1704 N. 2nd St. Occupied Lands, Flagstaff, AZ 86004

Uranium Mining Begins Near Grand Canyon

haul-routes

Thousands of Claims Threaten Public Health & Sacred Lands

By Klee Benally

Grand Canyon, AZ — In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium, Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. According to the Arizona Daily Sun the mine has been operating since December 2009.

Denison plans on extracting 335 tons of uranium ore per day out of the “Arizona 1 Mine”, which is set to operate four days per week. The hazardous ore will be hauled by truck more than 300 miles through towns and communities to the company’s White Mesa mill located near Blanding, Utah.

After being pressured by environmental groups, U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar initially called for a two-year moratorium on new mining claims in a buffer zone of 1 million acres around Grand Canyon National Park, but the moratorium doesn’t include existing claims such as Denison’s. The moratorium also doesn’t address mining claims outside of the buffer zone.

The Grand Canyon is ancestral homeland to the Havasupai and Hualapai Nations. Although both Indigenous Nations have banned uranium mining on their reservations the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management may permit thousands of mining claims on surrounding lands.

Due to recent increases in the price of uranium and the push for nuclear power nearly 8,000 new mining claims now threaten Northern Arizona. Uranium mined from the Southwestern U.S. is predominately purchased by countries such as France (Areva) & Korea for nuclear energy.

In July of 2009 members of the Havasupai Nation and their allies gathered for four days on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at their sacred site Red Butte to address the renewed threat. Red Butte has long been endangered by the on-going threat of uranium mining.

Under an anachronistic 1872 mining law, created when pick axes and shovels were used, mining companies freely file claims on public lands. The law permits mining regardless of cultural impacts.

OBAMA APPROVES NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS AND INCREASED NEED FOR URANIUM

Currently there are 104 nuclear reactors in the United States which supply 20% of the U.S.’s electricity. In January the Obama administration approved a $54 billion dollar taxpayer loan in a guarantee program for new nuclear reactor construction, three times what Bush previously promised in 2005.

Since 2007, seventeen companies have now sought government approval for 26 more reactors with plans to complete four by 2018 and up to eight by 2020. New reactors are estimated to cost more than $12 billion each.

Although nuclear energy is hailed by some as a solution to the current U.S. energy crisis and global warming, those more closely impacted by uranium mining and transportation recognize the severity of the threat.

THE COLORADO RIVER, WATER & URANIUM’S DEADLY LEGACY

Uranium is a known cause of cancers, organ damage, miscarriages & birth defects.

Drilling for the radioactive material has been found to contaminate underground aquifers that drain into the Colorado River, and sacred springs that have sustained Indigenous Peoples in the region. In addition, surface water can flow into drill holes and mine shafts which can also poison underground water sources.

Emerging in the Rocky Mountains in North Central Colorado and winding 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California, the Colorado River is held sacred by more than 34 Indigenous Nations. The Colorado also provides drinking water for up to 27 million people in seven states throughout the Southwest.

The river that carves the Grand Canyon has been extensively used by the agricultural industry and cities that are dependent for drinking water, so much so that it now ceases to flow to the Gulf of California, forcing members of the Cocopah Nation (The People of the River) in Northern Mexico to abandon their homelands and relocate elsewhere.

Today there are more than 2,000 abandoned uranium mines in the Southwest. U.S. government agencies have done little or nothing to clean up contaminated sites and abandoned mines. At Rare Metals near Tuba City on the Diné (Navajo) Nation a layer of soil and rock is the only covering over 2.3 million tons of hazardous waste. A rock dam surrounds the radioactive waste to control runoff water that flows into nearby Moenkopi Wash. Throughout the Diné Nation,  Diné families have been subject to decades of radioactive contamination ranging from unsafe mining conditions to living in houses built from uranium tailings.  Well water is documented by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as undrinkable in at least 22 communities such as Black Falls on the Dine’ Nation. According to the EPA, “Approximately 30 percent of the Navajo population does not have access to a public drinking water system and may be using unregulated water sources with uranium contamination.”
Flocks of sheep and other livestock still graze among radioactive tailing piles and ingest radioactive water.

According to the Navajo Nation up to 2.5 million gallons of uranium contaminated water is leaching out of the Shiprock Uranium Mill near Shiprock, New Mexico into the San Juan River every year. At the Church Rock Mine in New Mexico, which is now attempting to re-open, up to 875,000 cubic yards of radioactive waste continue to contaminate the land.

In July 1979 a dirt dam breached on the Navajo Nation at a uranium processing plant releasing more than 1,100 tons of radioactive waste and nearly 100 million gallons of contaminated fluid into the Rio Puerco (which ultimately flows into the Colorado River) near Church Rock, NM. This was the single largest nuclear accident in US history. Thousands of Diné families that live in the region, including those forced to relocate from the Joint Use Area due to coal mining, continue to suffer health impacts resulting from the spill.

In 2005 the Diné Nation government banned uranium mining and processing within its borders due to uranium’s harmful legacy of severe health impacts and poisoning of the environment.  And yet, high cancer rates, birth defects and other health impacts still bear out  the uranium industry’s dangerous legacy.

NUCLEAR WASTE & INDIGENOUS SACRED LANDS

Today the US has nearly 60,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear waste stored in concrete dams at nuclear power plants throughout the country. The waste increases at a rate of 2,000 tons per year.  Depleted Uranium (DU) is a byproduct of uranium enrichment and reprocessing which has controversial military uses including armor piercing projectiles. DU has been found to cause long-term health effects ranging from harming organs to causing miscarriages and birth defects.

In 1987 Congress initiated a controversial project to transport and store almost all of the U.S.’s toxic waste at Yucca Mountain located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Yucca Mountain has been held holy to the Paiute and Western Shoshone Nations since time immemorial.

In February 2009 Obama met a campaign promise to cut funding for the multibillion dollar Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project. The controversial project was initially proposed in 1987 with radioactive waste to be shipped from all over the U.S. via rails and highways. Currently a new proposal for an experimental method of extracting additional fuel from nuclear waste called “reprocessing” renews the threat to desecrate the sacred mountain on Western Shoshone lands.

Western Shoshone lands, which have never been ceeded to the U.S. government, have long been under attack by the military and nuclear industry. Between 1951 and 1992 more than 1,000 nuclear bombs have been detonated above and below the surface at an area called the Nevada Test Site on Western Shoshone lands which make it one of the most bombed nations on earth. Communities in areas around the test site faced exposure to radioactive fallout which has caused cancers, leukemia & other illnesses. Western Shoshone spiritual practitioner Corbin Harney, who has since passed on, helped initiate a grassroots effort to shutdown the test site and abolish nuclear weapons.

Indigenous Peoples in the Marshall Islands have also faced serious impacts due to U.S. nuclear testing. In her book, Conquest: Sexual Violence & American Indian Genocide, Andrea Smith reports that some Indigenous Peoples in the islands have all together stopped reproducing due to the severity of cancer and birth defects they have faced.

CONTINUING RESISTANCE

In March 1988 more than 8,000 people converged for massive 10 day direct action to “reclaim” the test site, nearly 3,000 people were arrested. Groups such as the Nevada Desert Experience (NDE) and Shundahai Network continue their work to shut down the test site and resist the corporate and military nuclear industry.

Throughout the 1980’s a fierce movement of grassroots resistance and direct action against uranium mining near the Grand Canyon had taken shape, galvanized by the Havasupai, Hopi, Diné (Navajo), Hualapai tribes and a Flagstaff group, Canyon Under Siege.  Prayerful and strategic meetings were held once a year throughout the 80s. In 1989 a group known as the ‘Arizona 5’ were charged for eco-actions including cutting power-lines to the Canyon Uranium Mine. Attributable in some part to the resistance and but mainly to a sharp drop in the price of uranium, companies like Dennison were forced to shut their mines down.

Mt. Taylor, located on Forest Service managed lands in New Mexico between Albuquerque and Gallup, has also faced the threat of uranium mining. The mountain sits upon one of the richest reservers of uranium ore in the country, it is held holy by the Diné, Acoma, Laguna, Zuni & Hopi Nations. In June 2009 Indigenous Nations and environmental groups unified to protect the holy Mountain and through their efforts Mt. Taylor was given temporary protection as a Traditional Cultural Property.

For 7 years Indigenous People from throughout the world have gathered to organize against the nuclear industry at the Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum on the Acoma Nation.

At the 2006 Indigenous World Uranium Summit on the Diné Nation, community organizations such as Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) joined participants from Australia, India, Africa, Pacific Islands, and throughout North America in issuing a declaration demanding “a worldwide ban on uranium mining, processing, enrichment, fuel use, and weapons testing and deployment, and nuclear waste dumping on native lands.”

Klee Benally (Diné) is a collective member of Indigenous Action Media, on the Board of Directors of the Shundahai Network, and is a musician with the group Blackfire.

Author Mary Sojourner assisted editing this article.

View Outta Your Backpack Media’s URANIUM PSA

 

For further information and action:

Southwest Research and Information Center

http://www.sric.org/

Shundahai Network

http://www.shundahai.org/

Nevada Desert Experience

Nevada Desert Experience

The Center for Biological Diversity

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

Grand Canyon Trust

http://grandcanyontrust.org/

Uranium Watch

http://www.uraniumwatch.org/

World Information Service on Energy: Uranium Project

http://www.wise-uranium.org/

Western Mining Action Network

Home

Network Sortir du Nucléaire

http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/

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Sources:

Addressing Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation – Map of contaminated wells

http://epa.gov/region09/superfund/navajo-nation/contaminated-water.html

Tuba City Mill Site

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/tubacity_title1.html#_ftn51

EPA summit addresses uranium cleanup

http://www.gallupindependent.com/2008/08august/081408epa.html

Conservation groups challenge uranium mining threat to Colorado River

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep/30/conservation-groups-challenge-uranium-mining-threa/

A peril that dwelt among the Navajos – L.A. TImes – November 19, 2006

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/nov/19/nation/na-navajo19

Uranium Mining & Milling

http://www.wise-uranium.org/indexu.html#UMMCI

Colorado River Facts

http://www.azhumanities.org/movingwaters/faq.html

Nuclear power inches back into energy spotlight

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2009-03-29-nuclear-power-energy-return_N.htm

AREVA: France’s nuke power poster child has a money melt-down

http://acdn.france.free.fr/spip/article.php3?id_article=506&lang=en

Environmental Working Group – January 2008 – Report: Grand Canyon Threatened by Approval of Uranium Mining Activities

http://www.ewg.org/reports/grandcanyon

Shiprock Mill Site

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/shiprock_title1.html

Grand Canyon Trust

www.grandcanyontrust.org

The Center for Biological Diversity

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

Las Vegas Review: Yucca Mountain seen as possible reprocessing site

http://www.lvrj.com/news/yucca-mountain-seen-as-possible-reprocessing-site-83787692.html

Southwest Research and Information Center

http://www.sric.org/

Nuclear Free Future

http://www.nuclear-free.com/

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Comments (25)

Great article Klee. Do you know if the Havasupai are asking for support, or, is there anything they want the International community to do?

It is amazing how everything is sacred to the native minority despite the layers of trash, abandoned vehicles, and waste that is found through out the reservations. Before you start complaining to much why don’t you pry yourself of the government tit that gives you life. Think for just a short minute about where that government money comers from?? As a nation or people that claim to have Sovereignty you sure depend on the United States Government and its citizens to take care of you and solve all your problems. Maybe because you don’t know what Sovereignty means?

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided. The concept has been discussed, debated and questioned throughout history, from the time of the Romans through to the present day, although it has changed in its definition, concept, and application throughout, especially during the Age of Enlightenment. The current notion of state sovereignty was laid down in the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which, in relation to states, codified the basic principles of territorial integrity, border inviolability, and supremacy of the state (rather than the Church). A sovereign is a supreme lawmaking authority.

Tribes fall under the control of the US Government and live on the scraps from its table. Give it up and become part of the United States and be given the same rights and liberties that every us citizen shares that doesn’t live on the reservation. Once you have done that then you will have the right and ability to stand up and be counted. Despite your misguided belief that you have civil rights you don’t because the constitution and the bill of rights does not apply on Indian land. Basic 101 when it comes to reservation law.

The political relationships Indigenous Nations have to the US can’t be isolated from the context of colonialism.
Monte, you make it sound like we’ve chosen this condition.
What you view as “complaining” some view as a struggle for their livelihood. I wonder if your attitude would be different if it were your health and your children’s health at stake?

These days I see more trash off the reservation than on it.

[…] Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Read the Full Article at Indigenousaction.org number of views: […]

Honestly, though, that interpretation of sovereignty is only valid in so far as Nations States say it is so. As far as I can tell, tt’s their only claim for legitimacy—-and without it, all that is left is the barrel of a gun.

As for your advice, Monte. I understand where you’re coming from, but, one could just as easily say “go back to Europe” for all the harm Americans (and Canadians) have done to this land. How many nuclear bombs has the US Gov detonated here? And How many thousands of tonnes of hazardous waste have they poured over this land? In our front yards? Down our throats?

And all the through, they’ve held on to this barbaric right to dictate how we should live, claiming they have moral authority even though it has never been earned.

Why can’t the Havasupai just live as they want to live? All paper aside, why on earth should they give in to this molestation?

[…] but to stop the logging company Tolko Industries from endangering their water supply.Feb 23 – Uranium Mining Begins Near Grand Canyon – In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium, Canadian company Denison […]

thank you klee
i will difuse your article and your engagement
atomic fission was negation of life and earth… “stop nuclear all over the world”

Thanks for writing this. I’ll attempt to share this with as many folks as I can.

Many thanks for your continued fight and courage. We have a long battle a head of us. We can and will win this battle.

[…] We headed back on the road in Germany to Erfurt at a great venue called Offen Arbeit. We hosted a discussion the next day on Indigenous struggles in the U$ with a focus on relocation from Joint Use Area, the San Francisco Peaks, and uranium. […]

This is a great article, I had no idea. I’m glad I do now, I think it’s outrageous and I’ll share this with other people. — And Monte, you miss the point…

[…] there is Red Butte, a sacred place to the Havasupai Nation which is now threatened by uranium development; Eagle Rock, […]

Monte, did you hit your head on a rock and the only thing left were the two brain cells that you keep trying to rub together to get a spark going in that little skull of yours? Huh? You call yourself an American, yet YOU didn’t do anything to preserve this land, now did you? I bet, if no one were watching you (Like Big Gov’t. and the local Popo) you’d rape and pillage your own neighborhood, your own family and your own government.

The White man came from an entirely different Continent (for you Monte that means Country within a Region), made a lot of FALSE PROMISES (sounds like today, doesn’t it? Oh, that would be the present politicians that are in charge of YOU, Monte) and haven’t kept their word on much since the Colonies were formed. The White man got it’s armies and groups together, made false promises to the Indian Tribes (which I obviously need to remind YOU-Monte, is part of American History) and fought battles with all of the “AMERICAN INDIAN” tribes until they were completely taken over, by the White Man with the false promises.

Even when land was being given back, in the form of the Indian Reservations, hundreds of years ago, the White man, again, went back on his word time and time again, and re-located several of the Indian Tribes, so that the White man could (and did) utilize the land for what riches it possessed. (Greed at its finest hour!)

Now, you want to proclaim that “if” an Indian moved off a Reservation and gave up their Sovereign Nation that they could “stand up and be counted”, as you say? Really? I realize you have no “true” formal education, that you speak from your “seat.” (if YOU-Monte can catch my drift…every one else that read your blog can smell your tone from a mile away.)

Well, coming from a low life scumbag such as yourself, that HAS been related to at least one person who has SUCKED ON THE TIT of the present government here, in America, I laugh at your ignorance. (And I welcome anyone to help me find your missing brain cells. From the sound of what you believe, you need all the brain power you can muster up!)

Now, the issue at hand is that the Uranium Mining is contaminating the Region of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, and that it has the potential of kill hundreds of thousands of people, not only in and around the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, but the States that are adjacent to and/or feed off of the Colorado River as well as the people that use the Colorado River as a recreational area and then don’t forget the 7 States that get there water supply from the Colorado River. (that’s right SEVEN).

This is an injustice for the “Living” as well as the “unborn” that will walk and reside and/or feed off the land and the water for years to come.

Thank you for pissing me off Monte…I’ve now got a cause and a plan of action. I’m a “humanitarian” and I love life, free without cancer, polution and mass destruction of our beautiful Country, this beautiful Region, and “ALL” of the Indians and other Americans that this can harm. YOU-Monte probably get your water from a septic tank in your backyard.

[…] According to media reports, the Calgary-based company Denison Mines has re-opened the Arizona 1 mine "In defiance of legal challenges and a U.S. Government moratorium," says Indigenous Activist and musician Klee Benally. […]

I am against uranium mining.

Evelin Cervenkova
Founder of the Lakota Oyate Information in Germany

if you are against uranium, stop using electricity

[…] Canadian company Denison Mines has started mining uranium on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Read the Full Article at Indigenousaction.org Posted by […]

[…] We hosted a discussion the next day on Indigenous struggles in the U$ with a focus on relocation from Joint Use Area, the San Francisco Peaks, and uranium. […]

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