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Nuclear (Nuclear Power, Nuclear Waste, Transportation) |
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Cortez Journal Uranium miners, families bring tales of pain to Washington By Matt Kelley Washington --- Just like his father, Earl Saltwater Jr. got his first job 30 years ago in one of the uranium mines that dotted the arid mesas and canyons in and around the Navajo reservation. Now Saltwater is worried the effects of radioactivity from those mines will kill him one day. Just like his father. “They did experiment on us like guinea pigs. It makes me angry.” Saltwater said as he sat on the steps outside the U.S. House of Representatives. “I would have lived longer, but they gave me a shorter life on this earth.” Saltwater was one of nine Navajo uranium miners and miners’ dependents in Washington last week to lobby for changes to a 1990 law compensating some of the Cold War’s domestic casualties. A bill passed by the Senate and pending in the House would make it easier for uranium miners and victims of fallout from open-air nuclear tests to get federal payments of up to $100,000. The miners worked in shafts with few safety measures to dig out the uranium used in nuclear weapons and atomic power plants. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he wrote the Senate-passed bill because “we should not add a bureaucratic nightmare to the burden of disease and ill health that these citizens are carrying.” The proposal would expand the list of diseases and slash the amount of time a miner had to have spent working with uranium to be eligible for the compensation program. It would open the program to those who worked in open-pit uranium mines and uranium milling plants, as well as underground mines. The bill also would streamline the application process and eliminate some of the barriers for American Indian miners, such as disqualification for smoking during religious ceremonies or refusal to recognize undocumented marriages to compensate miners’ widows. Saltwater said he had to fight that bureaucracy for five years before his father got compensation in 1996, before he died. Saltwater carries a fading black-and-white photo of his father standing outside a uranium mine, holding a shovel and dressed jeans, a T-shirt and a miner’s helmet. That helmet was all the safety equipment he got, Saltwater said. “It’s hard for anyone to be qualified” for compensation, Saltwater said. “That’s where it really hurts me a lot. My people are dying. My father died. My mother died.... Every single miner should be compensated for the injustice that has been done to us, regardless of our condition.” Saltwater blames his current hearing loss, kidney disease, diabetes and breathing problems on his work in the uranium mine, though he only worked for about six months in 1968 and 1969. He said he was fired because he was sickened and started vomiting in the mine. The mine had no bathroom facilities, so miners drank radioactive water and cleaned themselves with soft, doughy chunks or uranium ore after relieving themselves he said. “I worked almost like a slave” for $1.70 an hour, Saltwater said. The Navajo group supports further changes to the law, including increasing the maximum payments to $200,000 and directly compensating miners’ families exposed to radiation themselves. Gilbert Badoni of Shiprock, N.M., said he and his siblings played in uranium mine tailings and drank radioactive water during the decades his father worked in uranium mines in Colorado in the 1950s and ‘60s. Badoni said his father would come home covered in yellow uranium dust, which covered everything in their small home when their mother brushed it off the clothes. He blames his lung problems and his siblings’ cancers on that exposure. “The U.S. government has abused innocent women and children. They have abused my family,” Badonie said, choking back tears. “They have abused my Navajo people. That’s not right.” As of last month, the government had paid more than $244 million in compensation to 3,302 people, including 1,523 uranium miners, according to the Justice Department office which oversees the payments. The program covers miners who worked in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Washington state. The bill pending in the House would extend the program to cover miners in North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, Oregon and Texas. The Navajo group sold 2,500 traditional Navajo meals of coffee, frybread and mutton stew to pay for their trip to Washington, said member Sarah Benally of Dolores, Colo. Benally, whose uranium miner father died of a lung ailment but could not be compensated under the current law, has been lobbying Congress on the issue since the 1970s. “People have to listen to us. If they don’t, we’ll keep coming back until something is done,” she said. |
PRESS STATEMENTOHNGO GUADADEH DEVIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE “Nuclear Waste Dump No Longer Threatens Our Homeland; Private Fuel Storage Dump Defeated!”-- Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, Utah --Recent new stories on the defeat of a nuclear waste dump on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation have primarily highlighted the role the state of Utah played in stopping the radioactive spent fuel storage plan. The battle over nuclear waste has been described as a battle between the state, on one side, and the tribe and Private Fuel Storage, a coalition of utilities, on the other. Yet, it is grassroots tribal members from Skull Valley who played the decisive role in defeating the plan, due to their tireless effort and their environmental justice and sovereignty platform. The grassroots platform is based on protecting the way of life, traditions and homeland of the Goshutes from the ecological and cultural threats posed by radioactive waste storage. It is this platform that rallied a national coalition of Indigenous and environmental groups to support tribal members, and to which the Bureau of Indian Affairs referred in rejecting the waste dump. “Fourteen years ago, Skull Valley Band Of Goshute members were told of plans to store high-level nuclear waste on our reservation land,” said Margene Bullcreek, founder of the grassroots Skull Valley group Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia (Shoshone word meaning ‘Timber Setting Committee.’) “We were told how safe it was and how it would bring prosperity to our lives. It would have been easy to lose oneself in the vulnerability of the Band members who were groping for wealth as a way out of despair and reservation poverty. For those of us who respect our Devia, our homeland, wealth at the expense of our cultural traditions was never an option for us.” “Sovereignty is the root of our lives as indigenous peoples, and it can't be bought, sold, or abused with greed and dishonesty when our traditional life is at stake. It gives me a great sense of being an Indigenous woman that Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia members not only spoke out against nuclear power and waste but also stood up for our cultural and traditional values and the protection of animal life, air, water, people and Mother Earth. And in the end, this stance was recognized by the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs,” adds Bullcreek. In two separate decisions, the Bureau of Indian Affairs disapproved a Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted lease for Private Fuel Storage to use Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation land, and the Bureau of Land Management refused to grant the rights of way needed to build transportation infrastructure to move tons of used nuclear fuel through the state to the storage site. The Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, as "trustee-delegate", issued his ultimate decision and ruling after a “complex task of weighing the long-term viability and preservation of the tribal culture of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute against the benefits and risks from such economic development activities”. In conclusion, Associate Deputy Interior Secretary James Cason wrote: "It is not consistent with the conduct expected of the prudent trustee to approve a proposed lease that promotes storing high level spent fuel on the reservation." “While the decision is a victory for Margene, who has been fighting to protect her reservation for years now, it is somewhat disappointing that it took the BIA so long to reach this decision”, said Mark EchoHawk, an attorney representing Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia. “In December, 2002, we asked the BIA to withdraw its conditional approval for the PFS lease based on many of the points the BIA now relies on in its decision. The BIA has been aware of the reasons which justify disapproval of the PFS lease for years now, but failed to act,” EchoHawk added. “This was a precedent-setting and decision the Secretary of Interior made for the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes in that it recognizes our cultural perspective and lives as well as our sovereignty and the trust relationship between the federal government and our reservation community,” said Bullcreek. Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network said the decision has national implications. “This decision by the Secretary is not only highly important for Goshute people,” he said, “but also for all Indigenous peoples who face the same dilemma and who need protection against environmental injustice.” For More Information: An Open Letter to All Those Who Have Supported the Work of Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia (OGD)September 20, 2006 Greetings, Fourteen years ago, Skull Valley Band Of Goshute members were told of plans to store high-level nuclear waste on our reservation land. We were told how safe it was and how it would bring prosperity to our lives. It would have been easy to lose oneself in the vulnerability of the Band members who were groping for wealth as a way out of despair and reservation poverty. For those of us who respect our Devia, our homeland, wealth was never an option for us. We struggled to swim in the turbulence yet reach out to a strong limb of hope that could rebuild our sovereignty, culture and traditional aspects. By now, many of you have heard that the Skull Valley nuclear waste dump has been defeated. We stood up to Private Fuel Storage, a coalition of eight of the largest utilities in the country, and stopped 44,000 metric tons of high level nuclear waste from being moved onto our land. This is a tremendous victory. We were almost destroyed by this poisonous high-level nuclear waste that no one wants or knows what to do with, but to store on Indigenous land. We are in the midst of corporate greed, causing the destruction of our Indigenous lands to promote American life and feed America’s lust for power. It gives me a great sense of being an Indigenous woman to speak against nuclear power. Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia members not only spoke out, we stood up for our cultural and traditional values and the protection of animal life, air, water, people and Mother Earth. And in the end, this stance was recognized by the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, as "trustee-delegation", issued his ultimate decision and ruling after a complex task of weighing the long-term viability and preservation of the tribal culture of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute against the benefits and risks from such economic development activities. In conclusion, Associate Deputy Interior Secretary James Cason wrote: "It is not consistent with the conduct expected of the prudent trustee to approve a proposed lease that promotes storing high level spent fuel on the reservation." This was a precedent-setting and decision the Secretary of Interior made for the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes in that it recognizes our cultural perspective and lives as well as our sovereignty and the trust relationship between the federal government and our reservation community. This decision by the Secretary is not only highly important for Goshute people, but also for all Indigenous people who face the same dilemma and who need protection against environmental racism. Sovereignty is the root of Indigenous people. Our livelihood is based on the visions of our forefathers, generations ago, to uphold our sacredness, to live in harmony with nature and all living creation. We reside on Mother Earth and give thanks to her nourishment, always building steps for our future generation who represent the survival of an Indigenous community. Sovereignty can't be bought, sold, or abused with greed and dishonesty when our traditional life is at stake. I express gratitude to OGD members, silent ones, our attorneys Paul, Mark and Larry Echohawk, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), Tom Goldtooth, Shundahai, Corbin Harney, a spiritual leader who says we have one air, one water, one Mother Earth, Pete Lipster, Western Shoshone Defense Project, Carrie Dann, who stands for Shoshone Land, Neconda, Grace Thorpe, leader of anti-nuke and nuclear free zone, Shoshone National Council and staff, Honor the Earth, NIRS, Kevin Kamps, the Utah Delegates, and others. I give thanks to all who supported OGD in our efforts to protect our homeland. We have been successful, and now look to developing a future reservation economy based on sustainability that reflects our cultural values and traditions.
Margene Bullcreek, tribal member, Skull Valley Band of Goshute
(Shoshone)
Tom B.K. Goldtooth |
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