Mining Memories Honoring Land
“Indigenous peoples have the right to practice and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. [...] The right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures” Article 11.1. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007, accepted by The US in 2016.
This project tells the story of land and power, and the ongoing global struggle of Indigenous Peoples to protect their sacred homelands, culture, and livelihoods. To do so, it redirects the lens away from opportunistic government narratives placing lithium mining as a matter of national security and savior to a greener future. As indigenous people teach us, “There is no justice in the mineral extraction for the energy transition as it will destroy ecosystems instead of protecting them for future generations.” Yet, the Mining Act of 1872 and the Mining and Mineral Policy of 1970 provide legal protection that corporations and the federal government necessitate to argue otherwise. Land being viewed as a resource challenges Indigenous populations’ view of it, one of cultural, religious, and ceremony that is actively being destroyed and polluted.
Serving as a counter-memorial, this project contends with the struggle of Indigenous People to resist the development of the Thacker Pass Mine, the largest lithium deposit in the US, and ancestral tribal land to the Paiute and Shoshone tribes. By giving visibility to the interconnectedness between land and memory, some moments in Thacker Pass’s landscape offer a glimpse into the perseverance of indigenous knowledge, honoring land beyond property values to acknowledge that land is culture and spirituality, a reservoir of life. The project marks interactions between Miners and Indigenous Peoples revealing their opposite worldviews and urging us to take part in honoring the only land we know.
“The Biden administration says it has completed a court-ordered review that should ensure construction continues at a Nevada lithium mine, despite legal challenges brought by conservationists and tribal leaders. Lithium is a [...] centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s “clean energy” agenda intended to expedite a transition from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy.”
Scott Sonner and Matthew Daly for AP News
“The plants on the landscape [are] physical evidence of human habitation and history: a living, botanical archaeology. Not all of the traces of ancestral Indigenous presence were made of stone and bone: these wild gardens—a collaboration of humans, plants and place— also tell the story of thousands of years of lineage.”
Nikki Hill, supporter of the Protect Thacker Pass movement
“It is important for non-Natives to understand reservations and tribal councils are purely an invention of the American government. Reservations were created to move Native Americans off of the most economically desirable lands as more and more settlers arrived. Tribal councils were created by the American government in an attempt to manufacture legitimacy for the American government’s systematic theft of Native land. Prior to the 1860s, there was no such thing as the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe or the Fort McDermitt reservation – natives at that time had no borders.”
People of Red Mountain
The history of the people who are fighting to defend this land, the Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of Northern Nevada is one of Diaspora. The removal of the people to whom this unceded land belongs hinges on the movement from the great basin spanning, four states: Oregon, Nevada, California and Idaho to being dispersed around in reservations and fragments of their land. Currently there are 21 federally recognized tribes in Nevada, comprised of 28 separate reservations.
“Our people couldn’t return to Thacker Pass for fear of being killed in 1865, and now in 2023 we can’t return or we’ll be arrested. Meanwhile, bulldozers are digging our ancestors graves up. This is what Indigenous peoples continue to endure. That’s why I stood in prayer with our elders leading the way.”
Bethany Sam member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
The story of the diaspora and current Paiute and Shoshone residents of how they remain within the great basin is connected to Thacker Pass. This site is the location of two massacres, the first one was part of the Snake War, known as “The Deadliest Indian War in the West,” a war of genocide in which 60% of all Paiute people were killed. On September 12, 1865, the Nevada Cavalry attacked a Paiute camp in Thacker Pass and slaughtered at least 31 to 50 tribe members as they fled deeper into the pass. The second massacre, which gave this area its Paiute name of Peehee Mu’huh meaning “Rotten Moon” was an inter-tribal conflict with a tribe from the west. It is believed that in the caves and valleys of sentential rock is where many Paiute found shelter and it holds the memory of their ancestors and struggle making this land sacred, a connection to their ancestors.
The government, corporations and many people look at land as a commodity. One that holds value in terms of goods and profitability, nothing more or less. It is simply a commodity.
However land is a sacred memory of the past, it has various meaning to the indigenous population. Land is seen as ensipirited, sacred, a healer, identity, sustainer and ancestral connection. It needs to be preserved and cared for because it cares for humanity.
On July 20th, 2021, Reno-Sparks Indian Colony alleges that the Federal Government and Bureau of Land Management failed to properly consult with tribes before permitting the mine in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act. BLM and DOI are sued by four environmentalist groups, Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. Burns Paiutes Tribe & Fort McDermitt Pauite-Shochone Tribe + Winnemucca Indian Colony by multiple tribes in the region and beyond on the grounds of violating the national historic preservation act and for not consulting with the sovereign tribal members about the status of Thacker Pass before it being handed over to Lithium America.
This is important because, Thacker Pass Project is the first of many new mines to support the ‘Just Energy Transition.’ There is an expected 75% of mines to open up within 35 miles of native reservations.
Is land a source of belonging?
Or a source of belongings?
The map shows regions of importance and value to the local tribes - places where they get their herbs, prayer sites of communal gathering and celebration. For change to happen the land needs to be seen as belonging to and it is important we see its values and offerings to us.
To showcase the impending struggle, the following pages will highlight the interactions between Miners and Indigenous Peoples revealing their opposite worldviews by urging us to honor land.
These series of images offer a glimpse into the near future, while mining activities continue and Thacker Pass begins to get extracted these images try to showcase not only the physical and emotional toll the mine will take on community but it also highlights the communities’ perseverance to continue fighting to mitigate this from happening again to their sister tribes and by looking for the solace
Pauite believed that the sky and stars have powers of their Likewise, spiritual power resided within a family’s history items and dreams.
their own which could be called upon for good or harm. history and could be transferred through both physical
Just because the Fort McDermitt tribe is seeking economic most Native Americans support the Thacker Pass desecration. council is willing to, perhaps unknowingly, sacrifice the tribal members.
economic opportunities from Lithium Nevada does not mean desecration. All it means is the current Fort McDermitt tribal the health of the land for a few temporary jobs for a few
Shoshone people have hunted deer and other wildlife, fished medicinal plants, and practiced our spiritual ways here present day
fished for Lahontan cutthroat trout, gathered food and since time immemorial, and we continue to do so to the
Water is not just a commodity, but a language, a community, lifeblood of Mother Earth. It is everything to us. Water
community, and a source of knowledge and law. “Water is the Water is sacred, and it’s a symbol of our sovereignty.”
“You
can’t mine your way out of a climate crisis. You can’t destroy the earth to save the earth.”
Finally, in order to proceed we need to look at the teachings of indigenous people as a way forward for a potential inclusive future of how to treat the earth, by listening to it and understanding what does the earth ask of us?
This project contents with architecture’s ability to labor for more just futures relies on our capacity to take sides, to center the stories from those struggling to steward our wounded planet and amplify their experiences and hopes for a better future.
Talking about more mining is not the answer, and we can’t displace the earth to save the earth.
Actions for a Just Future:
Treat the earth as a shared resource for all to thrive in.
Partake in a culture of sharing, it is that of resilience.
Learn the names of species who live on the land out of respect to know what you are taking from.
Don’t take without asking the land for permission if the plants.
Don’t extract to fill an insatiable hunger to consume. Shift to a “degrowth” paradigm.
Do not waste what you have taken or have.
Be grateful for the resources given to you.
Only take what you need from the land.
Take only that which is given to you.
