“Obtaining the minerals necessary for an urgent phaseout of fossil fuels should include protection for the rights of Indigenous peoples,” said Abbey Koenning-Rutherford, Aryeh Neier fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. “U.S. 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.”

The U.S. government’s decision to permit Lithium Americas to mine at Thacker Pass in Nevada violated Indigenous people’s rights, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union said in a recent report. The nearly 18,000 acre mine is under construction and will extract lithium from one of the world’s largest known deposits.

Researchers found in the 133-page report, “The Land of Our People, Forever,” that the Bureau of Land Management, the government agency responsible for managing federal land, permitted the Thacker Pass mine in northern Nevada without obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous people.

The Numu/Nuwu and Newe, or southern Paiute. northern Paiute and western Shoshone in English, experienced violations 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 connections to the land at Thacker Pass.”

-Human Rights Watch