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The Grandma is a great admirer of Native American cultures, especially the Navajo, since she became interested in studying their language over twenty years ago.
Naabeehó Bináhásdzo (The Navajo Nation) is a Native American reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in Window Rock, Arizona.
At roughly 71,000 km2, the Navajo Nation is the largest Indian reservation in the United States, exceeding the size of ten U.S. states. It is one of the few reservations whose lands overlap the nation's traditional homelands.
In 2010, the reservation was home to 173,667 out of 332,129 Navajo tribal members; the remaining 158,462 tribal members lived outside the reservation, in urban areas (26%), border towns (10%), and elsewhere in the U.S. (17%).
In 2020, the number of tribal members increased to 399,494, surpassing the Cherokee Nation as the largest tribal group by enrollment.
The United States gained ownership of what is today Navajoland in 1848 after the end of the Mexican-American War. The reservation was first established in 1868 within New Mexico Territory, initially spanning roughly 13,000 km2; it subsequently straddled what became the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1912, when the states were admitted to the union. Unlike many reservations in the U.S., it has since expanded several times since its formation, reaching its current boundaries in 1934 and retained sovereignty.
The official language of the Navajo Nation is Navajo Diné Bizaad.
More information: Navajo National Council
The Navajo People and Uranium Mining (2006) is a non-fiction book edited by Doug Brugge, Timothy Benally, and Esther Yazzie-Lewis; it uses oral histories to tell the stories of Navajo Nation families and miners in the uranium mining industry. The foreword is written by Stewart L. Udall, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
The Navajo People and Uranium Mining has 12 chapters. Seven chapters contain stories of the Navajo told through interviews of the miners or their families. The remaining chapters describe the health effects related to uranium mining, and how these medical issues adversely affected the lives of the miners and their families.
The relationship between uranium mining and the Navajo people began in 1944 in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah.
In the 1950s, the Navajo Nation was situated directly in the uranium mining belt that experienced a boom in production, and many residents found work in the mines. Prior to 1962, the risks of lung cancer due to uranium mining were unknown to the workers, and the lack of a word for radiation in the Navajo language left the miners unaware of the associated health hazards.
The Navajo Nation was affected by the United States' largest radioactive accident during the Church Rock uranium mill spill in 1979 when a tailings pond upstream from Navajo County breached its dam and sent radioactive waste down the Puerco River, injuring people and killing livestock.
The cultural significance of water for the Navajo people and the environmental damage to both the land and livestock inhibits the ability of the Navajo people to practice their culture.
On the Navajo Nation, approximately 15% of people do not have access to running water. Navajo Nation residents are often forced to resort to unregulated water sources that are susceptible to bacteria, fecal matter, and uranium. Extensive uranium mining in the region during the mid-20th century is a contemporary concern because of contamination of these commonly used sources, in addition to the lingering health effects of exposure from mining.
Water on the Navajo Nation currently has an average of 90 micrograms per litre of uranium, with some areas reaching upwards of 700 micrograms per litre. In contrast, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers 30 micrograms per litre the safe amount of uranium to have in water sources. Health impacts of uranium consumption include kidney damage and failure, as kidneys are unable to filter uranium out of the bloodstream. There is an average rate of End Stage Renal Disease of 0.63% in the Navajo Nation, a rate significantly higher than the national average of 0.19%.
More information: KUNM
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been cleaning up uranium mines on the Navajo Nation since as part of settlements through the Superfund since 1994. The Abandoned Mine Land program and Contaminated Structures Program have facilitated the cleanup of mines and demolition of structures built with radioactive materials. Criticisms of unfair, inefficient treatment have been made repeatedly of EPA by Navajos and journalists.
In October 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights agreed to hear a case filed by the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, which accused the United States government of violating the human rights of Navajo Nation members. Environmental journalist Cody Nelson explains further that: the US government and its Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have violated their human rights by licensing uranium mines in their communities (Nelson, Ignored for 70 Years': Human Rights Group to Investigate Uranium Contamination on Navajo Nation). Nelson also describes that There is moral value in having an international human rights body lay bare the abuses of the nuclear industry and the US government's complicity in those abuses.
In 1944, uranium mining under the U.S military's Manhattan Project began on Navajo Nation lands and on Lakota Nation lands.
On August 1, 1946, the responsibility for atomic science and technology was transferred from the military to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Authors Dr. Doug Brugge and Dr. Rob Goble from the National Library of Medicine explain that After its initial dependence on foreign sources, the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) announced in 1948 that it would guarantee a price for and purchase all uranium ore mined in the United States. This initiated a mining 'boom' on the Colorado Plateau in New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona that replaced a more limited mining industry centered first on radium and then vanadium, which are found in the same easy-to-mine, soft sandstone ore. The US government remained, by law, the sole purchaser of uranium in the United States until 1971, but private companies operated the mines (Brugge and Goble, The History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People). Widespread uranium mining began on Navajo and Lakota lands in a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War.
Large uranium deposits were mined on and near the Navajo Reservation in the Southwest, and these were developed through the 20th century. Absent much environmental regulation prior to the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and passage of related laws, the mining endangered thousands of Navajo workers, as well as producing contamination that has persisted in adversely affecting air and water quality, and contaminating Navajo lands.
Private companies hired thousands of Navajo men to work the uranium mines. Disregarding the known health risks of exposure to uranium, the private companies and the United States Atomic Energy Commission failed to inform the Navajo workers about the dangers and to regulate the mining to minimize contamination. As more data was collected, they were slow to take appropriate action for the workers.
In 1951, the U.S. Public Health Service began a human testing experiment on Navajo miners, without their informed consent, during the federal government's study of the long term health effects from radiation poisoning. Navajo pathologist Phillida A. Charley states that The Navajo miners were never told about the health or environmental effects of mining uranium and that Some miners took rocks from the mines to build their homes or chimneys (Charley, Walking in Beauty A Navajo scientist confronts the legacy of uranium mining). The Navajo miners continued to work, unaware of the experiment, nor the significant health impacts.
More information: The Washington Post
In 1932, the USPHS began an earlier human testing experiment on African men in their Tuskegee syphilis experiment. The experiment on Navajo mine workers and their families documented high rates of cancers (including Xeroderma pigmentosum) and other diseases which manifested from uranium mining and milling contamination. For decades, industry and the government failed to regulate or improve conditions, or inform workers of the dangers. As high rates of illness began to occur, workers were often unsuccessful in court cases seeking compensation, and the states at first did not officially recognize radon illness. In 1990, the US Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, to address cases of uranium poisoning and provide needed compensation, but Navajo Nation applicants provide evidence RECA requirements prevent access to necessary compensation. Congressional modifications to RECA application requirements were made in 2000, and were introduced in 2017 and in 2018.
Since 1988, the Navajo Nation's Abandoned Mine Lands program reclaims mines and cleans mining sites, but significant problems from the legacy of uranium mining and milling persist today on the Navajo Nation and in the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. More than a thousand abandoned mines have not been contained and cleaned up, and these present environmental and health risks in Navajo communities. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are 4000 mines with documented uranium production, and another 15,000 locations with uranium occurrences in 14 western states. Most are located in the Four Corners area and Wyoming.
The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (1978) is a United States environmental law that amended the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to establish health and environmental standards for the stabilization, restoration, and disposal of uranium mill waste. Cleanup has continued to be difficult, and EPA administers several Superfund sites located on the Navajo Nation.
On April 29, 2005, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. signed the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005 that outlaws uranium mining and processing on Navajo Nation lands.
Pressure for uranium mining increased in the postwar years, when the United States developed resources to compete with the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
In 1948, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) announced it would be the sole purchaser of any uranium mined in the United States, to cut off dependence on imported uranium. The AEC would not mine the uranium; it contracted with private mining companies for the product. The subsequent mining boom led to the creation of thousands of mines; 92% of all western mines were located on the Colorado Plateau because of regional resources.
The Navajo Nation encompasses portions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and their reservation was a key area for uranium mining. More than 1000 mines were established by leases in the reservation. From 1944 to 1986, an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Navajo people worked in the uranium mines on their land. Other work was scarce on and near the reservation, and many Navajo men traveled miles to work in the mines, sometimes taking their families with them. Between 1944 and 1989, 3.9 million tons of uranium ore were mined from the mountains and plains.
More information: Science
In 1951, the US Public Health Service began a massive human medical experiment on approximately 4000 Navajo uranium miners, without their informed consent. Neither the miners nor their families were warned of the risks from nuclear radiation and contamination as USPHS continued their experiment. In 1955, USPHS took active control of Native American medical health services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the experiments on nuclear radiation continued.
In 1962 it published the first report to show a statistical correlation between cancer and uranium mining. The federal government finally regulated the standard amount of radon in mines, setting the level at .3 working level (WL) on January 1, 1969, but Navajo people attending mining schools before working in the mines were still not informed of the health risks from uranium poisoning in 1971. Reports continued to be published from USPHS's non-consensual medical experiments at least until 1998. The Environmental Protection Agency was established on December 2, 1970. But, environmental regulation could not repair the damage already suffered.
Navajo miners contracted a variety of cancers including lung cancer at much higher rates than the rest of the U.S. population, and they have suffered higher rates of other lung diseases caused by breathing in radon.
Private companies resisted regulation through lobbying Congress and state legislatures. In 1990, the United States Congress finally passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), granting reparations for those affected by the radiation. The act was amended in 2000 to address criticisms and problems with the original legislation.
More information: All That's Interesting
The tribal council and Navajo delegates remained in control of mining decisions before the adverse health effects of mining were identified. No one fully understood the effect of radon exposure for miners, as there was insufficient data before the expansion of mining.
Beginning in the 1960s, uranium miners were beginning to become ill with cancer at increasing rates. The state of Utah did not recognize radiation exposure at the time as a category of illness, making workers compensation unattainable for many of the sick Navajo (Dawson and Madsen 2007). Private industry's treatment of the Navajo workers was poor, according to recent standards: companies failed to educate workers on precautionary measures, did not install sufficient engineering controls, such as adequate ventilation; and did not provide sufficient safety equipment to protect workers to the known dangers related to the mines.
The Navajo were never told of the radiation effects, and did not have a word for it in their language. Many Navajo did not speak English and trusted the uranium companies to have their interests in mind. Navajo workers and residents have felt betrayed as the results of the studies became known, as well as the long delays by companies and the US government to try to prevent the damage, and to pay compensation. Lung cancer became so prevalent among the Navajo people that working in uranium mines was banned on Navajo lands in 2005.
Following the Gold King Mine Spill in 2015, farmers lost 75% of their crops due to the lack of clean water. The EPA provided the Navajo with water, but it was contaminated with oil, poisoning the land and killing the livestock.
Duane Yazzie, a Navajo Tribe member, spoke about the spiritual and cultural importance that agriculture plays in the Navajo culture and how both the oil and uranium contamination infringed upon their ability to practice their culture.
In the case of environmental hazards such as the Gold King mine spill, the EPA offers The Standard Form 95 where claims of economic damages, unemployment, loss of income, or damage to property can be filed as a result of an environmental incident. The Standard Form 95 is also a form of environmental racism according to Jade Begay, director of policy and advocacy for the Indigenous-led organization NDN Collective. They explain that The President of the Navajo Nation, Russell Begaye, has announced that he intends to take legal action against the EPA, which has taken full responsibility for this spill. Mr. Begaye has also warned Diné people NOT to use or sign Form 95 for Damage, Injury or Death as a result of Gold King Mine Release (Begay, Tó Éí Ííńá (Water Is Life): The Impact of the Gold Mine Spill on the Navajo Nation). Ethel Branch, the Navajo Nation attorney general also said this form contained backhanded, offensive language that would diminish one's ability to get full financial compensation and restrict their ability to file additional, future claims.
More information: Union of Concerned Scientists
Copper is huge here, and now uranium.
And then we have the federal government coming in,
writing all these rules and regulations and telling us
that we can't do this and we can't do that.
We need concise, clear answers.
