Indigenous Mining Issues

June 10, 2007

AMERICA'S SECRET CHERNOBYL

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Uranium Mining and Nuclear Pollution in the Upper Midwest

1. World War II ended with the nuclear bomb and introduced the use of nuclear energy for the production of electricity which caused the price of uranium to rise. Uranium mining in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota began in the middle of the 1960s. As the economy of the Midwestern states depends primarily on agriculture, when uranium was discovered in the region, many get-rich-quick schemes were adopted. Not only were large mining companies pushing off the tops of bluffs and buttes, but small individual ranchers were also digging in their pastures for the radioactive metal. Mining occurred on both public and private land, although the Great Sioux Nation still maintains a claim to the area through the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868, the March 3rd Act of 1871, Article VI of the US Constitution, and the 1980 Supreme Court decision on the Black Hills.
   
2. In northwestern South Dakota, the Cave Hills area is managed by the US Forest Service. The area currently contains 89 abandoned open-pit uranium mines. Studies by the USFS show that one mine alone has 1,400 milliRhems per hour (mR/hr) of exposed radiation, a level of radiation that is 120,000 times higher than normal background of 100 milliRhems per year (mR/yr)! In the southwestern Black Hills, the US Forest Service reported on 29 abandoned open-pit uranium mines, one of which is about 1 square mile in size.
   
3. It is estimated that more than 1,000 open-pit uranium mines and prospects can be found in the four state region from a map developed by the US Forest Service. The water runoff from the creeks and rivers near these abandoned uranium mines eventually empty into the Missod to the South and East in the coal strip mining process.
   
4. The following agencies are aware of these abandoned uranium mines and prospects: US Forest Service, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Bureau of Land Management, SD Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the US Indian Health Service. Only after public concern about these mines was raised a few years ago did the USFS and the EPA pay for a study in 2006 of the off site effects.
   
5. More than 4,000 exploratory holes, some large enough for a man to fall into, are found in the southwestern Black Hills with an additional 3,000 holes just 10 miles west of the town of Belle Fourche, SD. These holes go to depths of 600 feet. This exploratory process itself allows radioactive pollutants to contaminate underground water sources. More exploratory holes for uranium are in the planning stages for Wyoming and South Dakota.
   
6. The US Air Force also used small nuclear power plants in some of their remote radar stations. No data is available on the current status or disposal of these small nuclear power sources or of their wastes. The US Air Force is responsible for monitoring these sites although there is no stopping the radioactive pollution that could contaminate aquifers.
   
7. In Wyoming, hundreds of abandoned open-pit uranium mines and prospects can be found in or near the coal in the Powder River Basin, and the coal is laced with uranium ore. The coal is shipped to power plants in the Eastern part of the United States. Radioactive dust and particles are released into the air at the coal fired power plants and often set off the warning systems at nuclear power plants. The same radioactive dust and particles are released into the air that travels across South Dakota and Missouri River which empties into the Mississippi River.
   
8. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a secret Executive Order declaring this four State region in the Upper Midwest to be a 'National Sacrifice Area’ for the mining and production of uranium and nuclear energy.

Conclusion: This Fact Sheet regarding past and planned uranium and coal mining in the Upper Midwest region should give cause for alarm to all thinking people in the United States. This is the area that has been called “the Bread Basket of the World.” For more than forty years, the people of South Dakota and beyond have been subjected to radioactive polluted dust and water runoff from the hundreds of abandoned open pit uranium mines, processing sites, underground nuclear power stations, and waste dumps.

There needs to be a concerted effort to determine the extent of the radioactive pollution in the environment, and the health damage that has been and is currently being inflicted upon the people of the United States.

It is imperative that a federal bill be passed in Congress appropriating enough funds for the cleanup of ALL the abandoned uranium mines in this four State region. This harmful situation must not be placed on the end of the Superfund list of hazardous sites to be addressed in twenty years. Those responsible for this disaster must be held responsible for the consequences, but the cleanup and health concerns of the nation need to be addressed first. The health of the nation is at stake!

The cleanup of these mines and underground sites must begin NOW!

We hope you will consider our request for concerted actions to be taken at the national level regarding these grave concerns. This problem of radiation pollution spreading throughout the United States has been allowed to continue quietly for much too long.

What can you do about it?

• Contact your Congressional Representative and Senators by phone (202) 224-3121, through the mail, and email. Ask that they consider sponsoring a bill for the cleanup of all the abandoned uranium mines and prospects, and underground nuclear sites in the Upper Midwest Region of South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.
• Ask your Congressional Representatives and Senators to support the Expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include also those harmed by abandoned uranium mines and prospects in the Upper Midwest Region.
• Encourage the use of alternative sources of energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal. Nuclear energy is not the answer and only creates very long term problems to the entire environment.

 

Produced by Defenders of the Black Hills, PO Box 2003, Rapid City, SD 57709, a non-profit corporation. For more information check out www.defendblackhills.org April, 2007

August 3, 2006 Listen to the Show

Indigenous Border Rights; Summit of Nations at Bear Butte; Mercury Contamination Violates Food Rights

Human Rights Violations at the US - Mexico Border
We look at the struggle Indigenous people from several nations are facing at the US-Mexico border, which is framed as a human rights issue. The Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras (Indigenous Alliance Without Borders) was formed to defend the right of passage on ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples. Matus says Indigenous peoples in Mexico, primarily subsistent farmers with few means, can not meet the requirements of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to cross the border, and he discusses how they are being prevented from meeting with family and at ceremonial gatherings. Yaqui, O'odham, Cocopah and Kickapoo cross the international border from California to Texas to visit family members and attend ceremonies. The Yaqui, O'odham and Cocopah have lived here, in the Sonoran Desert, since time immemorial.
Jose Matus, Director of the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders / Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras, Yaqui ceremonial leader and border rights activist.

The Summit of Indigenous Nations Convenes to Protect Bear Butte and Challenge Treaty Laws
We get an update on the battle to save Bear Butte from the world's largest biker bar... Across the Great Plains over 30 indigenous Nations acknowledge the sacredness of Bear Butte and it’s surrounding area, the Black Hills. It is a mountain inhabited by spirits and spiritual powers that are well known to the native people of the Great Plains. But now, plans to build an enormous biker bar near the sacred mountain are forcing the Great Plains people to take up a fight. The plan is to attract the more than 600,000 bikers attending the “Sturgis Bike Rally” that begins this weekend. Arizona businessman Jay Allen has already broken ground for a 150,000 square foot chunk of asphalt for trucks and for bikers to drink at his bar. A 30,000 seat amphitheater is also in the works. Traditional Indian people have been fighting to save the mountain for centuries. In 1876 Chief Sitting Bull gathered over 6,000 Indians at the Butte to urge them to defend the sacred lands. Chief Crazy Horse spoke from the mountain to remind his people that the Paha Sapa is not for sale. Hundreds of indigenous people from many places are now gathered at a campsite there.
Carter Camp, indigenous activist at the Bear Butte encampment www.defendbearbutte.org

Mercury Contamination: Violating Subsistence Rights
From July 6th to 9th, hundreds of Indigenous people gathered in the beautiful homeland of the Leech Lake Anishinaabe Nation for the 14th Protecting Mother Earth Conference hosted by the Indigenous Environmental Network. People from Indigenous Nations and communities throughout the Americas discussed the challenges they face in the protection of their and our homelands. Mineral extraction, toxic contamination, unsustainable energy and climate change were some of the many issues discussed. At the top of the list of dangers lingering in Indian country, was Mercury contamination. Indigenous activists are calling for a UN special rapporteur to investigate how mercury contamination in the US is a violation of subsistence rights and the right to clean healthy food. We hear a discussion on this in two communities far apart – in Alaska and in Minnesota.
Faith Gemmill, Coordinator REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands), Fairbanks, AK.
Art Cloud, Red Lake Nation member

July 27, 2006 Listen to the Show

Protecting Mother Earth: The Battle to Defend Sacred Sites and the Indigenous Youth Movement

“Government agencies and others in charge of protecting the relationships between our people, the land, air and water have repeatedly broken treaties and promises. In doing so, they have failed in their duty to uphold the tribal and the public trust. The many changes in these relationships have been well documented, but science remains inadequate for understanding their origins and essence. This scientific uncertainty has been misused to carry out economic, cultural and political exploitation of the land and resources. Failure to recognize the complexity of these relationships will further impair the future health of our people and function of the environment.”
An excerpt from a statement presented at the 14th Protecting Mother Earth Conference hosted by the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) in Northern Minnesota. From July 6th to 9th, hundreds of indigenous people gathered in the beautiful homeland of the Leech Lake Anishinaabe Nation. People from Indigenous Nations and communities throughout the Americas discussed the challenges they face in the protection of their and our homelands. Mineral extraction, toxic contamination, unsustainable energy and climate change continue to plague Nations as environmental justice issues. At the gathering, IEN asked people to share strategies for battling these problems and to come together to seek new strategies to protect communities. We hear some voices from the gathering. We hear about the fight for the protection of sacred sites, at both Bear Butte, South Dakota and the San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona. We hear how the Indigenous Environmental movement is standing ground as a human rights struggle.
The Bemidji statement says: “We have the sacred right and obligation to protect the common wealth of our lands and the common health of our people and all our relations for this generation and seven generations to come. We are the Guardians for the 7th generation.”
Carter Camp, speaking at the 14th Protecting Mother Earth Conference. For more information visit: www.defendbearbutte.org

Across the Great Plains over 30 Indigenous Nations acknowledge the sacredness of Bear Butte and it’s surrounding area, which is the Black Hills. It is a mountain inhabited by spirits and spiritual powers that are well known to the native people of the Great Plains. They say Bear Butte is central to ceremonial life and necessary for their health and well being. But now, plans to build enormous biker bars and campsites around the sacred mountain are forcing the Great Plains people to take up a fight. The new development hopes to attract the more than 600,000 bikers attending the “Sturgis Bike Rally” in August. The indigenous defenders say “Never since Custer discovered gold has our Mato Paha been threatened by such a combination of greed, government and legal adversity.” Traditional Indian people have been fighting to save the mountain for centuries. In 1876, Chief Sitting Bull gathered over 6000 Indians at the Butte to urge them to defend the sacred lands. Chief Crazy Horse spoke from the mountain to remind his people that the Paha Sapa is not for sale. Other battles followed, one lost in the US court system in the 1980s when Chief Fools Crow brought it to the Supreme Court. At the Protecting Mother Conference this year, Carter Camp described the current battle and made a rallying call to action to protect Bear Butte.
Tom Goldtooth, Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, for more information visit www.ienearth.org.

The Indigenous Environmental Network holds the Protecting Mother Earth conferences to help Indigenous Peoples confront many challenges on both the local and global level. I asked the director of IEN – Tom Goldtooth – to talk about the 14th gathering held in the homeland of the Leech Lake Anishinaabe Nation.
Alberta Nells, Dine member of the Save the Peaks Coalition, for more information visit www.sacredland.org.
From many places in northern Arizona, the horizon is dramatically marked by three 12,000-foot volcanic peaks that rise out of the Colorado Plateau south of the Grand Canyon. The San Francisco Peaks are sacred to 13 tribes. For the Navajo, the Peaks are the sacred mountain of the west, called “Shining On Top.” They are a key boundary marker and a place where medicine men collect herbs for healing ceremonies. To the Hopi, the Peaks are “The Place of Snow on the Very Top,” home for half of the year to the ancestral kachina spirits who live among the clouds around the summit. When properly honored through song and ceremony, the kachinas bring gentle rains to thirsty corn plants. The peaks are one of the “sacred places where the Earth brushes up against the unseen world,” in the words of Yavapai-Apache Chairman Vincent Randall. At the Protecting Mother Earth conference, Alberta Nells traveled from Arizona to learn strategies for protecting these peaks. She is a part of the coalition to save the peaks, and is only 16 years old. I caught up with her at the conference and asked her about her role as a youth in protecting sacred sites.

June 15, 2006 Listen to the Show

Penobscot Nation Part of Unique Collaboration to Restore River and Salmon; Montana Coal Wars Veteran Gail Small on Energy Policies, Land Rights, Abramoff and More

Cecilia Fire Thunder Refuses to Be Silenced
In South Dakota, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecilia Fire Thunder is speaking out against a gag order issued by the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council. She says a suspension letter she received from the Tribal council ordered her not to talk to the media. She called it a violation of her constitutional rights in an interview Tuesday, according to the Rapid City Journal. The tribal council suspended Fire Thunder last month for proposing an abortion clinic on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and for allegedly raising money for the clinic. She proposed the clinic in response to South Dakota’s new abortion ban, which has since been referred to a statewide vote in November. The tribal council also banned abortions on the reservation. Last year there were two attempts to impeach Fire Thunder. She was suspended once and reinstated when charges were dismissed. She is the first woman elected as president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. A hearing to discuss impeachment has not yet been set.

The Navajo Nation Declares State of Emergency
The Navajo Nation has declared a state of emergency in the wake of ongoing drought conditions and a series of recent wildfires, according to a press release. Of nine fires only one is still burning, said Selena Manychildren, Navajo Department of Emergency Management public information officer, according to the Farmington Daily Times of New Mexico. People who need fires for ceremonial purposes are required to obtain a BIA Burn Permit, which will only be issued for ceremonial use. The law enforcement department reportedly used all their funding last week to provide meals, water and other supplies, she said. The Department is seeking water, energy bars, toiletries and non-perishable food among other items.

US Supreme Court Decision Favors Native Hawaiian Programs
A lawsuit seeking to cut off public money used for Native Hawaiian programs has suffered a setback in the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit contended that programs through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs should not receive state funding on the grounds that they only benefit people of Native Hawaiian ancestry. But the Supreme Court Monday told an appeals court to reconsider whether taxpayers have the right to sue over how the government spends their money. A lawyer for the Hawaii taxpayers making the claim said the Ninth Circuit Court could stand by its September ruling that taxpayers can challenge Hawaiians-only programs, or he could refile the lawsuit with new plaintiffs. Chief Justice John Roberts did not participate in the decision and the Supreme Court offered no explanation. Roberts was previously hired by the state to defend the Office of Hawaiian Affair’s Hawaiians-only voting restriction. In the case, the court ruled unconstitutional OHA's requirement that voters for its trustees must have Hawaiian blood.

Appeals Court Blocks Critical Trust Fund Reports
A federal appeals court ruled last Friday to suppress reports which contained information that the US Department of the Interior allegedly destroyed documents related to a class action lawsuit brought by Native Americans. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit against the Department ten years ago, accusing the government of mismanaging an Indian trust in their names for a period of 120 years. The Native Americans say they are owed tens of billions of dollars. The author of the reports, Alan Balaran, was appointed by US District Judge Royce Lamberth. He supervised the exchange of information between parties in the lawsuit and investigated document destruction. Balaran's reports to the judge, including observations from personal visits, found the department had destroyed Indian records, sometimes intentionally, at federal depositories and Indian reservations in the West. According to the Associated Press, Keith Harper, a lawyer for the Indian plaintiffs suing the department, said Friday, "Most of the facts in those reports have been conceded as true" by the Interior Department. Interior officials nonetheless asked a federal appeals court to strike Balaran's reports from the record, saying he had improperly hired as an expert witness a former Interior contractor who had accused the department of fraud. Balaran resigned two years ago, saying the government wanted him off the case after he found evidence that private landowners near the Navajo Nation got as much as 20 times more money than Indian landowners from gas pipeline companies for rights to cross their land. Those findings have not been disputed by the government in the lawsuit.

Caledonia Update
From the Six Nations standoff in Caledonia: Violent incidents last Friday resulted in the arrest warrants for seven people. Ontario Premier McGuinty on Monday called an end to negotiations with native protestors and said it’s time the road blockades come down. He said the Native community must help search for the seven wanted people. Talks between the government and Six Nations people are set to resume today. Protestors have now removed barricades from the railway and roads, and say the government now has no excuse to avoid tackling their land claims. Negotiators will update the Six Nations community after the talks end tonight. Yesterday, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the traditional native government, issued a news release saying the seven people wanted by the OPP will not be at the protest site until the Confederacy completes its own investigation, according to the Hamilton Spectator. Also yesterday, Caledonia business owner launched a class action lawsuit to recoup tens of millions of dollars in losses, their lawyers said Wednesday according to the Canadian press. Only two businesses have signed on so far. The suit is expected to grow exponentially as homeowners may join the legal fight. Six Nations and other Aboriginal protestors have been occupying a half-finished housing development since the end of February.

Colorado University Panel Votes to Fire Ward Churchill
The committee at University of Colorado looking into charges against Ward Churchill issued a strongly worded report Tuesday. The panel, made up of nine CU faculty, a staff member and a graduate student, agreed unanimously with an investigative committee’s earlier findings that Churchill “has committed serious, repeated and deliberate research misconduct.” This includes plagiarism and fabrication of material. In a vote with secret ballots, a majority of the committee said the ethnic studies professor should be fired. The committee forwarded a 20-page report to the University’s Interim Provost and Dean. They will evaluate the report and then advise the Chancellor on what they think should happen to Churchill. The Chancellor will make the final decision, most likely in the next few weeks, according to the Rocky Mountain News. Churchill’s attorney, David Lane, has said Churchill will sue CU in federal court if he is fired. Churchill and Lane have called the investigation politically motivated and the committees’ findings without merit.

Three South Carolina Tribes Seek Federal Recognition
In South Carolina, the Commission for Minority Affairs met last week to consider the recognition petitions of three more tribes. The Croatan Pee Dee, the Piedmont American Indian Association-Lower Eastern Cherokee Nation and the Darlington County Pee Dee Tribe are the latest to seek state recognition. The commission has recognized two tribes so far. The Croatan Pee Dee group has since withdrawn after questions were raised about its status and Indian ancestry. One expert reportedly said the group is making claims that can not be supported by history or documentation.

Abramoff Investigation Update
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will meet on June 22 to vote on the Jack Abramoff lobbying investigation report, Indianz.com is reporting. Back in June 2005, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), the chairman of the committee, said the committee would issue a report. He said it would make recommendations to prevent tribes from being duped by lobbyists. Five people have since been indicted in connection with their lobbying activities in Washington, D.C. Four of them have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with federal prosecutors as the investigation targets members of Congress. The committee itself held five hearings as part of its investigation. Tribal leaders, lobbyists, former Bush administration officials and other people connected to the scandal testified, although in some cases, they refused to provide testimony.

Cherokees to Vote on Whether to Admit Freedmen
The Cherokee tribal council voted Monday night to have Cherokee voters decide whether the descendents of black freedmen should be allowed to enroll in the Cherokee tribe. The vote could come in a special election, at a cost of $150,000 to $350,000, or at the tribe’s next regular election — in July 2007. The Council failed on Monday to gather the majority needed to call the special election. The Cherokees’ Judicial Appeals Tribunal ruled in March that descendants of black freedmen — emancipated slaves who joined the Cherokees in the 1800s — must be recognized as citizens of the tribe. More than 800 descendants of freedmen have registered with the Cherokee Nation since the tribal high court’s ruling. Amending the constitution would remove them from the tribe’s citizenship rolls. According to the Muskogee Phoenix, most councilors said Indian blood should be required for tribal membership.

Native American Music Awards
The 8th Annual Native American Music Awards were recently held in Florida, co-sponsored by the Seminole Tribe. An equal mix of new artists and previous Nammy Award winners were nominated. The Nammys are also designed to make Native American music more accessible to a wide audience. Keith Secola won artist of the year for “Americana” and Best Male artist was Wade Fernandez with “Song of the Black Wolf.” This year’s Best Female Artist was Pura Fe’ with “Follow Your Heart’s Desire.” Jim Boyd won Songwriter of the Year for “Treaties.” Winner for Song/Single of the Year went to Bill Miller for “Sacred Ground.”

IEN Protecting Mother Earth Conference
The 14th Annual Protecting Mother Earth Conference will take place July 6 – 9 in Cass Lake, Minnesota at the Leech Lake Memorial Pow-wow Grounds. Hosted by the Indigenous Environmental Network, there will be workshops on Water of Life & Prayer for the Water, Toxic Contamination and Health of All Life, Energy & Climate Justice, Native Youth Resistance Movement, and more. For more information go to www.ienearth.org or contact Simone Senogles at +1 218 751- 4967 or simone@ienearth.org

Penobscot Nation Moves Forward With River Restoration Project
For years, the Penobscot Nation has fought to increase the number of fish annually making it to their homelands. But their journey has been halted by several dams on the Penobscot River owned by the PPL Corporation. In 2004, the federal government, the Penobscot Nation and the PPL Corporation all signed the Lower Penobscot River Multi-party Settlement Agreement. It is a collaborative effort to restore the Penobscot River. The Agreement allows for increased production at some PPL mills and calls for the removal of two dams. Another dam would be decommissioned and bypassed with a fishway. At the end of May, PPL Corporation started generating more power at other dams, signaling a step towards compensating for the loss of power generated by the dams which will be removed and decommissioned. The Penobscot River Restoration Trust is now working to raise $25 million to buy the three dams from PPL. The trust includes six conservation groups and the Penobscot Nation. John Banks, Penobscot and director of natural resources for the Penobscot Indian Nation. Visit this web site for more information: www.penobscotriver.org and www.penobscotnation.org

Montana Coal War Veteran Gail Small on Energy Policy, Food Politics and More
The largest coal strip mine and gasification complex in America lies just 15 miles from the Cheyenne Reservation. The Cheyenne people are living on one of the poorest Reservations in the country and yet for over 30 years, they have refused to strip mine their homeland for promises of riches. As a teenager, Gail Small was immersed in the infamous Montana Coal Wars – a grassroots struggle to reverse government policy allowing energy companies to mine the rich coal reserves underneath the Northern Cheyenne reservation. Prohibited from mining on the reservation, the coal companies have dug into nearby lands scarring the landscape with strip mines. After getting her law degree from the University of Oregon, Small returned to the Northern Cheyenne reservation and founded Native Action, a ground-breaking non-profit advocacy group dedicated to environmental and political reforms, education and other causes that directly affect the life of her tribe. Today Native Action is struggling to keep thousands of methane gas wells from surrounding the Northern Cheyenne reservation. In April 2005, they lost a battle to stop a ruling that is allowing 500 wells per year to be opened up in Southeastern Montana despite the fact that the environmental impact statement the Bureau of Land Management issued was declared invalid. The wells will be right up to the Cheyenne’s borders within two years if the industry has it’s way. Gail Small, Northern Cheyenne lawyer and founder of Native Action. For more information visit: www.nativeaction.org

January 26, 2006

Indigenous Environmental Network Director Charges Bush Administration With Crimes Against Humanity; A Discussion With Charmaine Whiteface, Defender of the Black Hills

Indigenous People Demand an End to the Bush Administration's Human Rights Violations We speak with an Indigenous political activist who testified at the recent International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration held in New York City. We hear about the various Indigenous communities whose human rights have been violated as a result of the Bush administration's policies.

Tom GoldTooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network

Defenders of the Black Hills

We hear about Bear Butte, a small mountain about 8 miles off the northeastern corner of the Black Hills. It is sacred to more than 60 Native nations from the North American continent and is being threatened by urban sprawl from the nearby town of Sturgis, and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Although the community was able to stop the building of an outdoor shooting range four miles from this sacred mountain, they are now facing an individual who wants to build a number of biker bars, an outdoor concert arena, and a biker campground on 300 acres only one and a half miles from the base.

Also, there are close to 1,000 abandoned uranium mines and prospects in the north, northwest, and western portions of the Treaty Territory, in SD, ND, MT, WY, and also in the southern Black Hills. Nebraska currently has an active uranium mine just south of the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Native community became aware of these this past year and are trying to bring this information to the attention of the public. We hear about these issues and more.

Charmaine White Face, Coordinator of the Defenders of the Black Hills

August 9, 2005

Bush's Energy Bill Passes

What does this mean for Native people in the United States? Go to Democracy Now!'s web site to read the transcript or listen to the MP3 of a segment on August 9th with Clayton Thomas-Muller. He is the Native energy organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, and discusses what the energy bill means for Native lands.

May 6, 2005

Navajo Uranium Mining Ban Under Scrutiny

On Friday, April 30th President Joe Shirley Jr. signed an agreement to ban uranium mining and processing on Navajo lands. The Dine Natural Resources Protection Act was first approved by the Dine council by a vote of 63-19 and the ban enjoys widespread support on the reservation.

"I don't want to subject any more of my people to exposure to uranium and the cancers that it causes," Shirley said during the signing ceremony."As long as there are no answers to cancer, we shouldn't have uranium mining on the Navajo Nation," he added. "I believe the powers that be committed genocide on Navajo land by allowing uranium." The ban also re-enforces Navajo sovereignty over its land, Shirley said.

Hydro Resources Inc. has waged a campaign over the past decade to obtain federal permits to conduct in-situ leach uranium mining and uranium processing. President of HRI, Craig Bartels, has not offered comment on whether HRI would recognize the Navajo Nation's anti-uranium stance and withdraw its petition to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for license.

The Navajo Nation has the right to ban uranium mining and processing on its land but the question for a federal court is how it defines Navajo Indian land, added Bartels, HRI President, referring to allotted lands where some Navajo owners hope to sign lucrative deals with HRI. A group of Navajo allottees supports HRI.

The nation has lost many precious Navajo medicine people, according to Shirley, who are few in numbers, from health problems related to uranium exposure. The bright yellow earth that contains uranium was widely used in sand painting and traditional healing ceremonies throughout Navajo history, Shirley said.

Bartels said Tuesday that if the council and President Joe Shirley Jr. gave him and his staff the same amount of time they gave to Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, HRI would correct the "misinformation" the environmental group gave them. "We've tried to meet with the council and president but ENDAUM was invited to speak twice at winter and spring session, Bartels said. "And yet as much as we tried, we're not allowed to speak so it's no wonder that there's a lot of misinformation. Certain people have a certain agenda and they're doing all they can to shut out anyone else that has a different agenda," he added. "Basically, it's just a few people, anti-nuclear activists, that say this (in-situ leach uranium mining) is unsafe."

May 5, 2005

Navajo Nation Council Bans Uranium Mining

April 4, 2005, Editors Report/Indian Country Today

Uranium mining has been a health and environmental scourge, and yet an economic engine as well at Navajo. For some 50 years, Navajo have lived with the effects of thousands of open pit mines, many left unredeemed after decades of exposure. But health and life issues trumped economic issues April 19, when the Navajo Nation Council passed the Din Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005 in a vote of 69 - 13.

The new act, which Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. is expected to sign, outlaws uranium mining and processing throughout the vast territory. The measure, which caught a few people by surprise, is evidence of a strong and persistent Navajo grassroots movement that has organized for years against the restart of uranium mining on the reservation.

The strong movement has grown and recently achieved its major objective because it is grounded in spiritual teaching that, along with concerns for health issues, still resonates among traditionalists on the reservation. Respect for the spiritual quality and importance of water in people's everyday life is an intricate part of the Navajo and other Native opposition to uranium mining and processing technologies. By their long-term polluting nature, these processes too often violate principles of cultural and technical common sense. At Hopi, too, located within the vast Navajo territory, strong concerns are increasingly raised in this deeply traditional community about a coal slurry pipeline that is depleting an aquifer of pristine, virtually non-renewable water. Respect for water as source of health and life, and the leadership to protect it from contamination, are wonderful Indian principles of ancient law very much needed in governmental and business practice today.

The 27,000-square-mile reservation, which spreads across parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, sits upon one of the world's largest deposits of uranium ore. At one time declared a ''national sacrifice area'' in federal planning documents, the Four Corners region of Navajo country was invaded by the uranium and coal industries throughout the Cold War years and to the present. As an industry, it provided a lot of employment which, by its very nature, has caused untold damage to the people and the ecology of their homelands.

Over time, among the more than 255,000 members of the nation - of which an estimated 180,000 live in Navajo land - the uranium mining companies recruited, trained and employed thousands of Navajo as miners and in other professions. The Navajo workers were callously misinformed and uninformed for decades about the dangerous nature of the materials they were made to handle. The close nature of their work with radiation-laden yellow cake caused many cancer and other deaths - perhaps as many as one person per family in some communities across the reservation. The country's worst radioactive uranium spill happened in 1979, when 100 million gallons of radioactive liquid contaminated waterways in Church Rock and Crownpoint. Navajo people have lived with the scourge of uranium mining and the ensuing contamination of their lands for too long.

The Radiation Expose Compensation Act of 1990 came too late for many elderly Navajo miners. But it provided compensation and was a needed recognition by the federal government that the uranium venture thrust upon the Navajo by the federal government brought severe disregard for the safety and health of whole communities. Obvious evidence is still found in the many areas where radioactive materials remain dangerously close to communities and homes. The largest Indian nation in the country is right to listen to its most ancient voices on this issue.

For more than 30 years, various groups of Navajo grassroots people have sought to examine, critique and then stop the mining. They have become a force to reckon with and give every indication of continuing the campaign to not allow the nuclear contamination to restart within or even near the reservation.

The recent over-the-top victory for opposition to uranium mining on the reservation, particularly in its eastern portion, was directly fueled by concerns that a new wave of mining is imminent. This was signaled by provisions in the federal energy bill to subsidize uranium corporations with $30 million in incentives to further develop the region. The watchdog movement now sets its eye on provisions of the energy bill that encourage in situ leaching research in areas adjacent to the reservation.

U.S. Congressman Tom Udall, D-N.M., an ally of the Navajo mining opponents, has taken on Section 631 of the energy bill that authorizes the appropriations of $30 million over three years to ''identify, test and develop improved in situ leaching mining technologies, including low-cost environmental restoration technologies.'' Udall calls the federal subsidy ''corporate welfare ... [that] will have a severe impact on the Southwest's environment and on the public health of the Native American communities I represent.'' His amendment to strike the subsidies is a further limitation on the nuclear industry in the region. Udall's call for a comprehensive energy policy that enhances alternative sources of energy is also compatible with Native philosophies.

As always, proponents of the present energy policy will try to ram the industry down the Navajo people's throats. Lawsuits are, of course, expected; and, most dangerously, Sen. Pete Domenici might decide to move federal legislation to prohibit the Navajo Nation from regulating uranium mining on its own lands.

As always, the problem of radioactive uranium, in situ leach mining included, is its likelihood to contaminate groundwater, in the present Navajo case, for some 15,000 people. This is a threat and a reality to public health that tens of thousands of other Navajos have lived with for too many decades. A different approach is possible.

A bit less explosive and always potentially troublesome, yet the rail of a more prosperous economic base, the Navajo Nation has the construction of six casinos in the works. Likely to be operated by the nation government, with some reasonable management and good grassroots orientation in terms of disbursement of benefits in health, education and infrastructure assistance, a well-regulated gaming industry could be just the right economic engine for the largest Indian nation in the United States.

There is a lot to be said about a well-regulated gaming industry to go with a nation's other tourism and hospitality, crafts and agricultural enterprises. It can be the precise financial base - at this time in history - to allow the country's largest Indian nation to solidify its land base, grow and prosper its population, and be able to fully defend and enhance its water sources and other environmental wonders.