Pentagon restores Navajo Code Talkers histories after outcry

Defense Department has yet to restore history of Iowa Jima flagraiser Ira Hayes, Pima


WWII veteran and Navajo Code Talker Peter MacDonald Sr. is photographed at his home on the Navajo Reservation in Tuba City, Ariz., April 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

MAR 20, 2025
Terry Tang
Associated Press

PHOENIX — The Pentagon restored some webpages highlighting the crucial wartime contributions of Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans on Wednesday, days after tribes condemned the action.

The initial removal was part of a sweep of any military content that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion, or commonly referred to as DEI. Following President Donald Trump’s broader executive order ending the federal government’s DEI programs, the Defense Department deleted thousands of pages honoring contributions by women and minority groups. Department officials say the Navajo Code Talker material was erroneously erased.

“In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period,” Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot said in a statement.

Several webpages on the Code Talkers landed on a “404 - Page not found” message Tuesday. Some were back up Wednesday — although any that also mention Native American Heritage Month remain down. Thousands of other pages deleted in the DEI purge are still offline.

White House officials informed the Navajo Nation that an artificial intelligence-powered automated review process looking for content with DEI initiatives led to the elimination of anything mentioning “Navajo," according to a statement from Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren.

Nygren, who sent a letter to the Defense Department requesting clarity on the issue, said he's pleased by the resolution.

“I want to assure the Navajo people that we remain in close communication with federal officials to ensure the legacy of our cherished Navajo Code Talkers is never erased from American and Navajo history,” Nygren said.

He also pointed out the 574 federally recognized tribes across the U.S. are sovereign nations and not defined by DEI classifications, a stance broadly supported by other Native American leaders who also sent letters to the Trump administration.

The U.S. Marine Corps initially recruited 29 Navajo men to develop a code based on the unwritten Navajo language in World War II. Using Navajo words for red soil, war chief, clan, braided hair, beads, ant and hummingbird, for example, they came up with a glossary of more than 200 terms, later expanded, and an alphabet. To convey the word “send,” Code Talkers would say the Navajo words for “sheep, eyes, nose and deer.”

Hundreds of Navajos followed in their footsteps, sending thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications crucial to the war’s ultimate outcome. The code stumped Japanese military cryptologists.

The Code Talkers participated in all assaults the Marines led in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945 and are credited with helping the U.S. win the war. Hundreds of Native Americans from more than 20 tribes also served as code talkers during World War I and World War II, according to the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Among them were Choctaw, Cherokee, Osage, Chippewa and Hopi speakers.

Among those alarmed to hear of the missing Navajo Code Talker webpages was Peter MacDonald, 96. He and Thomas H. Begay are the only two Navajo Code Talkers still living today.

“That code became a very valuable weapon and not only saved hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but it also helped win the war in the Pacific,” MacDonald said by phone from his home in Tuba City in the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation. "And it has absolutely nothing to do with DEI."

A Republican who voted for Trump, MacDonald said he thinks the current administration needs to better walk the line between getting rid of DEI and ignoring history.

“That’s why I’m very concerned that communication from the Pentagon down to the various military units should be taught or learn that this information is history, and you don’t want to hide history,” MacDonald said.

The Defense Department has had to issue reassurances that it is not omitting historic achievements by servicemen and women of color. Besides the Code Talkers, the agency also on Wednesday restored a webpage describing baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson’s military service after it was missing earlier in the day. Last week, pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were also restored.

“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others — we salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop,” Ullyot said. “We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity or sex.”

Michael Smith, whose father, Samuel “Jesse” Smith Sr., was a Navajo Code Talker, questioned why these pages were removed at all.

“I don’t know how taking Navajo Code Talkers off the Department of Defense website is saving the United States any money because that’s not consistent with the president’s order,” said Smith, who helps organize annual celebrations of the Code Talkers.

Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona also expressed disappointment, claiming there was missing content relating to all Native American veterans, including Ira Hayes. Hayes was an enrolled member of the tribe and one of six Marines featured in an iconic 1945 Associated Press photograph of U.S. forces raising an American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima. As of March 20, Hayes' history page had yet to be restored.

Even with some being reposted, he remains worried web content removal is “the tip of the iceberg.”

“The way it looks in the (executive) order, this language is skewed and made to sound like the diversity programs are the ones that are unethical," Smith said.

‘My dad didn’t go to war for nothing’: Pentagon scrubs Native American heroes from website

Department of Defense deletes Code Talkers, Iwo Jima flag raiser Hayes under Trump’s DEI order




Navajo Code Talkers and their family members met with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace at the Pentagon, Aug. 10, 2007. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen | Public domain)


SHONDIIN SILVERSMITH AND ARIZONA MIRROR
MAR 19, 2025

Prominent Native American figures in U.S. military history have been erased from the U.S. Department of Defense’s website as part of the sweeping effort stemming from President Donald Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Department of Defense website removed articles featuring details about the Navajo Code Talkers — Navajo men who served during World War II and used their language as a secret code in battle — along with U.S. Marine Ira Hayes from the Gila River Indian Community, who helped raise the flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

“Navajo code has absolutely nothing to do with DEI because Navajo code was a weapon,” Navajo Code Talker Peter MacDonald said in response to the removal during an interview with the Arizona Mirror.

MacDonald, 96, is one of two living Navajo Code Talkers. He served in the South Pacific as a Code Talker and in North China with the 6th Marine Division.

MacDonald said that dismissing the Navajo Code Talkers as DEI is a “terrible misinterpretation by the United States.”

The complex Navajo language was used as a weapon in World War II against the enemy because the Japanese were breaking every military code that U.S. troops were using in the Pacific theater.

It took the Navajo people to develop a whole new code in the Navajo language, he added, and “it became the only military code in modern history never broken by an enemy.”

In a general keyword search on Tuesday of the Department of Defense’s website for the Navajo Code Talkers, only eight results appeared, but none related to information or articles detailing their role in World War II.

Zero results appeared in a search for Ira Hayes.





Ira Hayes is memorialized in a monument at Wesley Bolin Plaza in Phoenix. (Photo by Shondiin Silversmith, Arizona Mirror)

“The Navajo Code Talkers earned their place in history through their courage and sacrifice, giving their lives in defense of this nation,” Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley said in a press release. “Erasing their extraordinary contributions from formal military history is not only disrespectful, it is dishonorable.”

Having articles and information about the Navajo Code Talkers on the department’s website is the right thing, MacDonald said, because it provides education for everyone that weapons do not just include guns but language.

He added that their weapon helped preserve America’s freedom, and “we were happy to use that weapon to help.”

“It’s important for the entire nation to know that the Navajo Code has absolutely nothing to do with DEI,” he said. He hopes the Pentagon will return all the content so they can learn.

In an email response to the Arizona Mirror, a Department of Defense spokesperson who wouldn’t provide their name said the DOD is in the process of restoring the content about the Navajo Code Talkers, which had been removed during the auto-removal process.

No time frame was provided for restoring the content, and the spokesperson did not respond to questions about the deleted content related to Ira Hayes.

Ronald Kinsel, the son of the late Navajo Code Talker John Kensel, Sr., said he was shocked to learn that all articles featuring the Navajo Code Talkers had been removed.

“My dad didn’t go to war for nothing,” he said, adding that the United States wouldn’t be the country it is now if it wasn’t for the Navajo Code Talkers.



Navajo Code Talker Thomas H. Begay salutes the Navajo Code Talker Memorial Statue during the National Navajo Code Talkers Day celebration on Aug. 14, 2022.

 (Photo by Shondiin Silversmith, Arizona Mirror)

The Navajo Code Talkers participated in all assaults led by the U.S. Marines in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, including Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu and Iwo Jima. The total number of Navajo Code Talkers who served in the U.S. Marines is unknown, but it is estimated to be between 350 and 420.

MacDonald’s daughter, Charity, said she wasn’t shocked by the removal. It is merely a new form of erasure of Indigenous people, something the United States has done throughout its history.

“You can not erase an entire history of people,” she said, especially today when information can be accessed in various ways.

“Our federal government is doing this purposely,” Charity said, adding that it’s an action they’re taking to show people that they can.

“The federal government is making a statement, saying that this is how they feel,” she added.

Charity said Indigenous people have given a lot to the federal government, and during World War II, the military came to the Navajo people and asked them for help.

“They used the Navajo language to help them win the war,” she said.

Navajo Nation, Gila River Indian Community respond

Leaders from the Navajo Nation and the Gila River Indian Community sent letters to the Department of Defense to ask why the details about the Navajo Code Talkers and Hayes were deleted.

Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said removing information about Hayes and the Navajo Code Talkers due to the scrubbing for DEI initiatives is “misguided” and “irresponsible.”

Lewis said his tribe sent a official letter to the Department of Defense on Tuesday but have not received a response.

“Sadly, we’re no strangers to being erased,” Lewis said, noting it has happened to Indigenous peoples throughout history.

“All the stories of Ira Hayes and all Native veterans, including the code talkers, have to be rectified ASAP,” he said.

Lewis said Hayes is a significant figure in military history, and members of the Gila River Indian Community learn about him from a very young age.

Hayes, alongside five other Marines, raised the U.S. flag on the island of Iwo Jima at the summit of Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945. He was part of the 5th Marine Division and fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima until the island was secured on March 26, 1945.

The photograph of the flag raising during the Battle of Iwo Jima is one of the most iconic images of World War II, taken months into the battle by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Lewis said Hayes’ story and the image of the Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima is historic for Native military service.

“Native Americans have always served in our country’s military, in all branches, at the highest levels of any other group,” Lewis said.

Indigenous people across the United States serve in the armed forces at five times the national average, according to the National Indian Council on Aging, and have served with distinction in every major conflict for over 200 years.

Lewis said that recognizing the patriotism and courage of Native American soldiers has nothing to do with any type of DEI initiative.

“It’s simply an offering of respect for extraordinary service and bravery in the line of duty,” he added.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday asking him to explain the removal of the Navajo Code Talkers’ information from military websites.

“Appropriately recognizing the work of the Navajo Code Talkers is profoundly significant to the Navajo Nation,” Nygren said in his letter, requesting the rationale behind the removal.

In the letter, Nygren wrote about how Trump welcomed the Navajo Code Talkers to the White House in 2017, during his first term in office, and praised their contributions to the country.

“We sincerely appreciate this recognition and believe it highlights the importance of preserving the history and legacy of the Navajo Code Talkers,” he wrote.

“Given the profound impact and historic importance of these American heroes, it is imperative that their legacy remains visible and accessible to all Americans,” the letter stated.

The Navajo Nation Council voiced its disappointment in the removal of the Code Talkers, emphasizing that the Navajo Nation is not a racial group but a distinct political entity.

“The Navajo Nation Council is deeply concerned by being conflated into DEI initiatives that fail to recognize our unique political status,” Curley said in a press release. The Navajo Nation Council is engaging with the administration to clarify the reasoning behind removing articles.

“The United States would not be the nation it is today without the bravery and service of the Navajo Nation Code Talkers,” Curley said. “Their legacy is a cornerstone of American history, and it is essential that their contributions be honored and recognized.”

 SHONDIIN SILVERSMITH  is an award-winning Native journalist with AZ Mirror. Silversmith has covered Indigenous communities for more than 10 years, and covers Arizona's 22 federally recognized sovereign tribal nations, as well as national and international Indigenous issues.  Follow DiinSilversmith

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

Trump's DEI Executive Order Prompts the Removal of Navajo Code Talkers from Some Military Websites


Yahoo News
Native News Online 

 March 17, 2025

The code developed by the Navajo Marines during WWII was never broken. 

file photoBy Levi Rickert

Native American Code Talkers are highly revered across Indian Country for their patriotism and service to the United States. During World War II, Navajo Code Talkers, a group of Diné citizens serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, used the Navajo language to securely transmit classified tactical messages.

On Monday, in an exclusive article, Axios reported articles about the renowned Native American Code Talkers have disappeared from some military websites, with several broken URLs now labeled "DEI."

Axios identified at least 10 articles mentioning the Code Talkers that had disappeared from the U.S. Army and Department of Defense websites as of Monday.

During World War II in the South Pacific theater, the Navajo Code Talkers used a secret code that was never broken by the Japanese, enabling the United States military to communicate securely and ensure victory. The Navajo language secured military communication lines that allowed Marines to advance on the battlefields of the Pacific Theater.

The original group of 29 Navajo Code Talkers transmitted information about tactics, troop movements, orders, and other battlefield messages using telephones and radios. Their work was so successful that by the end of World War II, more than 400 Navajos were called upon to serve as Code Talkers. The code has never been broken. The story about the contributions to save democracy remained classified until 1968.

This rich history has been diminished due to a Trump executive order aimed at removing Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DEI) initiatives throughout the federal government.

Asked about the missing pages, Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot replied in a statement: "As Secretary [Pete] Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department. ...We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms."

The irony of the erasure is one of the far right’s heroic presidents, Ronald Reagan in 1982 declared August 14th as "National Navajo Code Talkers Day" to honor the contributions of the Navajo Code Talkers.

THIRD WORLD USA
Why has Navajo Nation been so hit hard by the coronavirus?

Navajo Nation has the highest per capita infection rate in US, highlighting centuries of neglect, native leaders say.

by Creede Newton

Navajo Nation leaders announced last week that it had the highest per capita COVID-19 infection rate in the United States, outpacing hot spots like New York. The grim statistic highlights the historical failings of the US government, Navajo leaders say.

There were 4,794 cases out of the Navajo Nation's 173,000 residents as of Monday, according to Navajo Nation authorities, and that number could rise as testing increases. At least 157 people have died.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a Monday press release that "14.6 percent of our citizens have been tested so far. The Navajo Nation continues to test at a higher rate per capita than any state in the country."

The Navajo Nation government has issued emergency measures: Masks are required in public, and total lockdown curfews are implemented over the weekends to inhibit movement in an effort to stem the virus' spread.

Compounding the problem are the high rates of heart disease, diabetes and obesity on the reservation.

About 30 percent of homes on the Navajo Nation are also without running water. This presents challenges to meet Centers for Disease Control guidelines, including the thorough washing of hands.

"You got the feds, you got everybody saying, 'Wash your hands with soap and water,' but our people are still hauling water. Here's a great opportunity for us to get running water to the Navajo people," Nez said at a digital town hall meeting on May 12.

Raynelle Hoskie attaches a hose to a water pump to fill tanks in her truck outside a tribal office on the Navajo reservation in Tuba City, Arizona [File: Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo]

For Mark Charles, a member of the Navajo Nation who is running as an independent for US president in 2020, it is important to understand why the Navajo Nation faces these issues.

"It's a problem 250 years in the making, going back to how this nation was founded. The ethnic cleansing and genocidal policies … that's where the problem lies," Chares told Al Jazeera.

The reason "healthcare is poor, treaties are not being upheld", according to Charles, who is running a campaign on creating a nation "for all people".
Generational discrimination

The Navajo Nation is a 71,000 square kilometre (27,413 square mile) semi-autonomous territory spanning three US states - Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It essentially serves as a reservation for the over 350,000 Navajo people who live there.

The Dine, as the Navajo call themselves, faced a long history of displacement and dispossession as the US expanded west in the 19th century, with conflicts and forced relocations common.

Only Native American running for US presidency (2:16)

It culminated in the 1864 "Long Walk", when the Navajo were forcibly removed from their traditional homelands in present-day Arizona and Western New Mexico and forced to walk over 500 kilometres (310 miles) to Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico, where they were kept in internment camps.

The Long Walk and the wars that preceded it decimated the Navajo. Many died along the way from exposure, starvation, exhaustion and violence from the US troops that escorted them.

The Navajo population went from roughly 25,000 to between 5,000 and 8,000, according to estimates.

The Navajo signed a treaty with the US government in 1868 which established a sovereign Navajo Nation that was still dependent on Washington.

As with many Indigenous peoples, the treaty between the US and the Navajo promised funding for healthcare, infrastructure - including that which contributes to water access - and other important areas.

However, the US government has continually failed to uphold agreements with the Navajo Nation, Charles claimed, citing a lack of funding for healthcare and infrastructure that has contributed to the challenges faced by the Navajo Nation.

"The infrastructure is never fixed. The treaty is never honoured", Charles said.

Underfunded

The Navajo, like other federally recognised tribes, are provided healthcare by the Indian Health Service (IHS), a US government agency. The IHS operates largely on reservations, but also maintains facilities in nearby communities.

But the IHS has been accused of "unacceptable" care.

"What we've found is simply horrifying and unacceptable. In my view, the information provided to this committee and witness first-hand can be summed up in one word: malpractice," Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso, who was then chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said at a hearing on the IHS in 2016.

A member of the Navajo Nation, receives his monthly water delivery in the town of Thoreau [Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP]

But the IHS has been chronically underfunded, presenting challenges to operations.

"The number of doctors, nurses, and dentists is insufficient," according to a report on the IHS prepared for the Interior Department cited by US media. "Because of small appropriations, the salaries for the personnel in health work are materially below those paid by the government in its other activities concerned with public health and medical relief."

The Trump administration has made increased funding for the IHS a priority, and the coronavirus pandemic has spurred this effort, according to IHS officials.

"President Trump has prioritised the health and well-being of American Indians and Alaska Natives throughout his presidency and the COVID-19 crisis," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement emailed to Al Jazeera.

Congress allotted tribal nations eight billion dollars in total for tribes in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed in March. The majority of the funds allotted for the IHS has been distributed, while other funds for Indigenous governments meant to lessen the economic impact of the pandemic were delayed by court cases.

The Navajo Nation had received roughly $600m of these funds by May 6, Nez confirmed to local media.

On May 22, Azar announced the Trump administration is "making a targeted allocation from the funds Congress provided to send $500 million to Indian healthcare facilities.

"Combined with other funding, supplies, and flexibility around telehealth, we are working with tribal governments to do everything we can to support heroic Indian healthcare workers and protect Indian Country from COVID-19", Azar said.

Indigenous resilience

For his part, Nez has claimed the US has "forgotten" about the Navajo Nation, although they are US citizens. But the "curve is flattening" on the Navajo Nation, Nez said in the release.

"Testing, contact tracing, and the public health orders that were implemented months ago requiring protective masks in public and weekend lockdowns are working and flattening the curve".

For Charles, the Navajo running for president, this is largely thanks to the efforts of the Navajo themselves.

"I applaud President Nez and the work that the entire Navajo Nation is doing. I recognise that it is because of this 250 year of this unreconciled injustice" that the situation has gotten to this point, Charles said.

"I call on the government to immediately begin to honour treaties that were signed and to begin to build true nation-to-nation relationships with Indigenous nations."



SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

PHOTO ESSAY

On Navajo Nation, a push to electrify more homes on the vast reservation

JOSHUA A. BICKEL and SUMAN NAISHADHAM
Updated Sun, October 27, 2024

HALCHITA, Utah (AP) — After a five-year wait, Lorraine Black and Ricky Gillis heard the rumblings of an electrical crew reach their home on the sprawling Navajo Nation.

In five days' time, their home would be connected to the power grid, replacing their reliance on a few solar panels and propane lanterns. No longer would the CPAP machine Gillis uses for sleep apnea or his home heart monitor transmitting information to doctors 400 miles away face interruptions due to intermittent power. It also means Black and Gillis can now use more than a few appliances — such as a fridge, a TV, and an evaporative cooling unit — at the same time.

“We’re one of the luckiest people who get to get electric,” Gillis said.

Many Navajo families still live without running water and electricity, a product of historic neglect and the struggle to get services to far-flung homes on the 27,000-square-mile (70,000-square-kilometer) Native American reservation that lies in parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Some rely on solar panels or generators, which can be patchy, and others have no electricity whatsoever.

Gillis and Black filed an application to connect their home back in 2019. But when the coronavirus pandemic started ravaging the tribe and everything besides essential services was shut down on the reservation, it further stalled the process.

Their wait highlights the persistent challenges in electrifying every Navajo home, even with recent injections of federal money for tribal infrastructure and services and as extreme heat in the Southwest intensified by climate change adds to the urgency.

______



EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of on how tribes and Indigenous communities are coping with and combating climate change.

______

“We are a part of America that a lot of the time feels kind of left out,” said Vircynthia Charley, district manager at the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, a non-for-profit utility that provides electric, water, wastewater, natural gas and solar energy services.

For years, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority has worked to get more Navajo homes connected to the grid faster. Under a program called Light Up Navajo, which uses a mix of private and public funding, outside utilities from across the U.S. send electric crews to help connect homes and extend power lines.

But installing power on the reservation roughly the size of West Virginia is time-consuming and expensive due to its rugged geography and the vast distances between homes. Drilling for power poles there can take several hours because of underground rock deposits while some homes near Monument Valley must have power lines installed underground to meet strict regulations around development in the area.

About 32% of Navajo homes still have no electricity. Connecting the remaining 10,400 homes on the reservation would cost $416 million, said Deenise Becenti, government and public affairs manager at the utility.

This year, Light Up Navajo connected 170 more families to the grid. Since the program started in 2019, 882 Navajo families have had their homes electrified. If the program stays funded, Becenti said it could take another 26 years to connect every home on the reservation.

Those that get connected immediately reap the benefits.

Until this month, Black and Gillis' solar panels that the utility installed a few years ago would last about two to three days before their battery drained in cloudy weather. It would take another two days to recharge.

“You had to really watch the watts and whatever you’re using on a cloudy day,” Gillis said.

Then a volunteer power crew from Colorado helped install 14 power poles while the tribal utility authority drilled holes six feet deep in which the poles would sit. The crew then ran a wire about a mile down a red sand road from the main power line to the couple's home.

“The lights are brighter,” Black remarked after her home was connected.

In recent years, significantly more federal money has been allocated for tribes to improve infrastructure on reservations, including $32 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 — of which Navajo Nation received $112 million for electric connections. The Navajo tribal utility also received $17 million through the Biden administration's climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, to connect families to the electric grid. But it can be slow to see the effects of that money on the ground due to bureaucracy and logistics.

Next spring, the tribal utility authority hopes to connect another 150 homes, including the home of Priscilla and Leo Dan.

For the couple, having grid electricity at their home near Navajo Mountain in Arizona would end a nearly 12 year wait. They currently live in a recreational vehicle elsewhere closer to their jobs, but have worked on their home on the reservation for years. With power there, they could spend more time where Priscilla grew up and where her dad still lives.

It would make life simpler, Priscilla said. “Because otherwise, everything, it seems like, takes twice as long to do.”



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Naishadham reported from Washington.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.





Robert Black, left, with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, supervises as a volunteer crew lifts a power line pole, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. 

(AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

A crew with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority installs power poles for a home, at top right, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah.

 (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

A crew lifts a power line pole during construction at a home, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. 

(AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Liam Gillis, 7, holds one of his chickens, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lorraine Black, left and Ricky Gillis, right, pose for a portrait with their grandson, Liam Gillis, 7, outside their home, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

A volunteer pets a dog before starting power line construction for a home, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

A crew with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority installs power poles, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ryan Smith, left, a foreman with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, checks the depth of a power pole during construction, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Robert Black, a project leader with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, relaxes in a truck during a lunch break while installing power line poles at a home, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ricky Gillis, right, drives his grandson, Liam, 7, left, back to their home after picking him up from the school bus stop, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ricky Gillis collects water for use in a evaporative air cooling unit, at left, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Liam Gillis, 7, corrals his chickens, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ricky Gillis looks at the sunset, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, at his home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Liam Gillis, 7, relaxes after school with his grandfather, Ricky, top left, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at their home on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lorraine Black sits inside her kitchen, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lorraine Black, left, along with her husband, Ricky Gillis, center, and grandson, Liam Gillis, 7, walk outside their home, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

The sun sets, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, near Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation in Halchita, Utah. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)ASSOCIATED PRESS

US Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in water dispute

 The United States Supreme Court building in Washington

Thu, June 22, 2023 
By John Kruzel and Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a setback to the Navajo Nation, rejecting its bid to require the federal government to develop a plan to secure water access for the tribe on reservation lands in the parched American southwest.

The justices, in a 5-4 decision authored by conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, concluded that an 1868 peace treaty between the United States and the tribe did not require the government to take steps such as assessing the tribe's water needs and potentially building pipelines, pumps and wells.

More than 30% of households on the Navajo reservation currently lack running water, according to the tribe.

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who has supported Native Americans rights in various cases since joining the court in 2017, dissented from the decision along with the court's three liberal justices.

"The 1868 treaty reserved necessary water to accomplish the purpose of the Navajo Reservation," Kavanaugh wrote in the ruling. "But the treaty did not require the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Tribe."

The treaty, reached three years after the conclusion of the U.S. Civil War, ended two decades of sporadic fighting between the United States and the Navajos and established the Navajo Reservation, which encompasses roughly 17 million acres (6.9 million hectares), largely in the Colorado River Basin.

The treaty secured the right of the Navajos to make use of the land, minerals and water on the reservation, which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Gorsuch criticized the ruling for deciding more than what was required by the case. In his dissent, Gorsuch wrote that the Navajos sought simply to identify the water rights that the U.S. government holds in trust on the tribe's behalf.

"The government owes the Tribe at least that much," Gorsuch wrote.

The ruling reversed a decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had given a green light to the Navajo Nation's lawsuit against the U.S. Interior Department and others seeking to prod the government to develop a plan to secure water for the tribe. The 9th Circuit said that the government had a "duty to protect and preserve the Nation's right to water."

"The Department of the Interior is committed to upholding its trust and treaty obligations to Tribes, as well as to ensuring that water rights for Colorado River users are fulfilled according to the law. We are reviewing the decision," a department spokesperson said in a statement following Thursday's ruling.

The decision follows another ruling this month in which the Supreme Court upheld a decades-old federal law governing Native American adoption and foster care placements, throwing out a challenge brought by the state of Texas and other plaintiffs to standards that give preferences to Native Americans and tribal members.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)

Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in Colorado River water rights case

 Raynelle Hoskie attaches a hose to a water pump to fill tanks in her truck outside a tribal office on the Navajo reservation in Tuba City, Ariz., on April 20, 2020. The Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation in a dispute involving water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. States that draw water from the river — Arizona, Nevada and Colorado — and water districts in California had urged the court to decide for them, and that's what the justices did in a 5-4 ruling. 

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

JESSICA GRESKO
Thu, June 22, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo Nation on Thursday in a dispute involving water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.

States that draw water from the river — Arizona, Nevada and Colorado — and water districts in California that are also involved in the case had urged the court to decide for them, which the justices did in a 5-4 ruling. Colorado had argued that siding with the Navajo Nation would undermine existing agreements and disrupt the management of the river.

The Biden administration had said that if the court were to come down in favor of the Navajo Nation, the federal government could face lawsuits from many other tribes.

Lawyers for the Navajo Nation had characterized the tribe’s request as modest, saying they simply were seeking an assessment of the tribe's water needs and a plan to meet them.

The facts of the case go back to treaties that the tribe and the federal government signed in 1849 and 1868. The second treaty established the reservation as the tribe’s “permanent home” — a promise the Navajo Nation says includes a sufficient supply of water. In 2003 the tribe sued the federal government, arguing it had failed to consider or protect the Navajo Nation’s water rights to the lower portion of the Colorado River.

Writing for a majority made up of conservative justices, Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained that “the Navajos contend that the treaty requires the United States to take affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajos — for example, by assessing the Tribe's water needs, developing a plan to secure the needed water, and potentially building pipelines, pumps, wells, or other water infrastructure.”

But, Kavanaugh said, "In light of the treaty's text and history, we conclude that the treaty does not require the United States to take those affirmative steps.”

Kavanaugh acknowledged that water issues are difficult ones.

“Allocating water in the arid regions of the American West is often a zero-sum situation,” he wrote. It is important, he said, for courts to leave “to Congress and the President the responsibility to enact appropriations laws and to otherwise update federal law as they see fit in light of the competing contemporary needs for water.”

A federal trial court initially dismissed the lawsuit, but an appeals court allowed it to go forward. The Supreme Court's decision reverses that ruling from the appeals court.

In a dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that he would have allowed the case to go forward and he characterized the Navajo's position as a “simple ask.”

“Where do the Navajo go from here?” he wrote. “To date, their efforts to find out what water rights the United States holds for them have produced an experience familiar to any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The Navajo have waited patiently for someone, anyone, to help them, only to be told (repeatedly) that they have been standing in the wrong line and must try another.”

Gorsuch said one “silver lining” of the case may be that his colleagues in the majority recognized that the tribe may still be able to “assert the interests they claim in water rights litigation, including by seeking to intervene in cases that affect their claimed interests.”

Gorsuch, a conservative and Colorado native who has emerged as a champion of Native rights since joining the court in 2017, was joined by the court's three liberals: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

During arguments in the case in March, Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that the Navajo Nation’s original reservation was hundreds of miles away from the section of the Colorado River it now seeks water from.

Today, the Colorado River flows along what is now the northwestern border of the tribe’s reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Two of the river’s tributaries, the San Juan River and the Little Colorado River, also pass alongside and through the reservation. Still, one-third of the some 175,000 people who live on the reservation, the largest in the country, do not have running water in their homes.

The government argued that it has helped the tribe secure water from the Colorado River’s tributaries and provided money for infrastructure, including pipelines, pumping plants and water treatment facilities. But it said no law or treaty required the government to assess and address the tribe’s general water needs. The states involved in the case argued that the Navajo Nation was attempting to make an end run around a Supreme Court decree that divvied up water in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin.

In a statement, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren called the ruling “disappointing" and said the tribe's lawyers “continue to analyze the opinion and determine what it means for this particular lawsuit.”

“My job as the President of the Navajo Nation is to represent and protect the Navajo people, our land, and our future,” Nygren said. “The only way to do that is with secure, quantified water rights to the Lower Basin of the Colorado River.”

Rita McGuire, a lawyer who represented states opposing the tribe’s claims, said the court “ruled exactly right” and that “we’re very pleased.”

____

Associated Press reporter Michael Phillis in St. Louis contributed to this report.

In a scathing dissent, Neil Gorsuch compared the Navajo Nation's plight to the experience of 'any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles'

Sonam Sheth

 Business Insider
Thu, June 22, 2023 

Neil Gorsuch.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the US is not required to secure water for the Navajo Nation.


Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissent comparing the plight of the Navajos to waiting at the DMV.


The Navajo "have tried it all," he wrote. "At each turn, they have received the same answer: 'Try again.'"

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote an impassioned dissent comparing the Navajo Nation's fight over water rights to the experience of "any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles."

"The Navajo have waited patiently for someone, anyone, to help them, only to be told (repeatedly) that they have been standing in the wrong line and must try another," Gorsuch wrote.

The high court ruled 5-4 in Arizona v. Navajo Nation on Thursday that under an 1868 treaty, the US is not required to secure water for the Navajo Nation.

Specifically, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who delivered the majority opinion, argued that the Navajo Nation was asking the federal government to take "affirmative steps to secure water for the Navajos."

But Gorsuch wrote in his dissent that the majority "rejects a request the Navajo Nation never made."

Instead, he wrote, "the relief the Tribe seeks is far more modest."

The Navajo "have a simple ask: They want the United States to identify the water rights it holds for them," he wrote. "And if the United States has misappropriated the Navajo's water rights, the Tribe asks it to formulate a plan to stop doing so prospectively."

Gorsuch, who was nominated by then President Donald Trump in 2017, has a long history of ruling in favor of Indigenous rights. And at 26 pages, his dissent in Arizona v. Navajo Nation was twice as long as the majority opinion.

The court's three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — joined Gorsuch in his dissent. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett joined in the majority opinion.

Gorsuch in his dissent underscored the Navajo Nation's efforts to avoid taking its case to the Supreme Court.

The US "has never denied that the Navajo may have water rights in the mainstream of the Colorado River (and perhaps elsewhere) that it holds in trust for the Tribe," Gorsuch wrote. "Instead, the government's constant refrain is that the Navajo can have all they ask for; they just need to go somewhere else and do something else first."

They "have tried it all. They have written federal officials. They have moved this Court to clarify the United States' responsibilities when representing them," he wrote. "They have sought to intervene directly in water-related litigation. And when all of those efforts were rebuffed, they brought a claim seeking to compel the United States to make good on its treaty obligations by providing an accounting of what water rights it holds on their behalf. At each turn, they have received the same answer: 'Try again.'"

NBC News highlighted the stakes of the case in March.

Crystal Tulley-Cordova, a hydrologist in the Navajo Nation's department of water resources, told NBC that the tribe needs enough water to transition from "survival mode to thriving mode."

The Navajo Nation first filed a lawsuit in 2003 arguing that the US government was required to ensure that the tribe had enough access to water on its reservation. Twenty years later, the litigation wound up before the high court.

Gorsuch in his dissent wrote that the majority "neglect[ed]" to take into account the violent history leading up to the Treaty of 1868 establishing the Navajo Reservation, the "discussions that surrounded that Treaty," and "the many steps the Navajo took to avoid this litigation."

But he highlighted that the majority opinion left open the possibility that the Navajo can seek to intervene in future cases that "affect their claimed interests" in water-rights litigation.

"After today," Gorsuch wrote, "it is hard to see how this Court (or any court) could ever again fairly deny a request" from the Navajo to intervene in such cases.

That leaves the tribe "in a familiar spot," he continued. As they did at Bosque Redondo, "they must again fight for themselves to secure their homeland and all that must necessarily come with it. Perhaps here, as there, some measure of justice will prevail in the end."

LISTEN LIVE: Supreme Court hears cases over rights of Navajo Nation to water from Colorado River

PBS THREE MONTHS AGO

 

Energy Fuels suspends uranium transports in response to Navajo challenge

07 August 2024

US uranium producer Energy Fuels Inc has voluntarily suspended transportation of uranium across Navajo lands after the Navajo Nation challenged the legality of the transport. The company said it is working with the Navajo Nation to find a resolution.

Buu Nygren issues the executive order prohibiting uranium transport (Image: Navajo Nation Office of the President)

Late last year, Energy Fuels announced that it had started production at the Pinyon Plain mine in Arizona, as well as at the La Sal project in Eastern Utah, with ore from those mines to be stockpiled at its White Mesa mill in Utah for processing. For Pinyon Plain, this involves trucking material over Navajo Nation lands.

On 31 July, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued an executive order banning the transport of radioactive material through the Navajo Nation without a prior agreement, citing Navajo laws regarding the transport of radioactive materials in the Navajo Nation Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005 and the Navajo Nation’s 2012 Radioactive and Related Substances, Equipment, Vehicles, Persons and Materials Transportation Act. The order will last for six months. Nygren said the order had been signed after Energy Fuels the previous day transported an estimated 50 tonnes of uranium ore through tribal lands without providing the notice required under the 2012 law.

Energy Fuels had informed federal, state, county, and tribal officials more than 10 days earlier about the legal requirements, safety, emergency response, and the imminent shipping of uranium ore, though without giving a specific date.

In the company's second quarter earnings call on 5 August, CEO Mark Chalmers said the company believes it has the necessary licences and rights for the shipments but respects the Navajo Nation's concerns and has voluntarily suspended shipments. Both sides are "looking for a resolution" on moving forward, he said.

Energy Fuels and its predecessor companies had completed uranium shipments across the reservation lands for many decades up to the last shipment, which took place in 2022, without a single incident, Chalmers said, and had worked with members of the Navajo nation, including arranging visits to the mines and mill to witness loading and unloading "so that they were comfortable with those shipments." According to the company's presentation, around half of the employees at the White Mesa mill are Navajo and Native American.

President Nygren wants the legacy of Cold War era uranium mining operations on Navajo land to be addressed (Image: Navajo Nation Office of the President)

Legacy issues

One of the reasons for the Navajo Nation's concerns is a "long legacy of uranium issues that have nothing to do with Energy Fuels - most were created by legacy arrangements with the US Government during the Cold War," he said, but the company was working with the Navajo Nation to address these concerns. "The biggest issue … is they want safe transport of materials across the Navajo nation, and we absolutely respect that. We absolutely respect that it has to be done safely - we have done it over time, and we plan to sit down with them to make sure that it is safely transported," he said.

Nygren's office also highlighted the legacy of Cold War uranium mining activities in a 2 August blog post, which said the President's deployment of tribal police to intercept Energy Fuels' uranium transport trucks had been "because of his priority to clean up abandoned uranium mines and mills."

Between 1944 and 1986, more than 30 million tonnes of uranium ore was extracted from the Navajo Nation for the US nuclear weapons programme, but the legacy of those operations - including radioactive contamination impacts on Navajo miners and their families - has not been adressed.

"Cleanup of these 500 abandoned uranium mine and mill sites is a major priority of my administration," President Nygren said. "It is why I deployed the Navajo Nation police to block what I think is the illegal transport of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation. Cleanup must happen first, and the trauma associated with premature sickness and death from the legacies of it."

Ramp up continues

Energy Fuels plans to ramp up ore production from Pinyon Plain, La Sal and Pandora to a production run-rate of around 1.1 to 1.4 million pounds of U3O8 per year by late-2024. The transport moratorium is not expected to hold back development work at Pinyon Plain, Chalmers said.

Alternative transport routes exist and "will all be part of the discussions", he said. "But the route that we have across the reservation is a route that has been studied extensively and it is really the best route, and we intend to continue down that path, but let us continue our discussions with the Navajo nation because, again, we are respectful of their concerns… let's figure out how to alleviate those concerns."

The company expects to produce a total of 150,000-500,000 pounds U3O8 (57.7- 192.3 tU) during 2024 from stockpiled alternate feed materials and newly mined ore.

IsoEnergy reopens US underground uranium mine

08 August 2024

The main decline at the Tony M mine in Utah was successfully reopened on 26 July, and work has begun to rehabilitate the underground workings.

The IsoEnergy team and Garfield County representatives in front of the main portal at Tony M (Image: CNW Group/IsoEnergy Ltd)

Initial observations of underground conditions indicate that the main decline and underground equipment shops are in good condition, IsoEnergy Ltd said. Rehabilitation of the underground, including scaling, installation of ground support and ventilation systems, is expected to take 8 to 10 weeks depending on the ground conditions encountered.

The underground rehabilitation work is being carried out by Tomcat Mining. IsoEnergy is also working with international mining consulting firms SRK Consulting Ltd, on the design and implementation of the ventilation plans, and Call & Nicholas Inc, on the design and implementation of the ground control plans.

As sections of the underground are made safe for entry, it is expected that exploration and geological work will begin to map out the orebody from underground. IsoEnergy is also in the process of contracting a surveying company to complete a LiDAR survey of the complete underground at Tony M. This will be the first time any such survey has been completed at the mine and will be an important tool in future mine planning.

The Saskatoon-based company has been working towards reopening the Tony M underground for access over the course of the last year. Site communications have been re-established, and electrical systems have been upgraded and refurbished where necessary, including the installation of "at least" one new generator meeting the US Environmental Protection Agency's Tier 4 emission standards, it said. Several new fans have been installed and will continue to be installed as part of the rehabilitation, and several existing fans are to be refurbished.

The company announced last February its strategic decision to reopen the past-producing mine during the first half of this year, with the aim of restarting uranium production operations in 2025, depending on market conditions. Energy Fuels Inc's White Mesa - the only currently operational conventional uranium mill in the USA - is within trucking distance to Tony M, and IsoEnergy has a toll-milling agreement which guarantees it access to the mill's capacity.

Garfield County Commissioner Jerry Taylor and IsoEnergy COO Marty Tunney underground at Tony M (Image: CNW Group/IsoEnergy Ltd)

IsoEnergy CEO and Director Philip Williams said: "The reopening of underground at Tony M is an important step in restarting production and establishing IsoEnergy as a near-term uranium producer. Long-term uranium prices have nearly doubled, from USD41/lb U3O8 to USD79/lb U3O8, since we acquired the Tony M, Daneros and Rim Mines in Utah, and with the exceedingly positive global outlook for nuclear power we expect that trend to continue. We believe that proven producing assets in tier one jurisdictions, like Tony M, will be highly coveted by end users making this an ideal time to pursue a restart."

The fully-permitted mine is in Garfield County and is about 66 miles (107 km) from the town of Blanding. It produced nearly one million pounds of U3O8 during two different periods of operation from 1979-1984 and from 2007-2008. It was acquired by IsoEnergy on the company's share-for-share merger with Consolidated Uranium Inc, completed last December. Tony M's current NI 43-101 estimated resources stand at 6.606 million pounds U3O8 (2541 tU) of indicated resources and 2.218 million pounds U3O8 in the inferred resources category.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Navajo Nation President: “Oppenheimer” Erases History of Nuclear Waste Caused to His People

Yahoo News

Navajo Nation citizens have protested uranium mines for years. (Photo/File)

BY LEVI RICKERT 

 

JULY 24, 2023

Hollywood is excited about the blockbuster $80.5 million Oppenheimer brought in during its opening weekend, as reported by Variety. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus, the movie is about the so-called “father of the atomic bomb.”

Hollywood may be gleeful about the long lines to see Oppenheimer, but Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren still thinks Hollywood comes short on reporting on the devastation uranium mining and nuclear testing caused to the country’s largest Indian reservation. 

“The Navajo people cannot afford to be, yet again, erased from history,” Nygren writes in a TIME magazine op-ed on July 21, 2023. 

“Hollywood has a lot of work to do, and they can start by standing with the Navajo people and urging Congress to provide just compensation for victims of radiation exposure,” Nygren writes.

Nygren, 36, is serving his first term as president of the Navajo Nation and is the youngest ever elected president of the tribal nation.

Nygren says the movie was released five days after the 44th anniversary of the Church Rock uranium mill spill when 94 million gallons of radioactive waste poured into the Puerco River spanning the northern portions of New Mexico and Arizona where the Navajo Nation is located. 

“What came next—cancers, miscarriages, and mysterious illnesses—is a direct consequence of America’s race for nuclear hegemony. It’s an accomplishment built on top of the bodies of Navajo men, women, and children—the lived experience of nuclear weapons development in the United States. But, as usual, Hollywood chose to gloss over them.” Nygren writes.

In 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), but the problems on the Navajo Nation still persist.

“Despite the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 1990, justice remains elusive for Navajo families who have suffered from the devastating and long-lasting health and environmental effects of the uranium mining industry on Navajo land,” Nygren writes.

While the Oppenheimer movie deals with history, the Navajo Nation still deals with the long-term effects of the spill and uranium mining impacting the lives of its people.

THE NAVAJO SUFFERED FROM NUCLEAR TESTING. OPPENHEIMER DOESN'T TELL OUR STORY

Graffiti opposing mines on the reservation is seen in an abandoned building on Sept. 12, 2022 on the Navajo Nation west of Tuba City, Arizona.
David McNew—Getty Images

IDEAS
BY BUU V. NYGREN
JULY 21, 2023 

Nygren is the 10th and youngest President of the Navajo Nation, the largest land-based Native American tribe in the United States

Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated Oppenheimer comes to the big screen five days after the 44th anniversary of the Church Rock uranium mill spill, when 94 million gallons of radioactive waste poured into the Puerco River, spanning northwestern New Mexico and northern Arizona, and across the Navajo Nation. Children played in the contaminated water, while livestock drank from radioactive aquifers. What came next—cancers, miscarriages, and mysterious illnesses—is a direct consequence of America’s race for nuclear hegemony. It’s an accomplishment built on top of the bodies of Navajo men, women, and children—the lived experience of nuclear weapons development in the United States. But, as usual, Hollywood chose to gloss over them.

The Navajo people cannot afford to be, yet again, erased from history. Hollywood has a lot of work to do, and they can start by standing with the Navajo people and urging Congress to provide just compensation for victims of radiation exposure.

As part of this effort, we must all recognize the continued suffering and sacrifice that built the atomic era. From the 1940s to the 1990s, the U.S. used the Navajo Nation to supply them with uranium for the manufacture of nuclear weapons and energy. While ownership of the mines was transferred from the federal government to private companies in 1971, the U.S. failed to enforce proper safety standards, leaving the sites unregulated until 1990 when the last mine closed. More than 500 now abandoned mines cover our land as a result. Miners and their families were kept in the dark about the heinous dangers of radiation exposure, so they went about their daily activities like any other community. Workers drank the mine’s cool spring water, while their wives washed their yellowed work clothes. Families built homes with local rocks and sediment and let their children play for hours on uranium byproducts, including mine debris piles. Despite the U.S. government’s awareness of the risks inherent in uranium mining, most Navajos did not know what radiation was—let alone the danger presented by every second of exposure.

Read More: Without Indigenous History, There Is No U.S. History

Growing up in a community that has an abandoned uranium mine in Red Mesa, Arizona, I witnessed firsthand the heartbreaking and enduring consequences of uranium mining on my people. Despite the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 1990, justice remains elusive for Navajo families who have suffered from the devastating and long-lasting health and environmental effects of the uranium mining industry on Navajo land.

While RECA has provided life-saving healthcare coverage for some uranium miners, the legislation’s limited scope has left many Navajo people suffering from radiation exposure without any compensation. The list of diseases covered by the law is, to start, woefully incomplete. Renal cancer, nephritis, and kidney tubal tissue injury are just some of the conditions that were initially excluded because of a lack of available scientific data connecting them to radiation exposure. RECA also excludes Navajo miners employed after 1971 from eligibility for compensation. Yet, the work they did, and the dangers they faced, remained exactly the same.

This is not a problem of the past. As of August 1, 2022, more than 53,804 claims have been filed under RECA. Of those, more than 12% identified as Navajos. Navajo miners and their families suffer a wide variety of cancers and radiation-related illnesses, with new victims regularly diagnosed. Women living near the mines have experienced stillbirths and miscarriages at abhorrent rates and their children carry the physical legacy of the Cold War through developmental delays, chromosomal aberrations, and other birth defects.

The Navajo people have suffered and sacrificed so much, while directly contributing to our country’s post-war pursuit of nuclear superiority. And while our Navajo Code Talkers are esteemed for heroically saving countless lives in the South Pacific during World War II, our uranium miners have largely been overlooked. The only thank-you for their years of patriotic service has been death, disease, and decades of advocacy to recognize their sacrifice.

Time is slipping away for Navajo uranium miners and their descendants, their hopes dangling in the balance. With each passing day, their weary bodies bear the weight of diseases inflicted by their labor; the clock ticks, mercilessly. As they wait for existing claims to be processed and for expanded eligibility through the RECA amendments, their precious time on this earth dwindles, a poignant reminder of the urgent need for justice and compassion.

The legacy of uranium mining on the Navajo is a perpetual blemish on our nation’s history with its Native people, and the disregard of our stories from media and movies like Oppenheimer can’t mean a continued erasure in U.S. policy. Acknowledging the harm done means living up to the intended purpose of RECA: to compensate all those impacted by the harms of the nuclear age. It is only then that my people can begin to heal and our beautiful and sacred land can be restored. We need the world to hear us and provide the justice that has long been denied to our people.