Oglala Sioux fight expansion of uranium mine Indian Country Today May 09, 2008 by: Rob Capriccioso WASHINGTON - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given hope to a growing group of Natives from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in what's being called a classic ''David vs. Goliath'' battle for federal oversight involving a proposed expansion of a nearby uranium mine.

A three-judge panel from the commission ruled in late April that Native opponents to new developments on the Crow Butte Resources mine, located approximately 30 miles south of the reservation, raised valid arguments regarding groundwater contamination and health issues. The panel called for oral arguments on the matter, as well as a hearing on objections to the foreign ownership of the mine, which is owned by the Canadian firm Cameco Corp., the world's largest uranium producer................

......Well-known Indian leaders, including Winona LaDuke, are supporting the efforts as well. Some opponents to the expansion believe that fractures in underground rock allow the water used in Cameco's mining process ultimately to end up mixing with water that people use for drinking and sanitation, thereby spreading contamination from one aquifer to others. …………

……'………….It's a desecration of Mother Earth,' White Plume said. 'In the Lakota way of thought, water is sacred - it's our first tool, our first dwelling, our first medicine. It's a gift. Water is our relation, and it's our obligation to protect our relation.' ...............White Plume's argument might have legal footing under the 'Winters Doctrine,' which serves to preserve Indian water rights. The OST also recently passed an ordinance declaring its land a nuclear-free zone, and leaders have promised to prosecute violators.................……………….lawyers for the opponents to the expansion think Cameco has not being entirely forthcoming, and believe further NRC review will have dramatic consequences for the company

.David Frankel, a lawyer representing the Western Nebraska Resources Council, said that there is no authority under federal law for a foreign-owned company, such as Cameco, to receive licenses to mine uranium in the U.S. 'It amounts to the illegal exportation of nuclear materials' he said,........................''It looks like our country's resources, especially those in Indian country, are being picked off by foreign companies so that uranium can be sold on the market to the highest bidder,'' Frankel said. ''That's not so good for the U.S. because it does pollute our water, it does pollute our environment'............................................''

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES FACE GROWING CRISIS, AS CLIMATE CHANGE, UNCHECKED ECONOMIC GROWTH , UNFAVOURABLE DOMESTIC LAWS FORCE THEM FROM THEIR LANDS, FORUM TOLD. 7TH Space Interactive 3 May 08 - "Indigenous peoples were facing a growing crisis .............. the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today during a full-day debate.......

........CHELSEA CHEE, speaking on behalf of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said indigenous cultures were in crisis, and climate change must urgently be addressed for the benefit of indigenous children and youth..............

...........She said that the answer to climate change was not the continued use of fossil fuels or nuclear power, or large-scale use of biofuels or the instigation of international carbon trading plans. She demanded a worldwide moratorium on new exploration, extraction and processing of fossil fuels on indigenous lands .......

..................SANJEEB DRONG, speaking on behalf of the Asia Caucus, suggested that the Forum's future work should address the impact of the mining and extractive industries, which comprised a significant threat to the livelihoods and well-being of indigenous peoples around the world.........

..........Input from indigenous peoples should be solicited for the upcoming forum on sustainable development....". .

DUMPING OF TOXIC WASTE ON INDIGENOUS LANDS, DAMAGE FROM MINING, DEFORESTATION AMONG ISSUES, AS INDIGENOUS FORUM DISCUSSION FOCUSES ON PACIFIC REGION Media NewsWire 25 April 08 - "Continuing its seventh annual session with a half-day discussion on the Pacific, delegates to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called for the Forum to take a more robust role in inducing other parts of the United Nations system to carry out mandates for securing the rights of the indigenous peoples in the region......

.........Michael Dodson, Member of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues holding the human rights portfolio, said indigenous land and waters were being targeted by industrialized nations for dumping of toxic or radioactive wastes from industrial or military operations, often without informing residents of dangers. ............"

Message: No uranium mining The Independent 31 March 08

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -" Indian leaders, scientists, local business interests and the superintendent of the Grand Canyon warned Friday of dire consequences if uranium mining is allowed to proceed near the national park, while mining advocates minimized any likely problems............................................Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., told the Congressional subcommittee here Friday that the Navajo Nation remains opposed to uranium mining on or near its land, and will take whatever action necessary to prevent it.
"It is unconscionable to me that the federal government would consider allowing uranium mining to be restarted anywhere near the Navajo Nation when we are still suffering from previous mining activities," he said. "In response to attempts to renew uranium mining, the Navajo Nation Council passed, and I signed into law, the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act.
This law places a ban on all uranium mining both within the Navajo Nation boundary, and within Navajo Indian Country."
Testifying at a joint oversight hearing before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands at the Flagstaff City Council Chambers, President Shirley said Navajos "do not want to not sit by, ignorant of the effects of uranium mining, only to watch another generation of mothers and fathers die."
"We are doing everything we can to speak out and do something about it," he said. "We do not want a new generation of babies born with birth defects. We will not allow our people to live with cancers and other disorders as faceless companies make profits only to declare bankruptcy and then walk away from the damage they have caused, regardless of the bond they have in place."

............................................... . "Today, the legacy of uranium mining continues to devastate both the people and the land," he said. "The workers, their families, and their neighbors suffer increased incidences of cancers and other medical disorders caused by their exposure to uranium. Fathers and sons who went to work in the mines and the processing facilities brought uranium dust into their homes to unknowingly expose their families to radiation'..............................................."

As Uranium Firms Eye N.M., Navajos Are Wary
Washington Post By Kari Lydersen
March 28, 2008AMBROSIA LAKE, N.M. -- "Twenty years after uranium mining ceased in New Mexico amid plummeting prices for the ore........At least five companies are seeking state permits to mine the uranium reserves, .......................

But the deposits are largely in and around Navajo land, and the industry's poor record on health and safety as it extracted tons of the ore in past decades has soured many Navajos on uranium mining. In 2005, the Navajo Nation banned uranium mining and milling on its land, and thousands of tribe members are receiving or seeking federal compensation for the health effects of past uranium exposure. ...................................

The decades of extraction took a heavy toll: lung cancer, kidney disease, birth defects and other ailments at notably high levels among miners and families who lived among piles of uranium tailings -- the ground-up waste from milling -- and even used the material to build their homes..................................".

Uranium waste imperils Jharkhand villages The New Nation, Bangladesh Aparna Pallavi March 24, 2008 - "Radioactive waste from three government-owned uranium mines has put about 50,000 people in Jharkhand's Jaduguda at risk. The people, mostly tribal communities, suffer from serious radiation-related health problems. But the mines in East Singhbhum district continue without adequate safety measures.

On studying more than 9,000 people (over 2,000 houses) in five villages near the mines owned by the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), researchers found cases of congenital deformities, sterility, spontaneous abortions and cancer were alarmingly high among the villagers, mostly from the Ho, Santhal, Munda and Mahali tribes.

The mines, set up four decades ago, employ around 5,000 people. A team from the Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) and a local NGO Jharkhandi Organisation Against Radiation (JOAR) conducted the study in May-August last year.

According to the union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, three per cent people in India suffer from physical disabilities; congenital deformity being one of them. In the villages in Jaduguda, the percentage of congenital deformity itself is at 4.49 per cent, as compared to 2.49 per cent in the reference villages. This, says the study, is commensurate with the findings at Church Rock mines in New Mexico, USA. In 1979, a dam at the mining site burst, sending gallons of radioactive mill wastes and triggering an environmental crisis.

The safety situation at the mines is equally dismaying. The company dumps waste from the mines in open fields and transports uranium ore in uncovered dumpers. Just about a decade ago, say villagers, the playgrounds for children and grazing areas were near the three tailing ponds. The company even supplied mine tailings as construction material to the villagers . In December 2006, a pipe burst spilling radioactive waste.

Preparations underway for 'radiation exposure' court case ABC Radio Australia 12 March 2008 The French Polynesian Nuclear Test Veteran Association is preparing to bring to court next month, the case of eight Polynesians who formerly worked on Moruroa nuclear sites. Of the eight men who worked on the sites in the 1960s, only three are still alive. They claim their group developed leukaemia due to exposure to radiation during nuclear tests carried out by the French government between 1960 and 1996..................Roland Oldham is the President of Mururoa e Tatou, the French Polynesian Nuclear Test Veteran Association. He says putting the lawsuit together has been extremely difficult.

OLDHAM: French people are more conscious of their legal rights than French Polynesians who lived in atolls far away. Most of them are fishermen. They don't have a basic knowledge of their rights. And everything in the legal process is carried out in the French language......................................................".

Uranium mining is dangerous Rocky Mountain News Joseph R. Scranton February 19, 2008 - "…………………….. On October 23, 2007 the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee took testimony from knowledgeable persons with first hand experience regarding "The Health and Environment Impact of Uranium Mining on the Navajo Nation".

Following are quotes from persons that provided testimony:

.................Doug Brugge, Phd in cellular and developmental biology from Harvard University and an MS in industrial hygiene from the Harvard School of Public Health, associate professor in the department of public health and family medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine:

'The health effects of uranium and its associated radioactive decay products and heavy metals that rise to the level of proven or near proven causal links include:

1) Radon, which causes lung cancer and in fact, it is the primary source of lung cancer among Navajo uranium miners;

2) Uranium, which as a heavy metal causes damage to the kidneys and birth defects;

3) Radium,which causes bone cancer, cancer of the nasal sinuses and mastoid air cells and leukemia; and

4) Arsenic, which causes lung and skin cancer, as well as neurotoxicity, hyperpigmentation and hyperkeratosis of the skin.'............

..in most cases, uranium exploration and harvesting, if allowed, will occur in rural area's that have become significantly populated over the past decade. Most of which ARE NOT serviced with municipal water, but by private wells. Wells owned by individuals that do not and will not have the ability to "monitor", nor counteract the invasion of radionuclides in their private water supplies...........

We are talking URANIUM, a substance so hazardous I don't think we even KNOW ALL the adverse effects it can have on the health of persons exposed to it via airborne particles, transportation and storage of waste by-product, and the contamination of our underground water aquifers.."

Rio Tinto's tainted track record ALLIRAN 21 February 2008 - "……………..Rio Tinto's tainted reputation for being responsible for environmental and human rights violations at its mines and smelters. The company has been regularly embroiled in controversy and accused of corporate misdeeds including suppressing trade unions, taking land from indigenous people without compensation, destruction of the environment, and negligence and complicity in civil war.

Displacement of indigenous people Rio Tinto has an appalling record in its relations with indigenous peoples around the world. …………………In the 1980s, during the construction of the Argyle diamond mines in Western Australia, a large number of Aboriginal sacred sites were desecrated or destroyed. The Tawiyul Women's Dreaming Place, a most sacred area at the Barramundi Gap and one that played an important role in unifying local groups, was almost completely destroyed. This was done with full awareness of the sacred nature of the site and against the vocal opposition of local Aboriginal groups. Rio Tinto also led the mining industry campaign to oppose native title legislation in Australia in 1997-8………………

When South African armed forces illegally occupied Namibia in the 1970s, Rio Tinto violated United Nations sanctions by establishing a uranium mine and illegally selling its output. The Rossing mine operated at full production to gain maximum profits before Namibia gained independence, despite risks to health and safety.

A UN document described the mining operations there as "mined by virtual slave labour under brutal and unsafe conditions, transported in secrecy to foreign countries, processed in unpublicised locations, marked with false labels and shipping orders, owned by multinational corporations whose activities are only partially disclosed, and used in part to build the nuclear power of an outlaw nation..

The company has consistently refused to apologise for, or even to acknowledge, its operation of the mine during a period in which such operations were proscribed by the United Nations. Mine workers from the pre-independence period now claim to have developed cancer as a result of their work experience. The company has opposed their compensation claims. ...

……..(Rio Tinto's Capper Pass tin smelter in Hull, UK ) Research done by the Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre in 1990. (SURRC) noted that ventilator emissions, dust blown by the wind and onto workers, uranium leaching from waste heaps, and, above all, the prevalence of Radon- 222 decay series radio-isotopes could all be having an adverse impact on the workforce and surrounding communities. ." .

Is Nuclear Energy Sustainable?
Triplepundit 12 Feb 08 By Nathan Shedroff
"Like the, now mythical, debate about Hummers vs Priuses, nuclear power is an issue who's pros and cons largely can't be addressed without an LCA (Life Cycle Analysis). .....................coal is the big, dirty source of power that makes nuclear look good so let's stick with it, for now.

What this view of nuclear power doesn't show us, however, is the massive impacts on the environment that nuclear has before and after its use phase. From the mining of the uranium and it's sad, continuing legacy of heart-breaking heath effects and irresponsible history of safe-guarding local communities, to the refining and transportation of the fuel, to the building of the power plants themselves to the lack of viable, long-term options to deal with the waste-stretching into the thousands of years-nuclear powers' impact vastly outweighs coal and dwarfs the impact of most other energy sources..........................

...................What's new to the debate, however, is the environmental angle. The nuclear energy companies have latched onto climate change as their latest hope to crack the blockade of opposition to nuclear power in this country.................

...............The challenge is both in the definition of the problem and in the analysis of the solution. Forgetting nuclear power's embarrassing track-record of abuses, when we look at the entire life cycle of the issue, climate concerns can't be alleviated with nuclear power. In fact, they're probably worse. In addition, the long litany of other problems makes nuclear an option not even worth considering...........................

............Aside from the economic issues, one of the most important social issues rarely brought-up is that the majority of known uranium sources lie under native lands-and the tribes don't want to sell access to their land for mining. On a walk through the Marin Headlands, my friend, an engineer, had an easy fix to this problem: pay the native tribes market rate for their land and resources. There. Easy. Done.
What isn't so easy, of course, is that most native tribes (whether here in the USA or elsewhere in the world) don't want to give over their land for any price! To many native cultures, the Earth is a deity. Nature itself is a source of not only physical but spiritual sustenance. They're not interested in having their land scarred for any reason and at any price. In other words, despite how much we may want what they have, if they don't want to sell it to us, it's not ours to take.....................Largely, the nuclear industry sees tribes and their members as "poor" citizens outside the American ideal.....................The already have a deep, rich culture they aren't willing to give up in trade for merely money. This is what the business world doesn't see...............

............Nuclear energy, like the mythical "hydrogen economy" is a centralized solution proposed by centralized companies bent on maintaining their influence of the energy industry. This isn't surprising since every industry tries to accomplish the same thing. What's different is that this industry, which has been fighting the entire idea of climate change for 30 years or more is suddenly using it as its latest PR campaign to scare the public and public officials into accepting nuclear power as the only viable solution. It's cynical, ironic, comical, and sad. Worse still, they're proposing massive subsidies, public investment, and limitation of liabilities in order to make it feasible. That should be evidence enough that it's not the right solution......................................."

Uranium Cuts a Tragic Path Through the Navajo Nation THE WATCH By Amy Levek December 30, 2007 - "……………..Late this year, spurred to action by a series of articles in The Los Angeles Times in 2006, Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) held a hearing on 'The Health and Environmental Impacts of Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation' in the House Oversight Committee.The Navajo Nation's Edith Hood testified at that hearing about "a Navajo concept called hozho.

'Hozho is how we live our lives. It means balance, beauty and harmony between we, the five-fingered people, and nature. When this balance is disturbed, our way of life, our health and our wellbeing all suffer. The uranium contamination and mining wastes at my home continues to disrupt hozho'..............

........Navajo miners worked in the uranium mines and mills on the reservation in the 1930s and 40s, and then again during the boom that lasted through the cold war of the 1950s and 60s, enthusiastic about the opportunity to be paid relatively and work close to home. Besides the physical after-effects, the Navajo would suffer deep cultural wounds as a result of their work.

.................................The elevated lung cancer rates, some three to five times higher among Navajo miners than the rest of the American population, is as ironic as it is tragic. Prior to the inception of uranium mining in the 1930s,the Navajo people were virtually cancer-free and had the lowest lung cancer rate of all Native American groups.

.'..........................................................Navajo kids were swimming in open pit uranium mines in the 1990s. When the US EPA took readings at one mine site, the radium levels were over 270 times the EPA standard. And that was last year. And American citizens are still drinking contaminated water, breathing in radioactive dust, and likely living in radioactive homes today. That's happening today, right now'.-(Waxman)...................................."

Censored in 2007: Traditional Indigenous People The narcosphere By Brenda Norrell Dec 31st, 2007 "The most censored issue of Indigenous Peoples by the media in 2007 was the 'Silencing of traditional and grassroots' voices by those in power' according to readers voting on a poll at the Censored Blog.

The elected tribal councils in the United States and band councils in Canada attempted to silence Indian spiritual leaders and traditional people by way of silencing and distorting the news in 2007.

'Nuclear, uranium and coal genocide on Indigenous lands,' was the second most censored issue. Throughout the Americas, Indigenous lands and people are targeted by coal, uranium, copper and gold mining and toxic dumping that will poison their air, water and land..................Navajos live with the pollution and sickness of unreclaimed uranium mines, power plants, coal mining and hundreds of oil and gas wells in the Four Corners area alone............The Algonquin, Pueblos, Navajo, Lakota and others are also battling new uranium mining, while Goshute and Western Shoshone fight nuclear dumping on their lands which will be detrimental to future generations.........................................".

......................George Arthur represented the Navajo Nation government at the hearing.

'Uranium mining and milling on and near the reservation has been a disaster for the Navajo people'" Arthur said.

'We are still undergoing what appears to be a never-ending federal experiment to see how much devastation can be endured by a people

and a society from exposure to radiation in the air, in the water, in the mines, and on the surface of the land. We are unwilling to be the subjects of that ongoing experiment any longer'

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were outraged. Committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., called the government's behavior 'absolutely unacceptable" and a "modern American tragedy'................................".

Niger: The Touaregs and environmental war - African Path June 25, 2007 - "........................the Mouvement des Nigeriens pour la Justice (MNJ) has stepped up its activity claiming responsibility for a pitched battle with government troops in March and a recent attack on a uranium exploration team. ...................

..'The movement was created because nothing has been done by the government,'Moktar Roman, spokesperson for MNJ said. 'There is no work, no schools, not even drinking water in all Niger. It's terrible, it's a genocide, and the government is corrupt, taking money from people and leaving them to live in poverty' he said. The group is fighting for development in what the United Nations considers the poorest, least developed country in the world, Roman said. 'It is not just a Touareg movement.'............................

...Among the major driving forces are, as always, the underdevelopment of the north and the lack of local control over resource exploitation, particularly gold and uranium. The attack on the uranium exploration team was no accident, given the MNJ's call for 'wealth from Niger's burgeoning uranium mining industry to benefit... the northern region in which the mining is taking place.'

According to Paris-based Niger analyst, Nadia Belamat, though, the uranium exploitation dispute isn't simply economic: 'not only is uranium mining in northern Niger not helping the region economically, it is also causing serious ecological and health problems'

Indigenous Peoples Call for Global Ban on Uranium Mining - Counterpunch 9/2/07 By BRENDA NORRELL - "Indigenous peoples from around the world, victims of uranium mining, nuclear testing, and nuclear dumping, issued a global ban on uranium mining on native lands. The declaration, signed during the Indigenous World Uranium Summit, held Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 2006 on the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, Arizona, brought together Australian aboriginals and villagers from India and Africa. Pacific islanders joined with indigenous peoples from the Americas to take action and halt the cancer, birth defects, and death from uranium and nuclear industries on native lands.

This is a very long article, detailing evidence from many indigenous people - from the Navajo Nation, from India, Australia, China, Mexico and Canada. read the whole article at http://www.counterpunch.org/norrell02082007.html

TIMELINE
June 07 Australian Prime Minister guts the Northern Territory's Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 (ALRA) - making it easier for uranium exploration and waste dumping
29 June Canada's First Nations national 'day of action' Algonquins blockade of uranium company
June 07 Nigeria - Touaregs in Mouvement des Nigeriens pour la Justice (MNJ) fight uranium exploration team
June 04 2007 USA Sioux protestors Grand River Environmental Equality Network (GREEN) occupying U.S. Forest Service land at Slim Buttes protesting uranium runoff, uranium mining
May 07 Canada application for uranium exploration on sacred lands,in the Northwest Territories rejected by Lutselk'e Dene people
Nov-Dec 2006 Indigenous World Uranium Summit, held Nov. 30-Dec Indigenous peoples from around the world issued a global ban on uranium mining on native lands
2006 U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said the U.S. government is trampling on Shoshone rights in privatization of Shoshone ancestral lands for mining and federal efforts to open a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain,