nuclear-news

Navajo art against uranium mining

Uranium mining should not be permitted.Daily Times, VENAYA YAZZIE, 17 April 14 “……..For the People’s Choice show I created an art piece specifically on the topic of uranium mining on the Navajo reservation, or as my people refer to the land of our ancestors – Dinétah. My Navajo tribe has endured many atrocities and triumphs since our forced exodus and return from Fort Sumner, in 1868. Yet, I believe the most terrible has been the disastrous effects of uranium mining on ancestral Navajo lands.

My painting which is titled ée’t’só: Roaming Monsters in Dinétah and Sodizin as Our Weapon, concerns the history of uranium mining in the 20th century, which shows that from 1944 to 1986 about four million tons of uranium ore was extracted throughout the reservation. Today, the Navajo reservation is riddled with 521 abandoned uranium mines, in the state of New Mexico alone there are 450. The disheartening fact is that most of these abandoned mines on the Navajo reservation have been declared contaminated sites and are no longer habitable. This fact alone is the reality that human rights to clean air, water and a healthy environment have been taken away. My hope is that this knowledge will not only bring awareness to the community, but also to the world that uranium mining should not be permitted……”

April 19, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general