Fort McDermitt Tribal Leader Choked Youth During Lithium Americas Community Meeting

Fort McDermitt Tribal Leader Choked Youth During Lithium Americas Community Meeting

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

A Fort McDermitt tribal leader attacked a minor and choked him during a public community meeting with Lithium Americas. The youth was videotaping a meeting held about financial benefits from Lithium Americas of Canada, now digging into the Paiute Massacre Site for lithium in northern Nevada.

The incident, broadcast on KPFK Los Angeles, occurred during the quarterly meeting with Lithium Americas and the Fort McDermitt Tribal Council, on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024.

During the meeting, Arlo Crutcher, former chairman of Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe, walked across the conference room where tribal youth Jimmy, a minor, was videotaping.

Dorece Sam, Jimmy's mother, said it was a quarterly meeting, and the community was never advised of this meeting.

Jimmy set up his tripod and was videotaping the meeting.

Dorece Sam said, "I saw Arlo get up, and I thought he was grabbing a cup of coffee, but instead I saw him rushing over to my son, grabbing his phone off of the tripod, and the next thing I saw him push Jimmy up against the wall by the throat."

Crutcher can be seen on Jimmy's video approaching and telling Jimmy that the youth can not videotape the meeting.

Then, suddenly, several men, tribal members, gathered around the youth and began swinging at Jimmy and his mother and attempted to hit them.

After leaving, while at her home and preparing to take Jimmy to the hospital, three police officers blocked Sam's vehicle and began questioning her.

Although one officer questioned the family, no police report had been filed as of Jan. 17, 2024.

Dorece Sam said Arlo Crutcher was voted out of office as tribal chairman, but refuses to leave the office.

Sam said the damage that Arlo Crutcher has done can not be reversed.

In 2022, Lithium Americas in Vancouver, Canada announced that it had met with the Crutcher family and signed an agreement for benefits in exchange for digging into the Paiute Massacre site for lithium.

Although the federal courts have upheld the lithium mining here, it violates all federal laws that protect Native American burial and religious sites; the water and endangered species.

Radio host Michael Novick, on KPFK in Los Angeles, first reported the incident in his radio program. The radio broadcast is in the Creative FRONTLINE series, produced by Robert Lundahl and Tracker Ginamarie Rangel Quinone, Apache.

Read more on this incident, and the lithium mining violating the sacred, at Censored News:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/01/fort-mcdermitt-tribal-leader-choked.html