How the US poisoned Navajo Nation

How the US poisoned Navajo Nation

The biggest radioactive spill in US history.

As World War Two was ending, the growing nuclear arms race put the US in need of uranium. It turned to Navajo Nation, where the uranium mining industry thrived for four decades — but left disease, pollution and the biggest radioactive spill in US history.

That spill in Church Rock, New Mexico upended the lives of nearby residents, who had to grapple with toxic water, livestock and a lifetime of illnesses. Now, they are still waiting for it to be cleaned up.

Note: The headline for this piece has been updated.
Previous headline: The biggest radioactive spill in US history

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Learn more about the Church Rock spill and the impacts of uranium mining at the Southwest Research and Information Center: http://www.sric.org/uranium/rirf.php

Read the book by Doug Brugge, Timothy Benally, and Esther Yazzie-Lewis, The Navajo People and Uranium Mining: https://unmpress.com/books/navajo-people-and-uranium-mining/9780826337795

Read the book Yellow Dirt, by Judy Pasternak, on uranium mining in Navajo Nation: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Yellow-Dirt/Judy-Pasternak/9781416594833

Check out the documentary “The Return of Navajo Boy,” which looks at the uranium industry in Navajo Nation: http://navajoboy.com/watch/

Learn about the Red Water Pond Road Community Association and other local groups through the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment: https://swuraniumimpacts.org/red-water-pond-road-community-association

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50 Comments

  1. Hawkeye on May 8, 2022 at 8:42 pm

    You should look into centralia pennsylvania mine fire and how the people who caused their own problem got treated.

  2. IVAN BLACK on May 8, 2022 at 8:44 pm

    Down there this way lol

  3. Jelly Beams on May 8, 2022 at 8:45 pm

    No matter how much we Natives beg for clean water or to get rid of things that effect everyone badly in the Navajo Nation, they say "Give us money we will help" and years and years of waiting they use the money we gave them they spend it all on what want. They keep taking advantages like they did with the treaties.

  4. Jared Fullmer on May 8, 2022 at 8:45 pm

    I was a missionary in the area surrounding and on the Navajo reservation for two years. When I was in Dilkon I lived in a single wide trailer with tap water that you wouldn’t have wanted to brush your teeth with, let alone drink because of the sulfur taste. With Dilkon’s proximity to the Little Colorado, which the Puerco empties into, maybe this waste spill is the reason the water was so bad.

  5. AB TU Enterprise on May 8, 2022 at 8:46 pm

    🤦🥺😓

  6. Zazasnruntz on May 8, 2022 at 8:48 pm

    This is what whxte people call “CRT” 🤦‍♂️ now I see why they don’t want there kids to hear something like this.

  7. ramin rnn on May 8, 2022 at 8:48 pm

    It’s sad to see how much US government has done for native Americans and all the world. And they say Hitler was the bad one.
    How is this different than the Holocaust?

  8. soozypotter on May 8, 2022 at 8:49 pm

    My grandpa passed away from the uranium poisoning at the age of 60.
    Our water on the Navajo Nation comes out grey.

  9. RubberDuckiesRule on May 8, 2022 at 8:49 pm

    The US poisoned the Diné with socialism decades before the devestation

  10. Kim Il Sung on May 8, 2022 at 8:49 pm

    New style of GENOCIDE.

  11. Stepha Wilson on May 8, 2022 at 8:49 pm

    This is outside of where I was born, where I spent my summers, where my family still lives. I have lots of family that still live *in* church rock. My mom has thyroid cancer, my aunt has a thyroid mass, we all suffer from stomach problems… The damage is irreparable. And hardly anyone knows. :/

  12. Rich Forever on May 8, 2022 at 8:53 pm

    The white man hates natives

  13. B.C B on May 8, 2022 at 8:55 pm

    The U.S. government & citizens owe them everything they have. It’s a shame being shoved in the corner with no economic opportunities

  14. Yamaris Cajamarca on May 8, 2022 at 8:57 pm

    We have to take down the government honestly…. They are useless

  15. ompa loompa on May 8, 2022 at 8:57 pm

    Prayers that a corrupt and greedy government will stop.✝️😞🙏

  16. Elie on May 8, 2022 at 8:58 pm

    Jesus why not show himself in America

  17. Dajon Williams on May 8, 2022 at 9:01 pm

    Yt ppl at it again…smh destroying people and land for personal gain.

  18. Wicked_Deftlady on May 8, 2022 at 9:01 pm

    History is a true human devastation.

  19. Sky Blue26 on May 8, 2022 at 9:02 pm

    In some water supplies just think , some Diné people have taken some of the tailings in buckets full of uranium , and taken to undisclosed water supplies . AIM have changed tactics like the government have .

  20. Guillermo Flores on May 8, 2022 at 9:03 pm

    Method

  21. Kool Breeze on May 8, 2022 at 9:04 pm

    Where’s are all those people who were protesting for equality

  22. Crusty Bastard on May 8, 2022 at 9:05 pm

    Village of widows a Canadian documentary tells the story of how the Navaho /dene people in Canada north west territories Sahtu were poisoned by hauling raw uranium in gunnysacks with dog teams in the 1940s the same uranium used in the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan . The have multi generational disease from the poisoning all the men who hauled the ore died the remaining men hat to take 2 or 3 extra wives as it was impossible to survive with out a man to hunt trap fish etc

  23. Jacob Tom on May 8, 2022 at 9:06 pm

    Let karma handle the white people

  24. Alexander Coral on May 8, 2022 at 9:08 pm

    Thank You Vox

  25. Shiro on May 8, 2022 at 9:08 pm

    Americans should take back your government. They don’t care Americans’ life, which suppose their people. Now imagine what they had done outside USA…

    This is why for me USA is the symbol of evil. And I hope I can see the fall and collapse of US government..

  26. Bonnie Joyce on May 8, 2022 at 9:08 pm

    The government is so wrong how they treated these people and this should have not happen to them . They are human beings and our sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus .. Sad , Sad , terrible

  27. Valentine Cadence on May 8, 2022 at 9:09 pm

    Did she just compare moving today’s American Indians to a local city with A/C and internet and a roof over her head to the Trail of Tears???

  28. Xavier Joe on May 8, 2022 at 9:09 pm

    As a Navajo, things are just getting alot worse for us when Covid hit we were the worse hotspot in the world because we didn’t have any running water and we had to struggle to haul water and the more we hauled water the more us Navajos got sick that’s why if you come to the Navajo Nation alot of us Navajos are still wearing mask and also alot of Navajos have a low immune system

  29. 7_micha_9 on May 8, 2022 at 9:11 pm

    this hits my spirit, this its not right, over power for theres only one power and that is our creator, and for this, this company will pay for their actions

  30. Rod Cole on May 8, 2022 at 9:12 pm

    Why you all keep yelling us goverment f that it’s you white people

  31. Rich Forever on May 8, 2022 at 9:12 pm

    😠😠😠😠😠

  32. blastman8888 on May 8, 2022 at 9:15 pm

    Lot of Navajo’s would like to work in these mines so they can have good paying jobs. It’s the same with the coal burning power plants and coal mines you ask Navajo’s who work there they have a different view of modern mines not death traps of 100 years ago.

  33. Vox on May 8, 2022 at 9:16 pm

    Thanks for watching! For more of Missing Chapter’s reporting on indigenous rights, check out our video on the legacy of forced assimilation and adoptions in the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGqWRyBCHhw -Ranjani

  34. Tanner Smith on May 8, 2022 at 9:22 pm

    Absolutely horrific what some people will do for a big check. How much is enough? Great video VOX, really shines a light on these cockroaches hiding in the dark.

  35. Cruella 424 on May 8, 2022 at 9:23 pm

    It’s environmental genocide!

  36. Nicole C on May 8, 2022 at 9:23 pm

    This is heartbreaking.

  37. Fairy Frequency on May 8, 2022 at 9:25 pm

    So sad to see these awful scars left upon our beautiful earth and its native people.

  38. TjBoux Johnson on May 8, 2022 at 9:25 pm

    What a sin!We are so arragont and dollar driven!Shame on Us.

  39. RadioKausa com on May 8, 2022 at 9:26 pm

    The Land of the Free…………a country with Genocides.

  40. GsP1979 on May 8, 2022 at 9:26 pm

    It disgusts me to think of the atrocities committed against indigenous peoples of my country. Our government committed crimes against humanity. And yet it continues and continues. The “war on terror” definitely needs to be fought. Against the biggest terrorist organization in the world. The United States Government.

  41. Isaac Dueck on May 8, 2022 at 9:26 pm

    Why aren’t these stories in our school curriculum?

  42. Larry Dominguez on May 8, 2022 at 9:28 pm

    Haters..have hater ways.

  43. memories past on May 8, 2022 at 9:28 pm

    Rule of thumb don’t trust the…

  44. Raelyn Begay on May 8, 2022 at 9:29 pm

    This breaks my heart. 💔

  45. Bignig on May 8, 2022 at 9:30 pm

    Why don’t they teach all this in school

  46. ter on May 8, 2022 at 9:30 pm

    Absolutely disgusting. I think that all native communities need to form an alliance that meets up often to get reperations for the things that have happened. I also think that the modern natives who make billions with casinos and stuff, have the moral obligation to form a strong native group that persecutes those responisble for these things, and to ensure that natives continue to thrive, not be taken advantage of and live in bad situation on the reservations.

  47. Z on May 8, 2022 at 9:30 pm

    The government: "Hey, we want you to move out of this community so that you don’t get poisoned"

    Them: "tHaT’s GeNoCiDe"

  48. Fred on May 8, 2022 at 9:35 pm

    The first inhabitants of America kept records engraven on metal plates. These can be found in the Book of Mormon.

  49. Bobby Fisher on May 8, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    cool move, stuff like that makes me proud to be half murican.

  50. SharkBait23 on May 8, 2022 at 9:40 pm

    The local hospitals are now doing studies on our children. They are well aware of what the uranium has done to our people. They have contunied to poison our people with power plants and coal mining.

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