HUMBOLDT COUNTY, NV- Prayer Runners of varying indigenous backgrounds link arms while walking the final miles up to Thacker pass on Friday March 19, 2021. The Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe organized a 273 mile prayer run to raise awareness and elevate prayers surrounding the impending construction of the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine. The Bureau of Land Management approved the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project with minimal information or communication with the local tribe and Native American community members. If constructed, Thacker Pass lithium mine would be the largest lithium mine in the county and one of the largest in the world. Lithium is a major component to batteries and storing energy, including electric car batteries. Native American community members have continued the multi-century fight to protect their land as they fight the expansive Thacker Pass lithium mine.
A tent sits inside the Protect Thacker Pass Protest camp.
The McDermitt mine, an Open-Pit mine which once was rich in Mercury was active from the mid 1970s to the 1990s. Members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe believe that the fumes produced from this mine and the nearby Cordero Mine caused cancer in many of their tribal members.
Meianah Bitt, 18, poses for a portrait on the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe reservation on Wednesday March 17, 2021. Ms. Bitt grew up on the reservation and has watched the controversy around the Mine become a contentious issue on her reservation. "I want people to know that it's not just this instance that something like this could happen. It can happen at any time, any place. And it's everyone's fight for the earth."
A Member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe confronts Tildon Smart, a member of the tribe's council, about meeting privately with the Bureau of Land Management outside of the Tribe's community center on Tuesday March 16, 2021. The Bureau of Land Management approved the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Project with minimal information or communication with the local tribe and Native American community members. Tribal members heard about the private meeting, and created a petition to deliver to the council to protest the meeting. The council ignored it.
Chanda Hinkey creates a protest sign a head of the prayer run's Thursday arrival on the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe reservation.
Joseph Choate and Jimmy Choate, who are celebrating their 16 birthdays, blow out their birthday candles during a prayer run to Thacker Pass in Humboldt County, on Thursday March 18, 2021. The Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe organized a 273 mile prayer run to raise awareness and elevate prayers surrounding the impending construction of the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine.
Redtail Hinkey, 2, is saged by his mother, Chanda Hinkey, near the Bureau of Land Management offices before the start of a prayer walk to Thacker Pass.
Kash Hinkey, 12, runs a leg of a prayer run to Thacker Pass in Humboldt County.
Daranda Hinkey, 23, right, eats a banana as Tule O'Rourke runs a leg of the prayer run to Thacker Pass in Humboldt County.
Prayer runners of various indigenous backgrounds enter Thacker Pass during a prayer run on Friday March 19, 2021.
Elders walk the last stretch with runners and they near the end of the prayer run in Thacker Pass on Friday March 19, 2021.
Elders walk the last stretch with runners and they near the end of the prayer run in Thacker Pass on Friday March 19, 2021.
From members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, from left: Inelda Sam, Daranda Hinkey and Josephine Dick hang out by a fire before the start of a prayer ceremony on Friday March 19, 2021. The Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe organized a 273 mile prayer run to raise awareness and elevate prayers surrounding the impending construction of the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine.
Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe members and opposers of Thacker Pass lithium mine gather around a fire after a multiple day prayer run in Humboldt County, Nevada on Friday March 19, 2021.
From left- Waylon Garfield feeds his son, Kayden Garfield, 3, while sitting around a fire after a multiple day prayer run to Thacker Pass in Humboldt County, on Friday March 19, 2021.
