Mining can be a really nasty business. Last week, there was a feature in the paper about mountain top removal mining in Appalachia. Just this morning, I read a brief article about the town of Libby Montana and the health problems caused by the vermiculite mining there. Now I hear about this. We're really making a mess out of this planet...
For some reason I can't pull up the page Doug. Might have a lot to do with our slow connection. Any chance someone could copy and paste the text of the article into this thread?
Posted by Bob Miller on November 20, 2006 at 11:46 AM
Its a photo slideshow Hank- Not much in the way of text, just captions on some pics. Beautiful PJ Doc work.
Posted by Cliff Beittel on November 20, 2006 at 3:18 PM
Hank,
After seeing the slideshow, I wanted to know more and Googled "Navajo, uranium." First couple of hits were extensive recent newspaper stories that provided far more detail than the slideshow. Another example of how the government that many assume will protect the environment is often the worst offender.
It's a pretty sad story. Native Americans are living and will likely always live a pre-Civil Rights life. If this were a Caucasian community with greater economic output, you bet your a** the Govt. would get in there and fix the problem and help the people. Instead, they are cast-off, forgotten, and left to deal with the after-effects of white man's Cold War. It's not only an environmental disaster, it's a humanitarian disaster, and the U.S. Govt. proves itself too wicked to clean up a mess of it's own making.
There's not a day that goes by where my faith in my government to do the right thing falters even further......
Posted by Carl Donohue on November 21, 2006 at 2:50 PM
Hey Michael
Your first paragraph above is probably the poignant commentary I've ever read on this, or any other forum.
Thank you.
Cheers
Carl
Posted by Steve Foss on November 24, 2006 at 7:26 PM
Thank you, Cindy.
Posted by Jerry Greer on November 27, 2006 at 9:42 AM
Michael you are dead right! They also care nothing for the poor mountain communities of Appalachia either!
I watched this film last night. It documents four environmental issues on four different Indian lands. Like the LA Times article(s), it was disturbing, sad, and at times encouraging (there was also victory in the film). Moreover, I learned that a company named Hydro Resources has tried since 1994 to open NEW uranium mines in two New Mexico communities - Crownpoint and Churchrock - that could contaminate the only source of drinking water for 15,000 people (largely Native American - see this.) Everyone should be angry - not just those who are directly affected.
I recommend this film.
Posted by Kent Staubus on December 11, 2006 at 11:29 AM
There is another side to the story. It is easy for White Liberals living far away to dictate what "should" happen on reservations. There are groups of White Liberals that say no to oil industry in Alaska. They say no to livestock confinement operations. They say no to casinos. In fact, they seem to say no to just about ANYTHING that would provide jobs to the Indians. And what do the White Liberals living in far away big cities care? They all have good jobs--doesn't affect them in the slightest. Keep the Indians poor, just shovel money at them here and there from the federal government.
I'm familiar with the reservations where I live and see some of them monthly. What I see looks like Third World--dirt streets, uniform government housing, highest diabetes rate in the world, and hardly any businesses. the alcoholism is a dirty little secret the media won't talk about. According to my state's health dept., every single household on the reservations has at least one alcolic. That's right, a per capita rate of 100%!!! South Dakota has an overall unemployment rate of something like 3%, but on the res it's more like 60%. The Indian reservations needs hope, and that comes from JOBS! No longer should whiney White Liberals in Washington DC or where ever else be allowed to dictate policy like they have been. Let the people who live on the reservations decide if they want oil wells, mining, nuclear storage, tourist casinos--whatever. Anything else strikes me as arrogant. It's more than that, it's a quiet form of genocide. Destroy their jobs and let them just drink themselves into extinction. It sickens me.
Kent in SD
Posted by Guy Tal on December 11, 2006 at 11:50 AM
That's quite a sweeping and misinformed statement, Kent. For starters I believe liberals are in general more ethnically diverse than conservatives so the term "White Liberals" is nothing more than misinformed propaganda that by itself should invalidate your whole premise.
If you want to talk facts, look to the Clinton administrations Health Care Equality and Accountability Act of 2003 targeted specifically at the issues you described. By comparison the Bush administration refused to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and also failed to appoint a new leader to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (highest Native American political position in the US) since 2005.
Is your solution to turn Native Americans into cheap labor for big industry? Hope doesn't come from jobs - it comes from good jobs with prospects and future and sustainability. Hard labor followed by a slow painful death of cancer doesn't sound like hope to me.
Now if you're proposing investment in locally-owned businesses, education, healthcare, etc. integrated with the rest of the economic system that's a different story. Drilling and mining are by definition "slash and burn" industries and will not provide these.
Guy
Posted by Kent Staubus on December 11, 2006 at 7:13 PM
If you want to talk facts, look to the Clinton administrations Health Care Equality and Accountability Act of 2003 targeted specifically at the issues you described. By comparison the Bush administration refused to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and also failed to appoint a new leader to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (highest Native American political position in the US) since 2005.
Is your solution to turn Native Americans into cheap labor for big industry? Hope doesn't come from jobs - it comes from good jobs with prospects and future and sustainability. Hard labor followed by a slow painful death of cancer doesn't sound like hope to me.
From what I've seen living here and actually working on the reservations as an occupational therapist, the Republicans ignore them and the Democrats exploit them. All in all, things have been worse during the Clinton years on our reservations than any other, but there's too many other factors to pinpoint the reason. I will point out that the reason my job as an occupational therapist came to an end was that the CLINTON ADMINISTRATION pulled the funding for nursing home therapy. Fact.
My point is that every time a way to create jobs for Indians comes along, some one or group from way far away butts in and says, "Oh no, you can't do that!" In most cases it's some environmental group from afar. I note that the ONLY time these groups seem to gave a damn about the Indians is when there's some political aspect involved that they (out of state groups) care about.
What I would like to see is the Indians be able to run their OWN affairs. They have been treated like children for at least the past 100 years, and this has to stop. If they want to open their own mining operations, they should be able to. If they want to develop some of their land for gaming casinos and other tourist industries, they shouldn't have to endure a lot of grief from outsiders about it. There is a huge need for basic businesses such as simple grocery stores, barbershops, and so on--the things that make a community. A sustainable community needs more than that, though. There has to be some kind of major industry to provide a backbone. My town is a regional health and credit card call center. Other nearby towns have light manufacturing. In other SD towns it's agricultural industry such as livestock confinement, grain processing, and so on. Whenever the local tribes try to get this going, someone from outside, usually an "environmental" group, comes in and screws it all up for them. It just isn't right. These people need jobs, not federal handouts. Jobs=Purpose. Jobs=Hope. It just irritates me when I hear wealthy White elites who earn more than an entire Indian town does shoots down just about everything the Indians try to do. It just isn't right, and I call them on it.
Kent in SD
Posted by Kim Kaiser on December 11, 2006 at 8:23 PM
as far as oil and gas drilling operations are concerned, roughnecks on drilling rigs (usually the lowest on the pole of drilling help) in the the southeast, and usually uneducated, missing fingers, etc,,are now commanding 50-60k a year,,, i would hardly consider that a bad paying job. it may be hard work, but they are paid well,,,and in most cases, covered by insurance and benefits,,and as ross perot said,, someone has to work at macconalds!!
Kent: if you'd look at the films and links I provided above, you'd learn that the opposition to the mining/drilling/industry on and off the res is coming from the Indians themselves, not "White Liberals" or non-Indian "white elite" environmental groups. Jobs and the need for industry aside, the reservations and their outlying areas are easy targets for developers/industry because they *are* hurting for jobs and income, but the NIMBY factor prevails: they don't want uranium tailings and carcinogens in their backyards anymore than you do. They are largely fighting their own fights, and are not guided or instructed by "White Liberal" environmental groups as you are suggesting.
Look, the ruination of Indian Nations is a bipartisan white man's affair. Clinton's Admin. is no more to blame than the Republicans. If you're unhappy about things on the res, then write letters to your elected politicians and try to help in some specific way beyond blaming political parties (both parties are WRONG).
Posted by Kent Staubus on December 13, 2006 at 10:21 AM
Micheal--
You are of course correct that the ruination know's no political party. I also agree with you upon rereading this is actually a NIMBY story.
A note of explanation:
I have worked on reservations as a therapist, and also as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and other church groups. What I see is a human disaster virtually in my back yard, and it's been ignored for so long that no one even seems to see it anymore. I'll give an example. I had a young Lakota man assigned to me in a small hospital who had just had a second amputation from diabetes. He really didn't seem to care if he got better or not, and one day I caught him with some whiskey a friend had sneaked in. I asked him why he was killing himself, a piece at a time. He replied, "It's all I have to do." I replied I was trying to help him get stronger so he could live a full life at home. His reply to that really stunned me. He said, "When you go home, you have a family, a nice home, and a real job. When I go home to [reservation] my dad is dead, my mother is drunk, my home is not so nice, and there are no jobs anywhere. All I have is drinking with my friends. I know it will kill me, but there are worse things." Like I said, I was stunned. BTW, I never considered myself to be a very good therapist. I was constantly learning more from my patients than they learned from me. Bottom line is, I guess, I see stuff like this all too often, and it very deeply affects me. I get emotional about it--I apologize for that. It's hard for a person with a conscience to not be affected, suppose.
Not everything is dismal on my area's reservations. I have met some really cool and thoughtful people, and they have places of great beauty that are unique in the region. There is a new generation of Lakota businessmen & women who are building communities and jobs, and not just casinos. I've seen this in other parts of the country too, and it makes me very happy to see.
Kent in SD
Posted by Terry Sohl on December 13, 2006 at 7:36 PM
I'm a definite "White Liberal", although I snicker whenever the term "Liberal" is thrown out there as if the term is an insult. I'm a definite environmentalist, and again, I snicker when the term environmentalist is tossed out as if it's some kind of insult. I'm a liberal environmentalist and am damn proud if someone calls me by that term.
I have to snicker when I see the term CLINTON ADMINISTRATION in bold letters, as if the very combination of letters is an abomination. Which would you rather have, a president with a mess of his or her personal affairs, or a president that makes a mess of national and international affairs? It's amazing the problems of today that get blamed on the administration of 6 years ago.
I too support the rights of Native Americans to open their own casinos, open mining operations if they wish to, and exploit tourist opportunities. However, this case sounds like pure exploitation of the Native Americans themselves. Don't throw money in their face and dare them to turn it down, dare them to keep the status quo on reservations.
Do they need help? You bet. Are both parties to blame? As with just about every other problem in the Nation, yes, they are.
Discussion
19 repliesPete D.
After seeing the slideshow, I wanted to know more and Googled "Navajo, uranium." First couple of hits were extensive recent newspaper stories that provided far more detail than the slideshow. Another example of how the government that many assume will protect the environment is often the worst offender.
Your tax dollars at work. Again and again and again and again..... Uranium mining is kind of like the Energizer bunny.
There's not a day that goes by where my faith in my government to do the right thing falters even further......
Your first paragraph above is probably the poignant commentary I've ever read on this, or any other forum.
Thank you.
Cheers
Carl
Please check out this website! http://ilovemountains.org
I recommend this film.
I'm familiar with the reservations where I live and see some of them monthly. What I see looks like Third World--dirt streets, uniform government housing, highest diabetes rate in the world, and hardly any businesses. the alcoholism is a dirty little secret the media won't talk about. According to my state's health dept., every single household on the reservations has at least one alcolic. That's right, a per capita rate of 100%!!! South Dakota has an overall unemployment rate of something like 3%, but on the res it's more like 60%. The Indian reservations needs hope, and that comes from JOBS! No longer should whiney White Liberals in Washington DC or where ever else be allowed to dictate policy like they have been. Let the people who live on the reservations decide if they want oil wells, mining, nuclear storage, tourist casinos--whatever. Anything else strikes me as arrogant. It's more than that, it's a quiet form of genocide. Destroy their jobs and let them just drink themselves into extinction. It sickens me.
Kent in SD
If you want to talk facts, look to the Clinton administrations Health Care Equality and Accountability Act of 2003 targeted specifically at the issues you described. By comparison the Bush administration refused to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and also failed to appoint a new leader to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (highest Native American political position in the US) since 2005.
Is your solution to turn Native Americans into cheap labor for big industry? Hope doesn't come from jobs - it comes from good jobs with prospects and future and sustainability. Hard labor followed by a slow painful death of cancer doesn't sound like hope to me.
Now if you're proposing investment in locally-owned businesses, education, healthcare, etc. integrated with the rest of the economic system that's a different story. Drilling and mining are by definition "slash and burn" industries and will not provide these.
Guy
From what I've seen living here and actually working on the reservations as an occupational therapist, the Republicans ignore them and the Democrats exploit them. All in all, things have been worse during the Clinton years on our reservations than any other, but there's too many other factors to pinpoint the reason. I will point out that the reason my job as an occupational therapist came to an end was that the CLINTON ADMINISTRATION pulled the funding for nursing home therapy. Fact.
My point is that every time a way to create jobs for Indians comes along, some one or group from way far away butts in and says, "Oh no, you can't do that!" In most cases it's some environmental group from afar. I note that the ONLY time these groups seem to gave a damn about the Indians is when there's some political aspect involved that they (out of state groups) care about.
What I would like to see is the Indians be able to run their OWN affairs. They have been treated like children for at least the past 100 years, and this has to stop. If they want to open their own mining operations, they should be able to. If they want to develop some of their land for gaming casinos and other tourist industries, they shouldn't have to endure a lot of grief from outsiders about it. There is a huge need for basic businesses such as simple grocery stores, barbershops, and so on--the things that make a community. A sustainable community needs more than that, though. There has to be some kind of major industry to provide a backbone. My town is a regional health and credit card call center. Other nearby towns have light manufacturing. In other SD towns it's agricultural industry such as livestock confinement, grain processing, and so on. Whenever the local tribes try to get this going, someone from outside, usually an "environmental" group, comes in and screws it all up for them. It just isn't right. These people need jobs, not federal handouts. Jobs=Purpose. Jobs=Hope. It just irritates me when I hear wealthy White elites who earn more than an entire Indian town does shoots down just about everything the Indians try to do. It just isn't right, and I call them on it.
Kent in SD
Look, the ruination of Indian Nations is a bipartisan white man's affair. Clinton's Admin. is no more to blame than the Republicans. If you're unhappy about things on the res, then write letters to your elected politicians and try to help in some specific way beyond blaming political parties (both parties are WRONG).
You are of course correct that the ruination know's no political party. I also agree with you upon rereading this is actually a NIMBY story.
A note of explanation:
I have worked on reservations as a therapist, and also as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and other church groups. What I see is a human disaster virtually in my back yard, and it's been ignored for so long that no one even seems to see it anymore. I'll give an example. I had a young Lakota man assigned to me in a small hospital who had just had a second amputation from diabetes. He really didn't seem to care if he got better or not, and one day I caught him with some whiskey a friend had sneaked in. I asked him why he was killing himself, a piece at a time. He replied, "It's all I have to do." I replied I was trying to help him get stronger so he could live a full life at home. His reply to that really stunned me. He said, "When you go home, you have a family, a nice home, and a real job. When I go home to [reservation] my dad is dead, my mother is drunk, my home is not so nice, and there are no jobs anywhere. All I have is drinking with my friends. I know it will kill me, but there are worse things." Like I said, I was stunned. BTW, I never considered myself to be a very good therapist. I was constantly learning more from my patients than they learned from me. Bottom line is, I guess, I see stuff like this all too often, and it very deeply affects me. I get emotional about it--I apologize for that. It's hard for a person with a conscience to not be affected, suppose.
Not everything is dismal on my area's reservations. I have met some really cool and thoughtful people, and they have places of great beauty that are unique in the region. There is a new generation of Lakota businessmen & women who are building communities and jobs, and not just casinos. I've seen this in other parts of the country too, and it makes me very happy to see.
Kent in SD
I have to snicker when I see the term CLINTON ADMINISTRATION in bold letters, as if the very combination of letters is an abomination. Which would you rather have, a president with a mess of his or her personal affairs, or a president that makes a mess of national and international affairs? It's amazing the problems of today that get blamed on the administration of 6 years ago.
I too support the rights of Native Americans to open their own casinos, open mining operations if they wish to, and exploit tourist opportunities. However, this case sounds like pure exploitation of the Native Americans themselves. Don't throw money in their face and dare them to turn it down, dare them to keep the status quo on reservations.
Do they need help? You bet. Are both parties to blame? As with just about every other problem in the Nation, yes, they are.