In the high Nevadan desert near the Oregon border lies an enormous deposit of lithium, a metal that is essential in the production of electric car batteries.
In March, the diggers moved into a stunningly beautiful area called Thacker Pass, 4,000ft (1,219m) above sea level.
Mr Biden has said explicitly that he wants the US to be the world leader in electric cars - and wants the lithium that is key to making them to be mined in the US.
Every year a group called The People of the Red Mountain come here to remember their ancestors - who they say were murdered at Thacker Pass.
Mr Crowley also points out that some local native Americans are already working on the mine and support the project - something Ka’ila accepts too.
She believes the Thacker Pass mine is a textbook example of “green colonialism” - the notion that once again native people are being ignored, this time in the name of preventing climate change.
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