Chanda Calloa, Myron Smart, Cale Christi, Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, and Gary McKinney

People of Red Mountain (Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu)

Fort McDermitt, NV

October 8, 2024

In the morning light as Westies set out cheesy eggs and toast, Chanda Calloa, Myron Smart, Cale Christi, Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, and Gary McKinney, all members of the organization People of Red Mountain (Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu), filtered into camp. As everyone exchanged greetings and collected breakfast, Cale and Ka’ila’s two happy-go-lucky black dogs wagged through the kitchen, closely followed by Chanda’s young child. People of Red Mountain is a group composed mostly of Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock people fighting against the mining of the McDermitt Caldera (located in northern Nevada) by Lithium Nevada. They have connections to the land and mining protest through family and tribal history and history of environmental and Indigenous activism.

Looking out at the floor of the sage-covered caldera from which Lithium Nevada plans to extract lithium within the next few years, Westies listened to the songs, stories, and concerns of the People of Red Mountain. In contrast to geologist Randal Burns’ explanation of the planned lithium mine’s benign and even beneficial potential, these speakers expressed concern for their community’s health, frustration with the mine’s disregard of their objections, and sadness at the past and ongoing harms to Indigenous people in the area. As a chorus of deeply personal voices in opposition to the mine, the People of Red Mountain emphasized that lithium mining does not yield “green” results, as it is often said to because of battery production, when it harms the land, water, and people and necessitates the creation of “sacrifice zones.”

Ka’ila explained that for People of Red Mountain’s activism to have an impact, “you have to fight the narrative…. The more people that learn about this and hear the other side of this is really important.”

by Juliette Silvers