We Must Resist Green Colonialism Wrapped in Transition Mining Promises

Since the earliest days of settler-colonial enterprise on this continent, the promises of extractive industries have been extravagant while the results have been devastating to the land, to water, and to Indigenous peoples. Today, violent histories of extraction and genocide threaten to repeat themselves across Turtle Island as rare earth metal mining proposes to open new frontiers. To make sense of the threat of green colonialism today, we must understand the past. 

We can begin at Thacker Pass, part of the Northern Paiute ancestral homelands dating back 15,000 years. John Thacker was a Sheriff and a detective employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the late 19th Century. His job was to protect mining interests, and when they rejected promises of economic benefit, Paiute people lost their lives.

At least one massacre was documented in the Reno Evening Gazette. John Thacker led an early morning raid on a Paiute camp, took four scalps and kidnapped two children. On that day, 20 men, women and elders were murdered before breakfast. Thacker was regaled as a hero in the press and a humanitarian too: “Although Capt. Thacker hated an Indian worse than poison, he would never allow an Indian child to be killed and saved the lives of the little red skins by taking them back to his ranch.” 

We are now facing a familiar pattern. A new lithium mine has been proposed at Thacker Pass and faces fierce resistance from Paiute people and other Indigenous communities in the region, as the drive for profit through a “green transition” proceeds unabated. Indigenous leaders are calling this “green colonialism,” and are warning that Western strategies to confront climate change threaten biodiversity, clean water and Indigenous rights. These projects repeat cycles of colonial violence and land theft that have been playing out on Turtle Island for centuries. 

At Oak Flat in Arizona, a similar land grab is underway. Apache Stronghold, a community organization led by San Carlos Apache, have been fighting global mining giant Rio Tinto for a decade. Their resistance is based on their freedom of religion and the protection of Indigenous sacred sites. The Apache people have been going to Oak Flats, the home of their deities, for millennia.

In Minnesota, the proposed Talon Metals-Rio Tinto mine is directly upstream of Big Sandy Lake, the site of another atrocity. In 1850, the U.S. government broke several treaties and tricked Anishinaabe people, compelling them to go to Sandy Lake just before winter to receive annuity payments that were arranged via treaty negotiations. Once there, the payments and provisions they were promised were purposely delayed. When the food was delivered, it was spoiled. Hundreds died of starvation and exposure, freezing to death as they tried to return home. 

Why did the U.S. government purposely try to remove them from their homelands just before winter? Because mining and timber companies wanted the land to exploit it for profit. 

Regarding the proposed Tamarack nickel project, which Rio Tinto and Talon Metals call a “green mine,” Jean Skinaway-Lawrence of the Sandy Lake Band says, “It makes me think the [federal] administration already has its mind set. They haven’t been here to see our critical mineral, Manoomin [wild rice]. This is critical to our traditions and our cultural identity. Sulfates will decimate the wild rice. We have a covenant to protect it.”

Indigenous livelihoods, culture, and spiritual practices are all rooted in these lands. As we make an overdue transition from fossil fuels, Indigenous sovereignty should be non-negotiable and protecting the land and water are more crucial than ever. The fight for Land Back is a key climate solution, as Indigenous people already protect a disproportionate share of the world’s biodiversity and have repeatedly stopped deadly fossil fuel projects in their tracks. We must resist Green Colonialism and extractive industry on every frontline while we build and deepen true alternatives with the wisdom of the land, the water, and Indigenous communities around the world.

Hear from land defenders on the frontlines of resisting Green Colonialism:

Listen to the stories and perspectives of Gary McKinney, a Shoshone Paute land defender resisting mining at Thacker Pass, Wendsler Nosie Sr with Apache Stronghold resisting mining at Oak Flat, and Jean Skinaway, an Anishinaabe water protector resisting the Talon nickel mine in Minnesota.