Western Shoshone Native People Fight to Protect Land
The Western Shoshone native people are taking an important stand to protect land they believe has great spiritual and cultural meaning. On June 10, 2009 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will decide if a mining company, Barrick Gold (BG), should be allowed to construct an open pit gold mine on Mt. Tenabo, located in Nevada. The Western Shoshones are arguing, in part, that BG should not be allowed to mine on lands that are spiritually important and have deep cultural significance.
BG’s plans are to construct a large cyanide heap leach processing facility and dump over 1.5 billion tons of mine waste on Mt. Tenabo that would pump over 16.5 billion gallons of groundwater from the land to keep the pit dry for mining. In order to achieve this goal the company plans to blast a new mine pit into Mt. Tenabo. The BG mine expansion would disturb approximately ten square miles of land.
The Shoshone people believe that water at Mt. Tenabo “must be protected to sustain life and peace on Mother Earth” because water is sacred and signifies life. The plaintiffs are three tribal groups and two conservation organizations. They hope a preliminary injunction will stop BG from expanding the existing gold mining operation onto Mt. Tenabo. If the court grants the injunction, the merits of the case will be argued later in U.S. District Court in Nevada.
Relevant case history goes back to November 8, 2008 when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the construction of the gold mine on Mt. Tenabo. The following January the U.S. District Court in Reno denied a preliminary injunction sought by the native people that would have stopped mining operations at Mt. Tenabo. The plaintiffs hope the appellate court will overturn the Reno court ruling. The Ninth Circuit ruling will be critical on the legal issue of whether the BLM has the authority to deny such a destructive mining project in such an important place.
It is difficult not to agree with the Western Shoshone’s supporters that the mining industry needs to recognize that there are some places where it is not appropriate to mine and that a company's economic interests should not be put over the rights of the people who have lived sustainably on lands for thousands of years. It will be interesting to see how the court rules on Wednesday.
