Wind and Dust vs. White Men with Guns

Wind and Dust vs. White Men with Guns

Thacker Pass remembers when the hairy, pale-skinned men came to round up her people and drag them away to the forts. The hoofbeats of cavalry warhorses thundered through the basin. Pistols popped and carbines cracked. Children and elders hid in the red shadows of the...
She Would Never Rise From the Dead Again

She Would Never Rise From the Dead Again

Sentinel Rock, a naturally-formed stone tower, stands at Thacker Pass’ eastern entrance. The day before Easter, Max Wilbert and I accompanied Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone tribal members Daranda Hinkey, her father Day, and Eddie Smart to Sentinel Rock. We had...
The Potato Bug and the World We Used to Live In

The Potato Bug and the World We Used to Live In

Thacker Pass remembers the world we used to live in. She murmurs these memories in the long strides and white haunches of mule deer fleeing the scents of humans over the sage. She sends her reminiscences in sudden March snow squalls on otherwise sunny days. She...
The Warmth Yet Remaining

The Warmth Yet Remaining

A war is being waged against life on Earth. Rivers, forests, oceans, whole species, and millions – if not billions – of people have already been counted as casualties. We are losing this war. Badly. If we lose this war, we lose everything. We must not lose this war....
Far Harsher Than the Wind

Far Harsher Than the Wind

There is already an open pit in Thacker Pass. It was dug as part of Lithium Americas’ exploration of the site. Though it is small – just one half of one of the over 5000 acres Lithium Americas wants to destroy – it is as conspicuous as an open wound on a lover’s body....
Chemical Screams

Chemical Screams

If you look across Thacker Pass from the shoulders of the Montana mountains, the land looks like a quilt the Double-H mountains in the south pulled up to their chin to keep warm during the cold winter nights. The hills that roll towards the valley floor are checkered...