In Nevada’s remote Thacker Pass, a fight for our future is playing out between local Indigenous tribes and powerful state and corporate entities hellbent on mining the lithium beneath their land. Vancouver-based Lithium Americas is developing a massive lithium mine at Thacker Pass, but for more than two years several local tribes and environmental organizations have tried to block or delay the mine in the courts and through direct action.

For more than 100 years, thousands of Indigenous children died while in Canada’s residential school system. Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones survived, but he, like many others, experienced years of beatings and sexual abuse. The scandal has finally brought the Indigenous rights struggle into focus, none more so than at Fairy Creek, an area of forest on First Nations land that protesters are desperately trying to prevent from falling into the hands of logging companies.