UPDATE 1-U.S. electric vehicle startup Canoo to build plant in Oklahoma

The above headline is from a Reuters article and highliights the fact that not only is an EV plant being built in Pryor, Oklahoma, but that plant will employ 2,000 people.

Census data shows the poverty rate to be 20.7% and the per capita income to be only $23,274 in this northeast Oklahoma town that has a population listed, on one source, as 9,379.

Pryor Creek, OK was incorporated as a town under the laws of the Cherokee Nation in 1898 and was officially known as Pryor Creek, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. However, the town was officially known as Pryor by the US Postal Service.  Pryor ( Pryor Creek ) is 45 miles northeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

There is little doubt that a new EV factory employing 2,000 people, when the total population of this impoverished community is less than 10,000 people, will change forever the future of this small community. 

UPDATE 1-U.S. electric vehicle startup Canoo to build plant in Oklahoma (yahoo.com)

This situation might serve, at least to some, as a template for the economic impact that can happen to a small and impoverished community when a previously absent large employer comes in and  provides an economic basis for higher paying jobs vs the situation in that community prior to the arrival of that new economic force... in this cse an EV manufacturing plant.

On a smaller scale, but also in regards to a much smaller community than is Pryor, the same sort of scenario exists for Fort McDermitt in Hubmoldt County, Nevada.  Although the number of jobs being contemplated to be created for residents of Fort McDermitt is much smaller than the situation at Pryor, Oklahoma you have to take into consderation that the population at Fort McDermitt is also much smaller.  Fort McDermitt had a listed population  for the year 2020 of 341 people, of whom 320 are Native American.

68% of the household income, not per capita income, of Fort McDermitt, Nevada is $25,000 per year OR LESS.  93.57% of the population of Fort McDermitt, Nevada is American Indian. 

So the question arises:  What population demographic in McDermitt, Nevada has the most financially to gain from the creation of a major job producing entity close enough to Fort McDermitt to provide job training and job creation possibilities that would be instrumental in raising the per capita income and household income of Fort McDermitt citizens to a significant degree so as to impact positively the present situation whereby 2/3ds of Fort McDermitt HOUSEHOLD incomes are only $25,000 a year or less?  

Well, duh!!!!   The successful construction of LAC's Thacker Pass mine may not offer 2,000 new jobs such as Pryor, Oklahoma will see but even if the number of new jobs, post construction, is only 300 jobs ( a greater amount anticipated during the construction phase ) this still could amount to a huge positive economic impact for Fort McDermitt... of course depending upon how receptive the new potential employer at Thacker Pass is to seeking out participation of Fort McDermitt residents in job training programs that would enhance their prospects of becoming responsible and productive employees for LAC on the one hand and how receptive the employable residents of Fort McDermitt are to seeking out job training and employment on the other hand. 

It has been said, previously, that the presence of LAC's Thacker Pass lithium mine has the potential to increase the yearly income of Fort McDermitt residents by as much as 8X over their present yearly income. 

Bottom line:  Thacker Pass has the potential to provide huge financial benefits for the individual residents of Fort McDermitt and for the community at large.

There is an economic opportunity for the  residents of Fort McDermitt that just doesn't exist without the presence of the Thacker Pass lithium mine.  They have a choice to proceed onward and protest and resist that opportunity or to seize that opportunity to lift themselves and their entire community out of poverty. That is certainly their right to do so and their perception of what path is best for the community will be influenced by many factors, only one of which will be the economic advantages of having a major employment provider locate successfully nearby. 

It is that potential partnership that hopefully will be given full consideration by both the residents of Fort McDermitt and completely by the management of Nevada Lithium/LAC's Thacker Pass Project.  Such a partnership for the future and done as part of what Alexi Zawadzki refers to as a "Good Neighbor" approach provides benefits for both parties in what is presently just a dispute between what, at the present moment in time, are percieved as opposing interests.  A partnership into the future could make friends out of adversaries.  

Pryor, Oklahoma.... the per capita income is less than $25,000 per year.  Fort McDermitt... 68%  of the household income, not per capita income, is $25,000 per year or less.