Canaries in the Uranium Mine: Navajos gear up for renewed legal battle to protect their life & land

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from In These Times:



Features > June 23, 2008
Canaries in the Uranium Mine
Navajos gear up for renewed legal battle to protect their life and land
By Kari Lydersen



Teddy Nez, a Navajo rancher and Vietnam War veteran, lives practically in the shadow of a 40-foot-high pile of radioactive waste abutting his small home outside of Gallup, N.M. Nez has colon cancer, which he treats with herbs — but not with ones growing near his house, because those could be contaminated with uranium.

Thousands of Navajo have developed lung cancer, kidney disease and other serious illnesses linked to uranium mining — which has supplied the U.S. government with material for nuclear weapons and power plants from the 1940s through the ’80s. (Agencies such as the World Health Organization have documented the severe health effects of uranium exposure.)

Uranium mining in the United States came to a near halt in the early ’90s because of low uranium prices, related largely to the cooling of the arms race and public disillusionment with nuclear power. But now, thanks to skyrocketing oil prices and renewed interest in nuclear energy, companies are once again planning to mine uranium in and around Navajo land.

Jeff Spitz, a Chicago filmmaker who in the late ’90s shot Return of Navajo Boy — a documentary that followed a family affected by uranium — says Navajo families at the time thought they would have to deal with only the legacy of uranium.

“No one was interested (then) except the people suffering from uranium’s effects,” says Spitz, who is working on an epilogue to the film. “After traveling down this path already, I feel like it’s about to start all over again.” ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3752/canaries_in_the_uranium_mine/