate the lithium mine that will devastate Hualapai's sacred spring used for healing since time immemorial. In a deal with the Australian company, Vern Lund, the CEO of the Navajo office in Farmington, N.M., would join the lithium company's board.

The lithium mine will deplete and poison the water on Hualapai sacred ancestral land in northwest Arizona. Hualapai elders point out their sacred plants and the animals will be poisoned.

"It will destroy what is important to our people," said Ivan Bender, Hualapai caretaker at the sacred spring Ha'Kamwe. "Every living thing needs clean water."

Already, Navajo Transitional Energy Company has invested Dine' money in a Texas company mining rare metals, and operates the Navajo Mine, three coal mines in Wyoming and Montana. It owns a percentage of the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant on the Navajo Nation, among the worst polluters in the world.

Arizona Lithium, a subsidiary of Hawkstone Mining in Australia, said that the Navajo Transitional Energy Company will take over the operational development of Big Sandy, managing everything from permitting requirements to a definitive feasibility study and mine construction, under the terms of the deal.

Hualapai said carving an open pit mine into the earth would devastate the aquifer that feeds Ha’Kamwe, a sacred spring that the Hualapai people have used medicinally since time immemorial.

WASHINGTON: Greater Chaco Protectors Rally Congress for Environmental Justice

Greater Chaco Advocates Travel from New Mexico to call on Congress for environmental justice for Greater Chaco

D.C. Premiere of Our Story: The Indigenous-Led Fight to Protect Greater Chaco

Delegation Statement

Censored News

Translated into French for Censored News

by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=7561

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A delegation of Indigenous community leaders and Greater Chaco protectors traveled from New Mexico to Washington D.C. to lobby members of Congress for Greater Chaco protections, and premiere a film screening of the award-winning Our Story: The Indigenous Led Fight to Protect Greater Chaco (film trailer) which showcases the threats the Greater Chaco Landscape and its communities face from continued oil and gas leasing and drilling.