Navajos act to stop uranium rush

[struggle4progress]

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

<snip> Last year, 700 mining claims were filed and 100 test holes were bored into the remote high desert in northern Arizona, The Arizona Republic reported. <snip>

Fearing another rush, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. issued an executive order in November banning negotiations with uranium companies or uranium exploration on the three-state Navajo Nation. <snip>

After the first wave of uranium mining began on its reservation in the 1950s, the Navajo Nation became embroiled in a public health tragedy. Dozens of premature deaths of Navajo miners and passed-on genetic defects have been attributed to uranium exposure.

"You look around the reservation and see so many elderly people who are crippled and can barely breathe," said Robert Stewart Sr. of Tuba City, a Navajo who worked for five years in a mine in the mid- to late 1950s. "This pretty much devastated much of a generation." <snip>

http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2006/01/03/news/regional/cef047993578206a872570ea006847f0.txt

[texpatriot2004]

1. Thank you Navajo Nation. n.t

[azndndude]

2. Proud to be Navajo!

We have seen the devasting effects of this terrible uranium mining firsthand. It is not something we wish upon anyone.