MIM Notes #227       February 1, 2001

First Nations poisoned, lied to by Amerikan government

In territory surrounded by Arizona, the Navajo nation has been 
slowly and intentionally poisoned by the Amerikan government for 
years. The Navajo call their homes "uranium homes" because they 
are made from uranium-ore waste rock. From the 1940s to the 1970s 
the Atomic Energy Commission was in charge of mining uranium, to 
be used by the Amerikan war machine. The government knew that the 
rock was emitting dangerous levels of radiation, but never told 
the Navajo people.

A group called the Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee is 
demanding federal compensation for a variety of illnesses, 
including mental retardation and other disabilities. There were 
1,300 uranium mines spread out over the Navajo nation; miners who 
contracted lung cancer have already been compensated with $100,000 
each by the federal government through the Radiation Exposure and 
Compensation Act. Klinton has signed an executive order awarding 
each miner an additional $50,000 by next July. 

Miners who do not have lung cancer but do have a myriad of other 
diseases that were probably caused by living in homes made with 
uranium bricks are not eligible for federal compensation under the 
Act. The Navajo nation is seeking compensation for all those 
suffering from illness and disease other than lung cancer; it is 
clear that the federal government knew of the dangers of radiation 
the entire time the Navajo were living in uranium brick homes. The 
uranium was also in bricks used in ovens for food cooking, and 
radioactive particles burned off into food, and uranium waste 
contaminated drinking water and sacred sites on the nation's land. 
Areas used for healing ceremonies, including where plants were 
gathered to perform those ceremonies, have been contaminated by 
uranium waste.

MIM recognizes this as yet another example of the brutality 
Amerikan imperialism inflicted upon First Nations. The uranium 
that the Navajo miners were extracting was only for the benefit of 
the united snakes war machine. It has been used in the Amerikan 
nuclear arsenal, to threaten the peoples of the world with immense 
destruction and death should they oppose the will of the Amerikan 
imperialists. It has also been used in conventional weapons such 
as the depleted uranium shells used in Iraq and Yugoslavia. In 
return for its work, the Navajo nation suffered decreased life 
expectancy, disease, and poverty.

MIM supports the Navajo demand for compensation, but knows that no 
amount of money can redress the robbery of generations of their 
health and land. The best, most substantial reparations would be 
true self-determination: Independent control of Navajo resources, 
economy, culture, and health. And the best guarantee of true self-
determination is the overthrow of Amerikan imperialism.



Notes:

The Boston Globe, 27 Dec. 2000, p. A1.