by BorisWu | Jul 1, 2021 | ACTION, Culture of Resistance, Dispatches from Thacker Pass, Indigenous Autonomy, Listening to the Land, Movement Building & Support
For our ongoing pressure campaign against Lithium Nevada and Far Western Anthropological Research Group to oppose the looting of Indigenous people and culture at Peehee Mu’huh:
WE NEED YOUR ACTION!!
Call the Register of Professional Archaeologists’ Grievance Hotline to let them know that Far Western employees, members of their Register, are violating their code of conduct by participating in the planned theft and destruction of over cultural sites and historical sites in Peehee mu’huh (Thacker Pass, NV).
In solidarity with Atsa koodakuh wyh Nuwu (the People of Red Mountain), Protect Thacker Pass calls on our supporters to tell the Register to drop all Far Western members from the Register immediately, or warn them that proceeding with this project may put their registry status in jeopardy.
CALL the Register of Professional Archeologists’ Grievance Hotline TODAY
Phone: 410-246-2150
A sample email / call script is pasted below. Feel free to add your own thoughts, too.
Hello, I’m calling to register a grievance against your members, including Craig Young, who are employees of Far Western Anthropological Research Group.
Members of the Register who work for Far Western are working with Lithium Nevada Corporation and the BLM to dig at Thacker Pass Nevada, known as Peehee mu’huh to the regional native people, on or after July 29, 2021. They will remove cultural artifacts and possible burial sites so that Lithium Nevada Corporation and its parent company Lithium Americas Corporation can proceed with a massive lithium mine. This mine will destroy an area sacred to the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone people who oppose this proposed lithium mine.
Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone tribal members do not want any artifacts in Thacker Pass or anywhere in the surrounding area to be taken for any reason. Taking these artifacts and disturbing potential burial sites would constitute yet another shameful chapter in a long history of settlers trying to destroy Native history and culture. Along with the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone traditional tribal members, there are ten other tribes in the region with cultural connections to Peehee mu’huh who were not properly consulted before this mine was permitted and approval for the dig was given. In addition, the proper documents required under the national historic preservation act to be shared with all interested parties, including these tribes, were not shared.
We believe Far Western’s work with Lithium Nevada and the BLM violates the Register’s code of conduct which states (section 1.2 f) that an archeologist shall not engage in any illegal or unethical conduct involving archeological matters or knowingly permit the user of his/her name in support of any illegal or unethical activity involving archeological matters.
Due to inadequate consultation with indigenous peoples, the Far Western members of the Register are in violation of the ethical principles of your discipline, and specifically of your code of conduct. What’s worse, they are about to violate the ethics of the human family. Given the strong indigenous opposition to the proposed digging, what the Far Western members are about to do at Peehee mu’huh is essentially looting and grave-robbing. We encourage you to drop all Far Western members from the Register immediately, or warn them that proceeding with this project may put their registry status in jeopardy.
Thank you,
[Name]
Leave a message or talk directly to whoever answers the phone. If they ask you for a contact at Far Western, please give them this information:
Main contact: Craig Young
Email: craig@farwestern.com
Phone: (775) 847-0223 Extension 213
Far Western Anthropological Research Group
3656 Research Way, Suite 32, Carson City, NV 89706
by BorisWu | Jun 29, 2021 | ACTION, Culture of Resistance, Dispatches from Thacker Pass, Indigenous Autonomy, Listening to the Land, Movement Building & Support
We need your help! We need you to call and write Craig Young with Far Western Anthropological Research Group and oppose the looting of Indigenous people and culture at Peehee Mu’huh.
Peehee mu’huh (Thacker Pass, NV) is on the chopping block for destruction in the name of a 400-foot deep lithium mining pit. There are over 1,000 cultural sites and 58 historical sites in the crosshairs of this destruction. In order to get a permit, the mining company Lithium America has hired cultural looters from Far Western to dig up sacred cultural artifacts, place them in boxes, and store them far away from their land and their people.
WE NEED YOUR ACTION!!
In solidarity with Atsa koodakuh wyh Nuwu (the People of Red Mountain), Protect Thacker Pass calls on our supporters to tell Far Western Anthropological Research Group not to destroy or desecrate the Paiute massacre site, artifacts, cultural resources, or potential burial sites in Peehee mu’huh.
Craig Young with Far Western is the principal orchestrator of this theft and he needs to hear from us! We need to demand that they pull out of this project and protect Thacker Pass and the people who call this place home.
EMAIL OR CALL CRAIG YOUNG!
Email: craig@farwestern.com
Phone: (775) 847-0223 Extension 213
A sample email / call script is pasted below. Feel free to add your own thoughts, too.
You can also SHOW UP in front of Far Western’s regional office in Carson City, Nevada, on JULY 7th at 11am.
SUBJECT: Cancel your project with Lithium America at Thacker Pass
Dr. Young,
I stand in solidarity with the People of Red Mountain, a committee of Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone who oppose the proposed lithium mine at Peehee mu’huh (the Paiute name for Thacker Pass, Nevada). I demand that you put a stop to Far Western’s planned exhumation of indigenous cultural sites and remains at this site.
From an indigenous perspective, removing artifacts, burial sites or anything of that sort is bad medicine. Many traditions teach that we risk sickness if we remove or take those things. Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone tribal members do not want any artifacts or burial sites in Thacker Pass or anywhere in the surrounding area to be taken for any reason. Taking these artifacts and disturbing burial sites would constitute yet another shameful chapter in a long history of settlers trying to destroy Native history and culture.
I should not have to remind you of your own ethical principles as archaeologists. Due to inadequate consultation with indigenous peoples, you are in violation of the ethical principles of your discipline. What’s worse, you are about to violate the ethics of the human family. Given the strong indigenous opposition to the proposed digging, what you are about to do at Peehee mu’huh is essentially looting and grave-robbing. Please change course before it is too late. If you do not, you must expect consequences in the court of public opinion.
[Name]
Thank you!
by BorisWu | May 4, 2021 | ACTION, Culture of Resistance, Movement Building & Support, Worker Solidarity
DGR are interested in these protests in India, led primarily by those in poor farming communities, because they offer insight into successful campaigning and highlight the brutality of those in power.
By Parth M.N.
Farmers’ protests have been on at sites beyond Delhi’s borders.
One in Uttar Pradesh was dismantled by a late-night crackdown – with some leaders dubbed ‘suspects’ in the Republic Day violence in the capital.
If it weren’t for the violent blows of police lathi s, the farmers protesting in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district would not have left their protest site on January 27. “The protest had been going on for 40 days,” says Brijpal Singh, 52, a sugarcane farmer from Baraut town, where the sit-in was held.
“It was not even a rasta-roko . We were peaceful, and exercising our democratic right. On the night of January 27, the police suddenly started beating us up. They tore our tents, and took our vessels and clothes. They didn’t even care for the elders and children,”
added Brijpal, who owns five acres of farmland in Baraut.
Until that January night, about 200 farmers from all over the district had been staging a protest on the Baghpat-Saharanpur highway in Baraut, against the new farm laws. They are among lakhs of farmers across the country who have been protesting ever since the central government introduced three new farm laws in September 2020.
Farmers in Baghpat and other parts of western Uttar Pradesh (UP) have also been demonstrating their support for those famers – mainly from Punjab and Haryana – agitating at the borders of Delhi since November 26, 2020, demanding a repeal of the laws.
“We received threats, phone calls,” says Brijpal, who is also the local leader of the Desh khap – the all-male council of the Tomar clan in Baghpat region. “The [district] administration threatened to fill up our farms with water. When nothing worked, the police lathi -charged in the night when we were sleeping. We were caught by surprise.”
Before his bruises could heal, Brijpal received another shock.
A notice from Delhi Police informing him to appear at Seemapuri police station in Delhi’s Shahdara district on February 10. The notice said that he would be questioned about the violent events in the national capital on January 26, during the farmers’ Republic Day tractor rally. “I was not even in Delhi,” says Brijpal. “I was at the dharna [in Baraut]. The violence happened 70 kilometres from here.” So he didn’t respond to the police notice. The farmers’ protest in Baraut had been going on until the night of January 27, confirms Baghpat’s Additional District Magistrate, Amit Kumar Singh.
Eight other farmers who protested in Baraut also received notices from Delhi Police. “I didn’t go,” says 78-year-old Baljor Singh Arya, a former sepoy of the Indian Army. His notice said that he had to appear on February 6 at the Pandav Nagar police station in East Delhi district. “I have no clue why I am being dragged into it. I was in Baghpat,” says Baljor, who farms on his two-acre plot of land in Malakpur village.
The Baghpat farmers are “suspects” in the Delhi incidents, said Sub-Inspector Niraj Kumar from Pandav Nagar station. “The investigation is going on,” he told me on February 10. The reason for sending the notices cannot be disclosed, said Inspector Prashant Anand from Seemapuri. “We will see whether they were in Delhi or not. We have some inputs. That is why we sent the notices.”
The notices sent to Brijpal and Baljor cited the first information reports (FIR) registered at the Delhi police stations. The FIRs listed various sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to rioting, unlawful assembly, assault on a public servant, dacoity and attempt to murder, among others. Sections of laws such as the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Epidemic Diseases Act and the Disaster Management Act were also included.
But the farmers were only demanding their rights, says Vikram Arya, a 68-year-old sugarcane farmer from Khwaja Nagla village, eight kilometers from Baraut. “Ours is a land of agitation and protest. Every peaceful protest has Gandhi in it. We are protesting for our rights,” says Vikram, who was at the Baraut protest. The regime at the Centre, he says, “wants to eliminate everything that Gandhi stood for.”
The three laws that farmers across the country have been opposing are: The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 ; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 ; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 .
The farmers see these laws as devastating to their livelihoods because they expand the space for large corporates to have even greater power over farmers and farming. The new laws also undermine the main forms of support to the cultivator, including the minimum support price (MSP), the agricultural produce marketing committees (APMC), state procurement and more. They have also been criticised as affecting every Indian as they disable the right to legal recourse of all citizens, undermining Article 32 of the Indian Constitution.
Vikram doesn’t believe the government’s claim that MSP will continue even after the new laws take full effect.
“What happened to BSNL after the private companies came in? What is the state of our public schools and hospitals? That is exactly what the state mandis would be reduced to. They will die a slow death,” he says. Apart from worrying about the state-regulated mandis (APMCs) becoming redundant, farmers like Vikram and Baljor also fear the presence of corporate entities in agriculture. “The companies will have a monopoly over our produce and they will dictate terms to the farmers,” says Vikram. “Do private companies think anything else apart from profits? How can we trust them to treat us fairly?”
Farmers in western UP, who mainly cultivate sugarcane, know what it’s like to deal with private corporations, says Baljor.
“We have a contract with sugarcane factories,” he explains. “The prices are decided by the state [state advisory price]. According to the law [UP Sugarcane Act], we are supposed to receive our payments within 14 days. It has been 14 months but we still haven’t received payment for the sugarcane we sold the previous season. The state government has hardly done anything about it.”
Baljor, who served in the army in 1966-73, is also angry that soldiers have been pitted against the farmers by the government. “They have sold false nationalism by using the army. As someone who has been in the army, I detest that,” he says.
“The media is busy telling the country that opposition parties are politicising the farmers’ agitation,” says Vikram. “If political parties don’t get involved in politics, then who will? The agitation has woken up the farmers,” he adds. “We are present in 70 per cent of the country. How long will the lies work?”
This article was published in The People’s Archive of Rural India on MARCH 3, 2021 you can access this here!
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