This is just the typical procedure for challenging a BLM...

This is just the typical procedure for challenging a BLM decision. Only the government gets sued, the company seeking the permit is allowed later to "intervene" as a party. Look at the Thacker Pass litigation. But that was a much weaker case, because the Native American plaintiffs, who eventually joined the original non-Native rancher plaintiff, did not participate in any of the BLM review. They were late to the party. The Hualapai, in their complaint (which is what you would call the "originating application") point out several instances where they made timely efforts to point out problems to BLM, and were ignored.

What is your point about the Cofers? They didn't drill a hole in the ground and see water spring up. Hakamwe was a sacred place where the Hualapai lived for centuries before immigrant settlers arrived, until the government used military force to move them away -- first, west to the Colorado River, and then north, to the Canyon. They had to buy back their ancestral land.