Apr 15, 2021 | Essays, Thacker Pass
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...
Apr 6, 2021 | Essays, Thacker Pass
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...
Mar 27, 2021 | Essays, Thacker Pass
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...
Feb 26, 2021 | Essays, Thacker Pass
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....
Feb 21, 2021 | Essays, Thacker Pass
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....
Feb 9, 2021 | Essays, Thacker Pass
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...