Havasupai Fight To Save Grand Canyon
by Valerie Taliman
News From Indian Country Correspondent
Grand Canyon, CO -The Havasupai Nation has been fighting to save
the Grand Canyon from uranium mining that will desecrate sacred
lands and contaminate the creek that runs through Supai, the village
on the canyon floor known for its serenity and its beautiful blue-
green waters.
On March 30, [1992], they lost an important legal battle when
the Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal of a 1900 court
decision that will allow Energy Fuels Nuclear to open Canyon Mines,
located 8 miles south of the canyon's south entrance.
"There are only 678 Havasupai people left," said Carletta
Tolusi, a young activist working to save the religious traditions,
health and future of her tribe. "If the mine poisons our water, it
will be the end of my people."
Tolusi said her people found out about plans for the Canyon
Uranium Mine only after a permit had been granted by the U.S.
Forest Service to Denver-based Energy Fuels Nuclear in 1986. The
mine site not only threatens their watershed, it is near Red Butte,
an important religious site that figures prominently in the
Havasupai creation story.
"Havasupai religion teaches that we are the guardians of
Grandmother Canyon, the place where the world s reborn and renewed
each year," Tolusi said. "Uranium mining threatens the existence of
all creation."
Her uncle, Rex Tolusi, former Havasupai Vice Chairman and member
of the Tribal Council, echoed her concerns.
"To the Indian people, the Canyon itself is very sacred. It is a
place of emergence for us and for other tribes," he said. "We were
to be the protectors of the Grand Canyon and we are not supposed to
allow any destruction, including uranium mining."
EFN's Canyon Mine shaft will be built over the natural springs
that feed Havasu Creek, the only source of water for the Havasu'uw
Baa'ja (People of the Blue Green Water). The fenced mine site is
within the boundaries of the Kaibab National Forest.
The Havasupai wrestled with the federal government and the
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality over the issuance of a
water quality permit for the mine. They challenged the Environmental
Impact Statement prepared by the Forest Service fearing that
surface, ground water and a major aquifer would be contaminated.
Although EFN plans to install a monitoring wall, the Havasupai
contend that detecting contamination after it has reached the water
will be too late.
Since 1986, the Havasupai have struggled in Washington, D.C. and
in federal court for recognition of their freedom of religion. In
court, they were required to expose sacred beliefs and practices to
lawyers and "amused" corporate officials, although tribal members
insisted their religious practices were not meant to be shared by
non-Indians.
EFN produced an anthropologist who said the Havasupai claims
were false because their religion was not "organized." Adding
insult to injury, at a House subcommittee hearing on the Grand
Canyon Enlargement Act, Wyoming Congressman Teno Roncalio said that
because the Havasupai had not fully demonstrated their religion to
the committee, there was "insufficient proof that the religion
existed."
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Commentary by Valerie Taliman
Uranium is on my mind a lot these days
Actually, it's what mankind has done with uranium that bothers
me. The legacy left behind from uranium mining, milling and enrichment
is one of widespread death, disease and destruction, especially in
the West and on Indian lands.
In October 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act to provide "compassionate payments" for injuries
to US citizens exposed to radiation from nuclear testing.
The legislation contains an apology to individuals and families
for "the hardships they have endured." Unfortunately, many of those
family members are not alive to appreciate the apology nor the
compensation.
People injured by weapons testing or uranium mining in six
western states (Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and
Wyoming) are eligible for compensation. Many of them lived
"downwind" from the tests.
According to a new documentary called "Bound by the Wind," we
are all "downwinders" - people exposed to high levels of
radioactivity from nuclear weapons tests - because the wind carries
radiation to every corner of the earth, thereby increasing our
risks to contract cancers and thyroid diseases.
To date, six countries have conducted more that 1,90 nuclear
tests, 518 of which were in the atmosphere, under water or in
space, according to a 1991 report issued by the International
Commission to Investigate Health and Environmental Effects of
Nuclear Weapons Production.
About 837 nuclear tests for Great Britain and the US have been
conducted at the Nevada Test Site on lands belonging to the Western
Shoshone, according to the Treaty of Ruby Valley.
The Environmental Protection Agency documented cumulative
deposits of plutonium in soil samples more than 100 miles north of
the test site said an EPA document. EPA also noted that no surveys
have been conducted to determine health effects from radioactive
releases on the region's residents.
So let's not assume we are "safe from underground explosions."
More than half of all underground tests have leaked radiation into
the atmosphere, according to the Department of Energy's 1988 Report
on Radioactive Effluents.
The US Congressional Office of Technology Assessment said
underground testing has often resulted in prompt releases of
radioactivity to the atmosphere.
From 1970 to 1988, there were 120 releases - 18 accidents and
102 "operational" (intentional) releases, according OTA's 1989
report. Those numbers do not include the 17 nuclear blasts that
have occurred since 1990 or seven others scheduled for the near
future.
New evidence suggests that the impact of nuclear weapons testing
has contaminated and injured millions more than original estimates
would have us believe as illnesses are appearing in second and third
generations.
Until 1963, 105 above-ground tests at the Nevada Test Site
exposed more than 250,000 US soldiers to radiation. Some were
marched directly toward "ground zero" to see what health effects
would occur from radiation.
The survivors of these military experiments formed "Atomic
Veterans" and documented that almost 98 percent of their medical
claims from radiation exposure were denied by the Veterans
Administration. They say their government used them as "human
guinea pigs."
For the last two years, the Atomic Veterans have stood shoulder-
to-shoulder with Western Shoshone leaders whose treaty with the US
was violated when the military took the land that now comprises the
Nevada Test Site. Like thousands of others, both groups are calling
on the US to honor its promise to stop nuclear testing, and to
cancel plans for Yucca Mountain.
"We are the most bombed nation in the world," said William
Rosse, Sr., a Western Shoshone elder. "We've had more than our
share of radiation, and now they want to dump more nuclear waste on
our land at Yucca Mountain."
That is one other disturbing reality of nuclear testing. Without
exception, tests have been conducted globally in areas where
indigenous people live, as their lives were judged to be expendable.
When the US tested in the Marshall Islands, an Atomic Energy
Commission official noted that the Rongelap islanders presented "a
unique research opportunity" to see how people absorbed radiation.
"While it is true that these people do not live the way
Westerners do, civilized people, it is neverless true that they are
more like us than the mice.," said Merrill Eisenbud of the AEC.
And that brings us back around to why I think so much about the
destructive uranium cycle that continually threatens us.
Native people and our neighbors cannot afford the Yucca Mountain
nuclear waste dump that will eventually poison us all. Forget the
promises of jobs and money.
The bottom line is that historically, the US government has
decided to sacrifice some of us in the interest of "national
defense." And unless we speak out to defend ourselves, we'll be the
next set of victims getting an apology and "compassionate payments"
from Congress.
[Just a note, the main building at Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
site sustained a million dollars in damage during last month's
earthquakes. This area was said to be earthquake-proof by the US
government. -Michele]
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Michele Lord + If you have come here to help me,
+ you are wasting your time.....
Alpha Institute + But if you have come because
+ your liberation is bound up with mine,
milo@scicom.alphacdc.com + then let us work together.
Aboriginal Woman
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