#navajo uranium

[decolonize-the-everything]

About 100 people gathered to protest the shipments on U.S. Route 89 and Route 160. The shipments began on Tuesday with trucks carrying ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine to the White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah. Transportation of uranium has been illegal in the Navajo Nation since 2012, when the late Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly signed into law the Radioactive and Related Substances, Equipment, Vehicles, Persons, and Materials Transportation Act. The law prohibits the transportation of radioactive materials through the Navajo Nation with exceptions for the cleanup and removal of left-over uranium ore from the numerous abandoned mines that litter the Nation. Efforts to permanently ban new uranium mine development and transportation on or across the Navajo Nation have been an ongoing battle for years. In 2005, the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act banned uranium mining in the Navajo Nation. Earlier this year President Buu Nygren wrote a letter to President Joe Biden to address the growing concerns of uranium transportation across Navajo lands when Energy Fuels Resources Inc. began its mining operations at the Pinyon Plain Mine near the Grand Canyon. “The transportation of uranium across Navajo lands, which not only endangers our communities but also contradicts our sovereign rights to enforce our laws and protect our territory,” Nygren said in his letter to Biden on March 14, 2024. “Uranium transport continues, posing an unacceptable risk to the well-being of our people and the sanctity of our land. Alternative routes exist that can and should be used to avoid crossing Navajo lands. The use of these alternative paths would demonstrate respect for our sovereignty and a commitment to our collective health and safety."

[calixcasual]

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

The Navajo Nation doesn’t allow radioactive uranium ore to be transported through its lands without permission, but that’s exactly what a mining company began doing this week on roads administered by the state—which has no such restrictions.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren told tribal police to stop the trucks, and he issued an executive order Wednesday that called for the company to negotiate a hauling agreement with the tribe before any other trucks enter Navajo land. First Lady Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren announced a “No Illegal Uranium Hauling” walk along part of the transportation route in Cameron. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, under pressure for months from tribes and environmental advocates over the situation, subsequently brokered a deal with the company to hit pause.

In a Thursday night call, Hobbs told Nygren that shipments would halt until the company—Energy Fuels Resources—and the Navajo Nation hold discussions about safety concerns.

While Nygren is glad the governor acted, he wants to know how long transportation activities will stop.

“I don’t know what temporary hold means on the governor’s side,” Nygren said in an interview after the walk, held Friday morning. “Does that mean five days? Does that mean 10 days? Does that mean a month? … I hope temporary means six months, aligning with my executive order, so that we can have those discussions.”

Asked by Inside Climate News about timing, a Hobbs spokesperson said, “At this moment, there’s no additional information on when the end date will be.”

Energy Fuels Resources, the owner of Pinyon Plain Mine in Arizona and White Mesa Mill in Utah, confirmed it started hauling ore from one site to the other on Tuesday. In a statement issued before the agreement to pause that work, the company said this transportation is “safe and legal” and “in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

State law doesn’t bar that transport, but a Navajo law enacted in 2012 does. The situation cuts to the heart of U.S. history with Indigenous people: Treaty agreements that acknowledge tribal nations’ right to determine what happens on their lands are routinely ignored by states, companies and the federal government.

“Energy Fuels is subject to Navajo authority when accessing Navajo territory and can be excluded from Navajo territory for threatening the well-being of the Navajo People, although they likely claim they are beyond Navajo authority when on a state highway running through the Navajo reservation,” Gabe Galanda, an Indigenous rights attorney and the managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman, said in an email. “The state of Arizona may likewise claim regulatory power over a state highway running through the Navajo reservation but that assertion affronts Navajo inherent sovereignty and territorial control.”

[bugboy-behaviour]

‼️‼️URANIUM IS BEING ILLEGALLY TRANSPORTED ACROSS NATIVE LAND‼️‼️

[elmacheteillustrated]

Churchrock New Mexico Uranium spill. 45 year #anniversary

[beatbizzle]

Please sign this petition to stop a dangerous mine from infecting the water and lands in and around the Grand Canyon.

This land is sacred to many tribes, and any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

[decolonize-the-everything]

Housing insecurity is racist & violent

"Seventy-five national, state, territorial, and local domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking organizations filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) urging it to support the rights of people who are homeless, including unhoused survivors, in City of Grants Pass, Ore. v. Johnson. This case is one of the most important SCOTUS cases regarding homelessness in the past 40 years. The amicus brief, authored by the National Housing Law Project and Sexual Violence Law Center, argues that housing is extremely limited for gender-based violence survivors, often forcing them to make impossible choices between sleeping outside or suffering continued violence. Criminalizing survivors will only increase their and their families’ risk of violence, trauma, and housing insecurity."

Article from July 29:

Housing advocates across Indian Country say Native Americans and Alaska Natives likely will feel the full weight of a June 28 Supreme Court ruling that has cleared the way for cities to enforce bans on unsheltered people sleeping outside in public places. Native Americans experience homelessness at a disparate rate. Advocates say the housing crisis is a reflection of our society’s unwillingness to address systemic issues.

“It’s criminalizing poverty,” said attorney Caroline LaPorte, who is an immediate descendant of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. “We are much more comfortable with putting, and paying, for people to be incarcerated.” LaPorte is the director of the STTARS Indigenous Safe Housing Resource Center, a project of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, and she is the board chairman for the StrongHearts Native Helpline. STTARS focuses on the intersection of housing insecurity and gender-based violence. A lawyer, she said the Supreme Court’s decision was enraging. “Everybody belongs in our communities. They deserve to be safe, and it is our responsibility. We are required to make sure that those people have the things that they need,” LaPorte said.[...]

Announced on June 28 in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the court found that outdoor sleeping bans don’t violate the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment.

[pinkyshow]

On Native Land: Pinky & Bunny pull 360 pounds of uranium tailings through Petrified Forest National Park. (2009)

This image is from our On Native Land series. Anyone caught removing even a small piece of fossilized wood from Petrified Forest National Park will get fined $325. But Pinky & Bunny aren't stealing souvenirs, they're just spreading deadly radioactive contamination (okay, that's not real uranium), which must not be a big deal because the U.S. Government and corporations have been doing that in Navajo country for decades and no one's punishing them.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the Associated Press (AP):

The Navajo Nation has approved emergency legislation meant to strengthen a tribal law that regulates the transportation of radioactive material across the largest Native American reservation in the U.S.

The move is in response to the revival of a uranium mining operation just south of the Grand Canyon that has drawn much criticism from environmentalists and Native American tribes in the region.

Navajo President Buu Nygren signed the legislation Thursday as talks continue among tribal officials and Energy Fuels Inc. to craft an agreement that would address concerns about any potential risks to the public or the environment.

The updated law calls for more advance notification of plans to ship uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine in northern Arizona to a mill in Utah. The payment of transport fees and the filing of emergency preparedness plans also are among the mandates.

The tribe in 2005 banned uranium mining across the sprawling reservation, pointing to the painful legacy of contamination, illness and death that was left behind by the extraction of nearly 30 millions tons of the ore during World War II and the Cold War.

Despite that ban, tribal lawmakers in 2012 stopped short of prohibiting the transportation of uranium across Navajo lands. Instead, they declared the tribe’s general opposition to moving ore across tribal lands and adopted regulations to protect human health and the environment by requiring notification and financial assurance, among other things.

Navajo leaders said it was time to strengthen that law and require earlier notification of shipments by Energy Fuels as the company ramps up operations.

Nygren said notification under the existing law didn’t happen when Energy Fuels shipped its first two loads of ore in July and his efforts to have tribal police intercept the semi-trucks were too late.

“The purpose of this legislation is to provide for the protection, health and safety of the Navajo Nation and its people and our precious resources such as our water,” he said in a letter thanking lawmakers for prioritizing the issue.

[a-forger-and-a-point-man]

Don’t forget the first victims when you go see Oppenheimer this opening weekend. Unforgivable not to include them in the narrative.

We love us some Nolan and Cillian but this is also a story that should never have taken place.

For further reading:

This is what happens when the US government goes nuclear-crazy during the Cold War and mines a shit ton of uranium. Lambs born with three legs and no eyes, and human stillbirths and agonizing deformities for those that survive. For decades it was referred to as a Navajo-specific hereditary illness. No one made the link to the mines and the drinking water.

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

In the Silence of Decay by Lisa Boyle

Pinter P.I. #1

Interesting, informative, and immersive ~ Great historical fiction that drew me in and made me care!

What I liked: * Molly: recently lost her mother, moved in with her distant father, artist, bright, enjoys puzzles, inquisitive, fourteen, unsure of her future, has great potential, would like to get to know her better

* James Pinter: truck driver , owns his own big rig, ex-military CID officer, stationed in Vietnam and Germany, suddenly received guardianship of his daughter Molly and is learning to be a parent, intelligent, capable, ready for a job change, liked him and eager to see him again

* Wayne: Chief of police on a   reservation, educated, wise, professional, grandfather was a code talker in WWII, married to Barbara, strong leadership abilities, friendly, good man

* Kay: high school teacher on the reservation, divorced, carrying secrets and guilt over her sister’s death, a bit haunted, attracted to James

* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing

* Learning about the uranium mining waste dam burst in 1979

* That it reminded me of the era of the Vietnam war and brought back memories of a high school project that sent letters with cookies to servicemen

* The family ties on the reservation

* Watching James and Molly get to know one another and grow closer as parent and child

* The police procedural aspects and that the murderer was found by the end of the book

* Knowing that there is another book to look forward to in the series

What I didn’t like:

* Who and what I was meant not to like

* The bigotry, waste of a good woman’s life, the corrupt big businesses practices

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more in this series? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

New Mexico, 1979: After a career in the military as a CID detective, all James Pinter wants to do is drive his rig and mind his own damn business. But when his daughter, Molly, finds a dead woman behind a gas station and a disabled boy at her side, he’s forced to reckon with his former life. The State Police record the death as an overdose—just another drug addict from the reservation—but James can’t ignore the clues they’re conveniently overlooking. Reluctant to get involved but fearing for the boy’s life, James shares his suspicions with the Navajo Nation. The victim’s sister, desperate for answers, insists on James’s help. But the more James investigates, the further he and Molly are dragged into a world of drugs and corruption, big money and explosive secrets. When James’s life is threatened, he knows he ought to leave town and take Molly with him. But he won’t abandon the innocent. Not after what happened at My Lai.