Arizona Tribe Seeks to Ban Drilling on Sacred Spring

Members of an Arizona tribe are attempting to defend a spring used for healing ceremonies by calling for a ban on lithium drilling near their ancestral lands.
Leaders of the Hualapai tribe will testify Tuesday in the District Court before the same District Judge Diane Humetewa, who last month issued a temporary restraining order to halt work at the drilling site near the ‘Ha’Kamwe’ spring located between Phoenix and Las Vegas.
The case is the latest to pit Native American tribes and environmentalists against green energy projects promoted by the Biden administration, which they say endanger lands considered sacred to Indigenous people.
The spring is considered sacred to the tribe, according to the action group Protect Ha’Kamwe, who say it has healing properties thanks to its volcanic source deep underground.
The Hualapai allege that the federal Bureau of Land Management failed to adequately analyze potential impacts to the spring the tribe have used for healing ceremonies for centuries.
In court filings the tribe said the springs have served as a place of healing and prayer for generations. The tribe argues that the noise, dust, vibrations from traffic and visual effects from the project will alter the distinct culturally significant setting of the spring, which will make the site unsuitable for ceremonial uses.
Lawyers acting for the tribe and the environmental group Earthjustice and Western Mining Action Project allege that exploratory drilling violated the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act.
The tribe also argued that federal land managers failed to include the springs within the area that could potentially be affected and therefore undermined the required consultation.
Government lawyers say the tribe must submit sufficient evidence to establish that the spring and surrounding lands are likely to suffer imminent irreparable harm because of the proposed drilling.
“In contrast, an injunction would delay exploration needed to determine whether the lithium deposits in the project area can and should be mined. This would not be in the public interest,” their filing reads.
The mining company Arizona Lithium Ltd. argues that lithium exploration is “a significant public interest as the nation strives to address climate change.”
The company plans for 131 drilling sites across a square mile to obtain samples it says will help determine whether a mine is viable to extract the lithium critical in manufacturing batteries for electric batteries and other consumer products.
The largest U.S. lithium mine currently under construction, Thacker Pass in Nevada, last year survived legal challenges brought by a group of tribal peoples and conservationists who also alleged the Bureau of Land Management had failed to sufficiently assess the impact of mining on the site where more than two dozen Native Americans were killed by U.S. troops in 1865.
According to Lithium Americas, the Canadian mining company granted the right to drill at the site, Thacker Pass will create 360 permanent jobs producing 40,000 tons of lithium per year for forty years, enough to power 800,000 cars.