RENO, NV Native American leaders from all throughout the country filled the room, having been invited to Washington to hear from federal representatives on President Joe Biden’s successes and new policy directives intended to strengthen ties and safeguard historic places.
Among them was Arlan Melendez.
Two thousand miles distant, or four thousand twenty-three km, the longstanding chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony called his own gathering. At the location where over two dozen of their Paiute and Shoshone ancestors were killed in 1865, he intended to demonstrate that his people would find a different means to oppose the U.S. government’s approval of a big lithium mine.
At every stage of the judicial process, Melendez faced opposition from government lawyers who claimed that a protracted appeal would not prevent the desecration of holy sites.