Protest Walk September 2021
From September 25-28, 2021, members of the Hualapai Nation along with other Native and non-Native allies walked 110 miles from Peach Springs, Arizona, to Cholla Ranch to protest the Big Sandy lithium project. The next proposed phase of exploratory drilling for the project would disturb cultural sites, desert habitat, and the aquifer that feeds Ha’Kamwe, a sacred spring that the Hualapai people have used medicinally since time immemorial. A future operational mine, described vaguely and inconsistently in presentations by Hawkstone Mining but eagerly promised to investors on their website, would carve a large open-pit mine into the earth, produce sulfuric acid to extract lithium from unearthed clay, and leave behind toxic acidic tailings (mining waste).
Supporters started arriving Friday night and were welcomed warmly by the Hualapai Cultural Department for a sleepover with dinner and breakfast. We were up before sunrise the next day to meet Hualapai participants joining locally and open our journey with words of gratitude and prayer.
The first day, we walked over 20 miles on Route 66 going west from Peach Springs, taking in the changing landscape from tall mesas to wide canyons. We passed by a closed boarding school where Hualapai and other Native children were forced to assimilate to Western culture in the early 1900s. This history, which we still feel today, shows the importance of passing down our culture, traditions, and spirituality, and protecting the land and water that are part of them.
On Sunday, September 26th, we continued along Route 66 until we reached Kingman. We then took a detour to Trout Creek, north of Cholla Ranch in the same Big Sandy River basin, to present a letter of notice to Bell Copper informing them that the exploratory drilling they are conducting there is disturbing ancestral Hualapai land. The skies opened up as we left the site: rain poured down and lightning flashed over the mountains, mellowing out into a rainbow by the time we reached Cholla Ranch.
On Monday we traveled through Kingman, where a delegation including Cholla Ranch caretaker Ivan Bender presented a letter of notice to the Bureau of Land Management informing the agency that exploratory drilling is disturbing ancestral Hualapai land in other parts of the Big Sandy River Basin. The BLM received the letter but shut out further engagement with the delegation. We protested outside the office with song and prayer, then continued down the road.
On Tuesday, we made the final leg through the community of Wikieup, six miles from Cholla Ranch. We were so moved to see the community out with signs of support! At least a few walkers teared up seeing the kids and families. Residents brought cold water for us, a welcome respite from the sun. Then we made our way from Highway 93 to Cholla Ranch and finished our journey at the spring we walked to protect.
We extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out to support the walk: youths and elders, Hualapai and visitors, those who ran far or walked 100 yards, the drivers who carried us while we rested and the cooks who kept us fed. Every step is a prayer, every mile is a ceremony, and we felt the power of our collective movement throughout our journey. All good things shall come through prayer. Protect Ha’Kamwe: a journey for our ancestral land continues.
