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Tribal leaders and conservationists working to block construction of a lithium mine along the Nevada-Oregon line lost the fight in court this week, when a three-judge panel at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected their arguments to overturn federal approval of the project.
Christina Aanestad has more.
The judges rejected claims that permitting the Thacker Pass mine violates environmental laws and would destroy sacred lands to the Pauite, Shoshone, and Washo people, who’s ancestors were massacred there more than 150 years ago in 1865.
Max Wilbert, co-founder of Protect Thacker Pass, says they will continue fighting.
“Under American law, mining is the highest and best use of public lands. It’s more important than sacred sites, it’s more important than wildlife, it’s more important than water. I think we’re gonna have to step this up in all kinds of different ways.”
They could appeal the decision.
A second separate lawsuit is also challenging the lithium mine.
The conflict has pitted environmentalists and Native Americans against President Joe Biden’s plans to combat climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, since the lithium mine would produce a key mineral used in green technology like electric cars.
“We all wish the transition away from fossil fuels could bring us to some utopian future right away, but we have to recognize that whether you’re producing an electric car, or a fossil fuel powered car, there are raw materials, there’s extraction involved with that, there’s pollution and unless we can reduce driving, reduce the consumption of cars, reduce how much energy we need and so on, then we’re really just going to be tinkering around the edges.”
On Thursday, we brought you the voices of Crow Nation teachers in south central Montana collaborating on Crow language lesson materials.
Today, we have more on the resources those educators are helping to create.
Among existing Crow language materials are children’s books, a dictionary, and a digital database of words – with more planned.
Yellowstone Public Radio’s Kayla Desroches reports.
“If you click on it… so if you say ‘young’ …”
This app Crow language instructor Vance Crooked Arm pulls up on his phone features more than 10,000 words and audio recordings.
“So if you say “young” it says the word for you.”
This is one of the products created by the Crow Language Consortium, a network of schools, colleges, and educators committed to preserving Crow, or Apsáalooke.
Crow tribal member Janine Pease sits on the consortium board.
She says, more than a decade ago, the Crow Nation found fewer than 15% of preschoolers spoke fluent Apsáalooke.
“And it was extremely alarming.”
They’ve been working to reverse that trend.
For the past eight years, Pease says young Crow Nation students have been taking language immersion classes as part of a still-evolving program to increase Apsáalooke fluency.
“The schools will progress through our materials and we’re very anxious to have all the building blocks that children can use. To acquire vocabulary and to construct conversations.”
She says ongoing written projects geared toward students in kindergarten through 4th grade include reading materials on Crow Nation leaders and major moments in Crow history.
A dictionary for children is also due for publication in the fall.
Courtesy NABI / Facebook
The Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI) is celebrating 20 years at this year’s tournament, which kicked off this week in Phoenix, Ariz.
144 teams are taking part in the tournament.
Boys and girls ages 14-19, representing more than 120 tribal communities from across North America, are competing.
NABI also features an educational summit, and a college and career fair.
Championship games will take place on Sunday.
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