This Poet and Tribal Attorney is Being Sued by a Mining Company

“Protecting Peehee Mu’huh is an act of love and gratitude.”

Will Falk walking along the rim of the Montana Mountains above Peehee Mu’huh (Thacker Pass) on April 4th, 2021. Photo by the author.

This is the third in a series of articles introducing the Thacker Pass Six, a group of traditional indigenous people and grassroots activists — including me — who are being sued by a Canadian mining company called Lithium Nevada Corporation.

I am publishing it today, on January 15th, because it is the four-year anniversary of the day that Will and I set up a tent on the mountainside and launched the Protect Thacker Pass land defense campaign in 2021.

If you’re new here, this is Biocentric, a newsletter about sustainability, overshoot, greenwashing, and resistance. It’s written by me, Max Wilbert, the co-author of Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It and co-founder of Protect Thacker Pass.

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This is Will Falk, a poet, attorney, and community organizer who currently lives in Colorado.

For the last decade, Will has dedicated his life to protecting our planet. In 2014, he moved to Canada to support an indigenous-led pipeline blockade at the Unist’ot’en Camp, in northern British Columbia. In 2015, he shivered near the summit of Mauna Kea for weeks, supporting Hawaiian people defending their sacred site from planned construction.

In 2017, Will traveled much of the length of the Colorado River, reporting on the threats to the ecosystem. Later that year, he was part of the first ever lawsuit filed on behalf of a major ecosystem in the United States, in a case called Colorado River vs. The State of Colorado. During the same period, we organized together against the destruction of Pinõn-Juniper Forests and a planned water extraction project in Nevada. And in 2019, he traveled along the Ohio River, along whose banks he was born, on a similar mission of truth-telling. He did all of this for free, living out of his car, on less than a shoestring budget.

Two sides of Will Falk. Left: in the tent on a frigid January night at Thacker Pass, on day 13 of the campaign, working late into the evening to defend the nascent camp from legal threats. Right: emerging from the Federal Courthouse in Reno on January 5th, 2023, after representing the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and Summit Lake Paiute Tribe in a hearing regarding Thacker Pass.

Will has openly and bravely documented his journey from attempting suicide twice to representing Native American Tribes pro-bono in Federal Court litigation at Thacker Pass. When I decided to setup the Protect Thacker Pass protest camp in late 2020, the first person I called was Will. He was with me throughout the entire campaign.

In April 2023, Will was at Thacker Pass as a legal observer. However, when Dean Barlese (who was in a wheelchair) needed someone to move him across an invisible legal boundary, Will volunteered. For that simple action, Lithium Nevada Corporation is suing him.

Here’s Will’s statement, in his own words.

“My name is Will Falk. I’m 37 years old, and I’m a poet, activist, and attorney.

I was born in Evansville, IN. My family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah when I was 11. I went to college at the University of Dayton and law school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I’ve lived all over North America in my adult life. I currently live in Castle Rock, CO.

I’m in love with the natural world. I love the smell of spring rain on sagebrush. I love western meadowlarks singing from sagebrush tops. I love listening to the conversations shared by crows. I love letting golden eagle flight patterns hypnotize me. I love the peace that remains after Great Basin blizzards. I love dancing to the music of greater sage grouse drumming. I love Mormon cricket migrations. I love wondering who painted Jerusalem crickets in their vibrant colors. I love the natural world who gives me and everyone I love life.

Day 5 of the Protect Thacker Pass campaign, on January 20th, 2021. At this time, it was just Will and me in a tent on the mountainside. Photo by the author.

I want to protect Peehee Mu’huh because she is my friend and I love her. I lived with Peehee Mu’huh for most of 2021. She showed me all her moods: her cold, pristine calm in winter, her swelling, blooming joy in spring, her blazing heat and the sweetness of her shade under stone outcrops in summer, her golden hope in flowering rabbit brush in fall. She showed me all of my kin whom she provides a home for. She showed me pronghorn antelope yearlings sprinting for the pure joy in being fast. She showed me coyotes playing pranks on cattle. She showed me the mesmerizing patterns on rattlesnake skin. She dazzled me with every sunrise and sunset. She whispered her wisdom in the ever-present wind. She offered me peace. She quieted my mind. She soothed my spirit.

I love her and all the creatures whom she provides a home for. Protecting Peehee Mu’huh is, for me, an act of love and gratitude.

Facing this lawsuit is scary. We face potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for peacefully protesting and praying at Peehee Mu’huh. Lithium Nevada Corporation has successfully gained an injunction from the court which means we cannot return to Peehee Mu’huh. It’s heartbreaking not to be able to return. The court process takes a long time and is slow-moving. Not knowing what is going to happen to us in court is deeply-anxiety provoking.

The best way people can support us is financially. I am not licensed in Nevada. So, we have to conduct our legal defense through a local Nevada attorney. Attorney fees are expensive and our ability to defend ourselves depends on being able to pay our local Nevada attorney.”

The Milky Way above Peehee Mu’huh (Thacker Pass) on August 13th, 2022. Photo by the author.