Decolonize the Lithium Boom Rhetoric about American energy independence has long been used to trample Indigenous rights. The new era of renewables should be different. Cavan Images/Shutterstock Premier Last week, The New York Timesreported on the upcoming opening of what will be America’s second functional lithium mine—a signal of the nation’s official entrance into the current lithium boom, which is being driven by the worldwide transition to electric vehicles. Summarizing the fight over the open-pit mine that mining corporation Lithium Americas has proposed for a site in Nevada, the Times noted opposition from “members of a Native American tribe, ranchers and environmental groups.” The tribal nation is the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes, whose tribal government leader, Maxine Redstar, told the