Resistance on the Ground

Nobody's Wasteland protest camp in Ward Valley made headlines again on January 31, 1997, when Governor Wilson asked Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to evict the camp so that the California State Department of Health Services (DHS) can test at the site and get the nuclear waste dump project back on track. At their annual conference the next day, approximately fifty groups in the Ward Valley Coalition agreed to nonviolently defend the site if the Bureau of Land Management tries to evict the camp.

Wilson's announcement came only two days after the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe organized a dramatic demonstration in Ward Valley. For 1 1/2 hours on January 29, Native Americans and others blocked the road and prevented a Department of Energy committee from touring the proposed dump site. The event caught the attention of the media.

On January 31 protestors took over a meeting of the Southwestern Compact Commission in Needles. For six hours the Commission listened to testimony from dump opponents, rather than proceeding with their own agenda to move the dump project forward. Finally DHS got the floor to announce that they had sued the Department of the Interior that afternoon to transfer the land to California for construction of the dump. They also announced that Wilson wants to evict the camp. You should have been there.

Nobody's Wasteland camp was started by participants in a large encampment at Ward Valley in October 1995, and has been a thorn in the side of dump proponents ever since. It inspired national media coverage of the Ward Valley issue for the first time, including feature articles last year in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Business Week.

The camp hosted a large Spiritual Gathering in December 1995 organized by the Mohave Elders Committee and the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe. We have had many visitors, including Japanese hibakusha (nuclear bomb survivors) and elected representatives from Mexico, and have hosted several runs and walks. On February 8-11, 1997, Quechan Indian runners ran 200 miles on ancient trails from the Fort Yuma-Quechan Reservation in Southern California to Ward Valley. Taiwanese anti-nuclear activists will visit April 1.

The Save Ward Valley office in nearby Needles, California, conducts local out-reach and has co-coordinated several large gatherings in Ward Valley. Our latest was the Children's Fall Gathering in November 1996, where 75 children learned traditional Mojave and Chemehuevi language, beading, bow and arrow construction from local vegetation, hut building, photography, the life cycle of the desert tortoise, and the effects of radiation on the Yakima Nation in the state of Washington. We are now gearing up for our largest gathering April 25-27, 1997.

Last year Save Ward Valley organized panel discussions and a poster contest, and mobilized hundreds of people to attend government hearings. We give presentations in local schools, show videos to civic and church groups, and educate people on the Internet about Ward Valley.

Both the office and the camp are sponsored by the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Greenpeace, and the Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition. We work closely with all the Tribes in the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance, formed to oppose any radioactive waste facility in Ward Valley. We publish a newsletter for the Ward Valley Coalition: to receive a sample copy call us at (619) 326-6267.

Due to the eviction threat, it is crucial now to keep the vigil in Ward Valley twenty-four hours a day. We need a few good people to share our nonviolent, drug- and alcohol-free desert experience for a weekend, a week, or longer. Come camp on the very spot where the nuclear industry wants to dig sixty-foot deep unlined trenches for radioactive waste.

Because the status of the proposed dump constantly changes, please contact the Save Ward Valley office if you are interested in helping to keep the vigil. We have an application procedure for new campers. We find our happiest campers are self-sufficient, have their own transportation and camping gear, and are willing to volunteer.

The East Mojave Desert is majestic. The air is clean, the water (from a 700-foot-deep well) tastes great, and our vistas are grand. What better time or place to take a stand against the desecration of our Mother Earth?