Under the Microscope: Activists Opposing a Nevada Lithium Mine Were Surveilled for Years, Records Show
by Mark Olalde ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. Kaila Farrell-Smith grew up in a community that was deeply involved in the fight for Indigenous rights, protesting broken treaties and other mistreatment of Native American people. Members of the movement, she said, understood that law enforcement agencies were surveilling their activities.Ive been warned my entire life, The FBIs watching us, said Farrell-Smith, a member of the Klamath Tribes in Oregon.Government records later confirmed wide-ranging FBI surveillance of the movement in the 1970s, and now the agency is focused on her and a new generation of Indigenous activists challenging development of a mine in northern Nevada. Farrell-Smith advises the group People of Red Mountain, which opposes a Canadian companys efforts to tap what it says is one of the worlds largest lithium deposits.Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have for years worked alongside private mine security to surveil the largely peaceful protesters who oppose the mine, called Thacker Pass, according to more than 2,000 pages of internal law enforcement communications reviewed by ProPublica. Officers and agents have tracked protesters social media, while the mining company has gathered video from a camera above a campsite protesters set up on public land near the mine. An FBI joint terrorism task force in Reno met in June 2022 with a focus on Thacker Pass, the records also show, and Lithium Americas the main company behind the mine hired a former FBI agent specializing in counterterrorism to develop its security plan. Were out there doing ceremony and theyre surveilling us, Farrell-Smith said.They treat us like were domestic terrorists, added Chanda Callao, an organizer with People of Red Mountain.All told, about 10 agencies have monitored the mines opponents. In addition to the FBI, those agencies include the Bureau of Land Management, Humboldt County Sheriffs Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nevada State Police Highway Patrol, Winnemucca Police Department and Nevada Threat Analysis Center, the records show.Andrew Ferguson, who studies surveillance technology at the American University Washington College of Law, called the scrutiny of Indigenous and environmental protesters as potential terrorists chilling.It obviously should be concerning to activists that anything they do in their local area might be seen in this broad-brush way of being a federal issue of terrorism or come under the observation of the FBI and all of the powers that come with it, Ferguson said.The FBI did not respond to requests for comment. The Bureau of Land Management, which coordinated much of the interagency response, declined to comment. Most of the law enforcement activity has focused on monitoring, and one person has been arrested to date as a result of the protests.Mike Allen, who served as Humboldt Countys sheriff until January 2023, said his offices role was simply to monitor the situation at Thacker Pass. We would go up there and make periodic patrol activity, he said.Allen defended the joint terrorism task force, saying it was where we would just all get together and discuss things. (The FBI characterizes such task forces, which include various agencies working in an area, as the front line of defense against terrorism.) In this May 2022 email, an FBI special agent invites Nevadas Humboldt County Sheriffs Office to a joint terrorism task force meeting focused on Thacker Pass. (Records obtained by Siskiyou Rising Tide and Information for Public Use. Highlighted and redacted by ProPublica.) Tim Crowley, Lithium Americas vice president of government and external affairs, said in a statement: Protestors have vandalized property, blocked roads and dangerously climbed on Lithium Americas equipment. In all those cases, Lithium Americas avoided engagement with the protestors and coordinated with the local authorities when necessary for the protection of everyone involved.Crowley noted that Lithium Americas has worked with Indigenous communities near the mine to study cultural artifacts and is offering to build projects worth millions of dollars for the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, such as a community center and greenhouse.But individuals and the community groups opposed to the mine dont want money. They worry mining will pollute local sources of water in the nations driest state and harm culturally significant sites, including that of an 1865 massacre of Indigenous people.We understand how the land is sacred and how much culture and how much history is within the McDermitt Caldera, Callao said of the basin where Thacker Pass is located. We know how much it means to not only the next generation, but the next seven generations. First image: Construction at Lithium Americas Thacker Pass mine near Orovada, Nevada. Second image: Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, center, and Rep. Mark Amodei, left, tour the site of a future housing facility for miners in Winnemucca, Nevada. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent) A Familiar ConflictIndigenous groups are increasingly at odds with mining companies as climate change brings economies around the globe to an inflection point. Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are contributing to increasingly intense hurricanes, heat waves, wildfires and droughts. The solution powering the electrical grid, vehicles and factories with cleaner energy sources brings tradeoffs.Massive amounts of metals are required to manufacture solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable energy infrastructure. Demand for lithium will skyrocket 350% by 2040, largely to be used in electric vehicles rechargeable batteries, according to the International Energy Agency.The U.S. produces very little lithium and China controls a majority of refining capacity worldwide so development of Thacker Pass enjoys bipartisan support, receiving a key permit in President Donald Trumps first administration and a $2.26 billion loan from President Joe Bidens administration. (Development ran into issues in June, when a Nevada agency notified the company that it was using groundwater without the proper permit. Company representatives have said they are confident that they will resolve the matter.)Many minerals needed to produce cleaner energy are found on Indigenous lands. For example, 85% of known global lithium reserves are on or near Indigenous peoples lands, according to a 2022 study by researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia, the University of the Free State in South Africa and elsewhere. The situation has put Indigenous communities at odds with mining industries as tribes are asked to sacrifice land and sovereignty to combat climate change.Luke Danielson is a mining consultant and lawyer who for decades has researched how mining affects Indigenous lands. What I fear would be we set loose a land rush where were trampling over all the Indigenous people and were taking all the public land and essentially privatizing it to mining companies, he said.If companies or governments attempt to force mining on such communities, it can slow development, noted Ciaran OFaircheallaigh, a professor emeritus of Australias Griffith University and author of Indigenous Peoples and Mining.If there are bulldozers coming down the road and they are going to destroy an area that is central to peoples identity and their existence, they are going to fight, he said. The solution is you actually put First Peoples in a position of equal power so that they can negotiate outcomes that allow for timely, and indeed speedy, development. Environmental activists Will Falk, left, and Max Wilbert led early opposition to the mine, after which the Bureau of Land Management fined them tens of thousands of dollars for the cost of monitoring them. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent) Were Not There for an UprisingMost of the documents tracing law enforcements involvement at Thacker Pass were obtained via public records requests by two advocacy groups focused on climate change and law enforcement, Siskiyou Rising Tide and Information for Public Use. They shared the records with ProPublica, which obtained additional documents through separate public records requests to law enforcement agencies.Given the monitoring of minings opponents highlighted in the records, experts raised questions about authorities role: Is the government there to support industrial development, protect civil liberties or act as an unbiased arbiter? At Thacker Pass, the documents show, law enforcement has helped defend the mine.Protests have at times escalated.A small group of more radical environmentalists led by non-Indigenous activists propelled the early movement, setting up a campsite on public land near the proposed mine site in January 2021. In June 2022, a protester from France wrote on social media, Well need all the AR15s We can get on the frontlines! Tensions peaked in June 2023, when several protesters entered the worksite and blocked bulldozers, leading to one arrest.That group which calls itself Protect Thacker Pass argued that its actions were justified. Will Falk, one of the groups organizers, said that, in any confrontation, scrutiny unfairly falls on protesters instead of companies or the government. As a culture, weve become so used to militarized police that we dont understand that, out of the group of people gathered, the people who are actually violent are the ones with the guns, he said.Falk and another organizer were, as a result of their participation in protests, barred by court order from returning to Thacker Pass and disrupting construction, and the Bureau of Land Management fined them for alleged trespass on public lands during the protest. The agency charged them $49,877.71 for officers time and mileage to monitor them, according to agency records Falk shared with ProPublica. Falk said his group tried to work with the agency to obtain permits and is disputing the fine to a federal board of appeals.None of us are armed. Were not there for an uprising, said Gary McKinney, a spokesperson for People of Red Mountain, which parted ways with Falks group before the incident that led to an arrest.McKinney, a member of the Duck Valley Shoshone-Paiute Tribe, leads annual prayer rides, journeying hundreds of miles across northern Nevada on horseback with other Native American activists to Thacker Pass. He described the rides, intended to raise awareness of minings impact on tribes and the environment, as a way to exercise rights under the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which protects tribes ability to practice traditional spirituality. Still, the group feels watched. A trail camera once mysteriously appeared near their campsite along the path of the prayer ride. They also crossed paths with security personnel. Beyond the trail rides, the FBI tracks McKinneys activity, the records show. The agency informed other law enforcement when he promoted a Fourth of July powwow and rodeo on his reservation, and it flagged a speech he delivered at a conference for mining-affected communities.Were being watched, were being followed, were under the microscope, McKinney said. First image: Then-Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Allen questioned whether Raymond Mey, a Lithium Americas security contractor, had a state private investigators license in a June 2021 email. Second image: Mey pushed the Bureau of Land Management, the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office and others for a coordinated law enforcement strategy to address protests at Thacker Pass in a June 2021 email. (Records obtained by Siskiyou Rising Tide and Information for Public Use. Highlighted, redacted and excerpted by ProPublica.) The records show security personnel hired by Lithium Americas speaking as if an uprising could be imminent. To date, there has been no violence or serious property destruction, however, the activities of these protest groups could change to a more aggressive actions and violent demeanor at any time, Raymond Mey, who joined Lithium Americas security team for a time after a career with the FBI, wrote to law enforcement agencies in July 2022.Mey also researched protesters activities, sharing his findings with law enforcement. In an April 2021 update, for example, he provided an aerial photograph of the protesters campsite. Law enforcement agencies worked with Mey, and he pushed to make that relationship closer, seeking an integrated and coordinated law enforcement strategy to deal with the protestors at Thacker Pass. The records indicate that the FBI was open to him attending its joint terrorism task force.Mey is not licensed with the Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board, which is required to perform such work in the state, according to agency records.Mey said that he didnt believe he needed a license because he wasnt pursuing investigations. He said that his advice to the company was to avoid direct conflict with protesters and only call the police when necessary. First image: Gary McKinney, spokesperson for People of Red Mountain. Second image: Members of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, People of Red Mountain, the Burns Paiute Tribe and others march in Reno, Nevada, to oppose the Thacker Pass mine. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent) We Shouldnt Have to Accept the Burden of the Climate CrisisThe battle over Thacker Pass reflects renewed strife between mining and drilling industries and Indigenous people. Two recent fights at the heart of this clash have intersected with Thacker Pass one concerning an oil pipeline in the Great Plains and the other over a copper mine in the Southwest.Beginning in 2016 and continuing for nearly a year, a large protest camp on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation sought to halt construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline. Members of the Indigenous-led movement contended that it threatened the regions water. The protest turned violent, leading to hundreds of arrests. Law enforcement eventually cleared the camp and the pipeline was completed.Law enforcement agencies feared similar opposition at Thacker Pass, the records show.In April 2021, Allen, then the local sheriff, and his staff met with Mark Pfeifle, president and CEO of the communications firm Off the Record Strategies, to discuss lessons learned from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Pfeifle, who helped the Bush administration build support for the second Gulf War, had more recently led a public relations blitz to discredit the Standing Rock protesters. This involved suggesting using a fake news crew and mocking up wanted posters for activists, according to emails obtained by news organizations. Pfeifle sent Allen presentations about the law enforcement response at Standing Rock, including one on Examples of Fake News and disinformation from the protesters. As always, we stand ready to help your office and your citizens, he wrote to the sheriff.The department appears not to have hired Pfeifle, although Allen directed his staff to also meet with Pfeifles colleague who worked on the Standing Rock response.Around July 2021, the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office held a meeting to plan for the reality of a large-scale incident at Thacker Pass similar to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Police referred to the ongoing protests on public land at Thacker Pass as an occupation.Allen said he didnt remember meeting with Pfeifle but said he wanted to be prepared for anything. We didnt know what to expect, but from what we understand, there were professional protestors up there and more were coming in, he said.Pfeifle didnt respond to requests for comment.Members of People of Red Mountain have also traveled to Arizona to object to the development of a controversial copper mine thats planned in a national forest east of Phoenix. There, some members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe oppose the development because it would destroy an area they use for ceremonies. (In May, the Supreme Court handed down a decision allowing a land transfer, removing the final key obstacle to the mine.)On these trips, Callao and others have frequently found a notice of baggage inspection from the Transportation Security Administration in their checked luggage. She provided ProPublica with photos of five such notices.An agency spokesperson said that screening equipment does not know to whom the bag belongs when it triggers an alarm, and officers must search it.To Callao, the surveillance, whether by luggage inspection, security camera or counterterrorism task force, adds to the weight placed on Indigenous communities amid the energy transition.We shouldnt have to accept the burden of the climate crisis, Callao said, We should be able to protect our ancestral homelands.
