The Walker River Paiute Tribe and Yerington Paiute Tribe are directly affected by the proposed copper mining projects Hudbay Mason and Lion Copper and Gold, and by proposed copper mining expansion of currently operational Pumpkin Hollow, in the Mason Valley region already  devastated by the now abandoned Yerington Anaconda Copper Mine (currently an EPA Superfund site, the mine contaminated the surrounding communities, ranches, and groundwater after twenty - six years of open pit copper mining, leaving behind radioactive and other concentrated toxic waste).

Mining has directly affected our water quality and availability since the beginning of colonialism throughout Turtle Island, and cancer rates in our communities continue to increase. Our indigenous communities in the Great Basin experience intense pressure from the fast-tracked mining and industrial development to support “green energy,” and are threatened by ecologically and sociologically destructive resource extraction processes, most notably, lithium and copper mining, in areas in proximity to or within communities, reservations and land trusts, and sacred sites. Heavy metals extraction poisons our lands, air, and water. Sacred sites for ceremony, where our ancestors are buried, where our medicines grow, such as pine nut tree habitat, an important medicine food for the Paiute people, and where our lifecycles are anchored, are destroyed. Man camps associated with mining sites increase the number of our women, children, men, two spirits, and elders who are murdered, assaulted, or missing. Local infrastructure, power lines, roads, and water, are negatively affected by the increased burden; residents are negatively affected by increased taxes, increased rents, and increased costs of living. Increased vehicular traffic with trucking of processing chemicals such as sulphuric acid causes increased air and noise pollution, risk of chemical spills, increased damage to road infrastructure and residents’ vehicles, and puts our communities at increased risk for serious and often fatal vehicle accidents on roads not designed to accommodate industrial traffic.