#Supai, #Ute, #Dine', #Arapaho, and #Lakota Testify on #Uranium #Exploitation before #InterAmericanCommission on #HumanRights

"The legacy of #UraniumMining in the #Southwest is death from #cancer and unreclaimed uranium mines. Now the contamination threatens the #ColoradoRiver. Tilousi urged the Commission to support the tribes efforts and pressure the #UnitedStates to change the #1872MiningLaw that allows international companies to seize #PublicLand for mining."

by Brenda Norrell, #CensoredNews
March 1, 2024

WASHINGTON -- "'There was no respect for the people living on these lands, and certainly no respect for #MotherEarth,' Edith Hood, Dine' from Red Water Pond Road community, told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

"'The government was aware of the risks and the dangers but failed and neglected to inform our people.'

"Dine', Havasupai, Northern Arapaho, Oglala Lakota and #WhiteMesa Ute testified on uranium exploitation by the United States on Wednesday, during the session, 'Impacts of Uranium Exploitation on #IndigenousPeoples' Rights.'

"The #BIA, #EPA and #NuclearRegulatoryCommission praised themselves, and attempted to #CoverUp the legacy of death from uranium mining, strewn #RadioactiveWaste, and deadly uranium mills in Indian country.
Eric Jantz, legal director of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, disagreed with the United States assertions.
Jantz pointed out that the U.S. appears to want Native people to sacrifice more for 'national security' -- rather than to deal with the devastation. As for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it has not honored public comments. And as for the EPA, it's too late. There are more than 500 uranium mine sites waiting to be cleaned up on the Navajo Nation. Zero have been fully cleaned up, Jantz told the Commission.

"'Our ancestors remains were desecrated to build the mill,' Anthony Badback, Ute Mountain Ute at White Mesa, told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights today in Washington. Badback testified that #EnergyFuels uranium mill has contaminated the #groundwater, plants, birds, #wildlife, and air in his community in southeastern #Utah.

"The young people are getting asthma, and the people can no longer use their spring water for ceremonies. Ute must buy bottled water to drink, and no longer hunt because of the contamination. Now, the mill is bringing in international waste and has become a low-level radioactive waste repository, because of the lax standards of the state of Utah. 'We want the mill to be shut down,' Badback told the Commission. 'Please help us.'

Read more: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/02/navajo-ute-lakota-to-testify-on-uranium.html

#WaterIsLife #NuclearWaste #UraniumMills #Reprocessing #IndigenousActivism
#CulturalGenocide #EnvironmentalRacism
#NoNukes #NoNewNukes
#RenewablesNow #NoMining #UraniumMining

TODAY! #Supai, #Ute, #Dine', #Lakota Testify on #Uranium #Exploitation before Inter-American Commission on #HumanRights

by Brenda Norrell, #CensoredNews
February 28, 2024

WASHINGTON -- "The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will hear testimony from Navajo, Ute, and #Oglala Lakota, on the impacts on #IndigenousPeoples' human rights from uranium exploitation in Washington on Feb. 28, 2024.

"'#NahasdzáánShimá — #MotherEarth—provides everything we need to keep us alive—the four things we Navajos talk about —air, water, soil, and light—and it is our home,' said #EdithHood, President, of #RedWaterPondRoadCommunityAssociation.

"'We have been living with this silent killer without knowing the dangers. Once the #mining started, after the drilling, we didn’t realize we were being contaminated.'

"'When we were children playing and herding sheep we didn’t understand we were being exposed to dangerous #radiation,' Hood said.
Hood thanked the commission for the hearing and added, "Our own #Tribalgovernment doesn’t listen to us.'

"The #InterAmericanCommission on Human Rights agreed to hold a thematic hearing on how U.S. uranium exploitation policies have resulted in human rights abuses in Indigenous communities across the country. This coincides with an upsurge in #UraniumMining, said the #NewMexico #EnvironmentalLawCenter.

"'As the United States doubles down on the misguided notion that #NuclearPower is a solution to the #ClimateCrisis, the uranium development industry is beginning to benefit from generous #taxpayer giveaways to the nuclear industry as a whole.'

"'Subsidies from the #Biden administration have spurred uranium mining production to restart in at least 3 mines in the last few months, in #Utah, #Wyoming, and in Arizona near the #GrandCanyon. As has been the case since the dawn of the #AtomicAge, the impacts of uranium mining are largely left out of the debate over nuclear power.'

"#EnergyFuels said it is increasing U.S. uranium production as prices reach a 16-year high. Energy Fuels said in December that it is ramping up uranium production at three mines #PinyonPlain in in the Grand Canyon, and #LaSal and #Pandora uranium mines in southeastern #Utah.

"Ore mined from the three mines during 2024 will be stockpiled at the Energy Fuels #WhiteMesaMill in Utah for processing in 2025. It is also preparing two mines, #Whirlwind in southeastern Utah, and #NicholsRanch in central Wyoming, to begin uranium production within one year, Energy Fuels said.

"Pinyon Plain began uranium mining and is now threatening the water of the #Havasupai in their homeland in the Grand Canyon. The mine is now endangering Navajo, #Hopi, Ute, and southwest residents, on the uranium haul route, from the Grand Canyon to the Energy Fuels mill in southeastern Utah.

"The White Mesa Mill is poisoning the water, land, and air of White Mesa Utes in southeastern Utah. It is now bringing in #radioactive waste from Europe. Nuclear waste at the site was transported here from the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada because it was too deadly to leave there. The Nevada site poisoned the ancestral land of #WesternShoshone."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/02/navajo-ute-lakota-to-testify-on-uranium.html

#WaterIsLife #UraniumMining #IndigenousActivism #CulturalGenocide #EnvironmentalRacism #NoNukes #NoNewNukes #RenewablesNow #NoMining