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. Kenneth Thorberg on July 13, 2023 at 3:42 pm

    The main reason why governments hide things they committed in the past is that there would be a lot of questions of what they are committing in present time if they started to admit those crimes. I noticed that people has a tendency to think that all these kind of atrocities were just taken place before. "- Our government wouldn´t be so cruel or evil these days" when it´s very much the opposite. It´s getting WORSE.

  2. Ella Saturn on July 13, 2023 at 3:44 pm

    I didn’t learn anything about the Navajo tribe in school, barley learned any tribes and briefly about slavery. American schools are suppressing the truth and I’m outraged. I’m Navajo on my dads side and wish I could’ve grown up in a rich culture instead of a white washed demonized fantasy

  3. Elizabeth Santos on July 13, 2023 at 3:44 pm

    SHAME ON YOU GENERAL ELECTRIC!!!

  4. ken bail on July 13, 2023 at 3:51 pm

    I’m so tired of the US government treating the native Americans badly. Clean up the water . Do it.

  5. ish morales on July 13, 2023 at 3:52 pm

    It’s a slap to the face of the indigenous peoples of this land to see white fragility get resolved w/ such urgency.. while they have been abused for centuries.

  6. ArleKing ø on July 13, 2023 at 3:52 pm

    im still looking for Roses dad .-.

  7. Don Harrington on July 13, 2023 at 3:53 pm

    It’s more radioactive then moden japan still

  8. Tess Tickle on July 13, 2023 at 3:57 pm

    We owe nobody anything people of the past do we however do not

  9. Vox on July 13, 2023 at 3:57 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

  10. Javier Romero Villalobos on July 13, 2023 at 3:58 pm

    Uranium, an element not a substance 😛

  11. brandon lewis on July 13, 2023 at 3:59 pm

    East Palestine, Ohio 🙏🏾🤦🏾

  12. Don Harrington on July 13, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    Uranium and mercury mining is the leading cause of infertility and impotency it harmed over 100 generations it still happens with illigal gold mining in South america they use mercury to devolve and seperate rocks and metal

  13. MrDuckSauce on July 13, 2023 at 4:02 pm

    The USA is full of murderers that is the by the melanin deficient.

  14. John Freddy on July 13, 2023 at 4:04 pm

    This is extremely sad. Native Americans, who have lived on their lands for thousands of years, suddenly became second class citizens on their own land, all because of US greed. They weren’t even compensated, unlike the victims of Three Mile Island.

  15. Jane Magsayo on July 13, 2023 at 4:07 pm

    Americans take so much pride in being the nation to look up to, yet you do this to your own people, to the natives who have lived in that soil (you stole btw) far longer than you ever did.

  16. JAMBERRY on July 13, 2023 at 4:07 pm

    They are still murdering first nation people at an alarming rate. The media is keeping this quiet.

  17. Clifton Britt on July 13, 2023 at 4:08 pm

    “When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money” – Native Proverb

  18. hydro6en on July 13, 2023 at 4:09 pm

    one of my grandfathers worked in the uranium mines. the only thing he talked about was his jokes.
    his joke was, "if my feet starts glowing, just ignore it."

  19. Tardar Sauce on July 13, 2023 at 4:10 pm

    An off grid solar powered community is the way

  20. Don Harrington on July 13, 2023 at 4:11 pm

    That tattoo is involuntary and perminant

  21. Don Harrington on July 13, 2023 at 4:11 pm

    They did the same thing to Australian aboriginals with atom bomb testing they never educated them about radiation after testing atom bombs the aboriginals got really sick and alot of them died from lack of education

  22. Bruce Clark on July 13, 2023 at 4:14 pm

    I wish we as a people could get together and force the elites and their government onto a reservation. The poison our people through their business endeavors, they indoctrinate our children into joining a military that fights more for resources than freedom, and tax us to pay for our own demise. The more I learn about humanity and the history of all ruling classes, the more I wish God had not let me been born here. And we allow what’s happening which makes us accomplices.

  23. Manitro on July 13, 2023 at 4:15 pm

    The US: *"The US condemns the US for the crimes which were commited by the US under orders from the US."*
    Person with healthy brain: *"What?!"*
    The US: *"You heard US right."*

  24. Night Owl on July 13, 2023 at 4:16 pm

    The nations had no mining rights, either. The ongoing injustice is horrifying. Is anyone stepping up to file a civil suit. Money is the only thing the mining companies understand. Not that they wouldn’t do the same thing again…these humans deserve help and compensation.

  25. Andiy Wagner on July 13, 2023 at 4:17 pm

    This is so horrible. I did surface digging with uranium set bones for paleontology and we all had monitors on and they were set off when the wind kicked up and we stopped. What a sad bit of history few know about and I am learning more … 🥺

  26. david brooks on July 13, 2023 at 4:17 pm

    It pays to be white!!!

  27. R R on July 13, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    Comparing 3 mile island vs the Navajo spill, they’re claiming that the Navajo people were barely compensated. If you read the newspaper clips that they show, the Navajo people were paid more on average.

    3 Mile Island: $25 million was being offered to more than 20,000 eligible people = $1,250 per person.
    Navajo Spill: $2,000 per person

    Does Vox intentionally mislead people?

  28. Sharon Kaczorowski on July 13, 2023 at 4:19 pm

    The US poisoned their own soldiers during nuclear tests. And mining and industry have poisoned the water, the earth, the air, the food whether for war or for profit. The talings from this ongoing mining poisoned the earth and the water, leading to deformed fetuses in all animals, including humans, as well as cancer. Now the new way to do this is to store depleted radioactive material from nuclear power plants in caves on reservations. Same result…the barrels degrade and the radioactive material leaks into the land and the water, as well as heavy metals.

  29. Tardar Sauce on July 13, 2023 at 4:19 pm

    How anyone can be pro-america today is beyond me

  30. Gallus on July 13, 2023 at 4:19 pm

    11:18
    If you cut the tree, it’s Black Mesa. You really wouldn’t want that, right?

  31. organicfrmr on July 13, 2023 at 4:22 pm

    Read the book "Yellow Dirt"

  32. SoulFire9001 on July 13, 2023 at 4:22 pm

    The whites can’t ever be trusted to handle their own garbage. Should nuclear energy become more widespread they cannot be trusted to hold themselves responsible, another party must keep them in check

  33. Don Harrington on July 13, 2023 at 4:22 pm

    Hi im paul 75ft under

  34. Karell Tulod on July 13, 2023 at 4:22 pm

    Love the people There

  35. Casper on July 13, 2023 at 4:23 pm

    That sux "Water is Life"🤳

  36. ABC XYZ on July 13, 2023 at 4:23 pm

    Hebrews/Language traveled to 4 Corners of Earth:
    Indian/Shawnee…..Hebrew/sha-nee=Monday
    Indian/Comanche…Hebrew/kha-me-she=Thursday
    Indian/Seminole…..Hebrew/Shem=Name,[God]
    Tecumseh??…Hebrew/Tanakh=Hebrew Bible
    Iroquois??……Hebrew/ruach=spirit
    Lakota??……..Hebrew/Lakote=to sister
    Navajo………..Hebrew/Nah-vee=Prophet

    Search Internet: American Indian Hebrew Language.
    Medicine Men Wisdom is watered-down Old Testament.

  37. david brooks on July 13, 2023 at 4:23 pm

    The government doesn’t care they’re a bunch of racist white people they need to make money off of this

  38. lonnie hickenbottom on July 13, 2023 at 4:23 pm

    I’m working on the land right now testing the dirt

  39. Golden22 on July 13, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    This is why democracy can be dangerous, if enough self serving people conspire together virtually anything can be done under the guise of public majority and due process, if that’s going to be the case we have even greater issues to worry about. Democracy still needs of be rooted in natural rights, and human decency or morality, or else it’s going to be a real scenario of natural selection/ survival of the fittest

  40. Jordan Garcia-Standing Soldier on July 13, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    Genocide. modern genocide.

  41. Lanette Roth on July 13, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    All we ever hear is a negative, about our country.
    How about the fact that there would be no more Navajo Indian, had it not been for the United States.
    Because the Apaches and the Mexicans had all but wiped them out.. How come you didn’t hear about that..
    Because all people like to hear is the negative, in out history…

  42. Jr Hend on July 13, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    We still live on federal land and still a occupied nation under a federal prison borders.

  43. debartello martinez on July 13, 2023 at 4:30 pm

    10:58 this show is funny but not entertaining

  44. Jirachi- Wish Maker on July 13, 2023 at 4:30 pm

    Systematic Gen0cid3

  45. david brooks on July 13, 2023 at 4:30 pm

    So so SAD!!

  46. Rita Tisiga on July 13, 2023 at 4:30 pm

    Environment Damage 2023

  47. Jxxn Matt on July 13, 2023 at 4:37 pm

    Total neglect and abandonment. When something is classified as ‘Top Secret"…it well may normally lead to something like this. Ridiculously unaccountable.

  48. Jr Hend on July 13, 2023 at 4:37 pm

    So to this day gallup nm water is still not good to drink, no wonder that’s why we building water piping from San jaun to gallup? So gallup should of been a ghost town by now. So the whole town is still have radiation tailing in the Water 💦…

  49. cailyn alexander on July 13, 2023 at 4:39 pm

    Genocide by dispersion and evacuation from your own land and way off life. It’s so isolating

  50. Suzanne Szárai on July 13, 2023 at 4:41 pm

    When we are talking about the "US", we are really referring to evil corporations that poisoned not only the Navajos but also white populations as well. When it comes to money and power, the color of the skin does not matter. To make things worse,…. I see Navajo leadership as corrupted as any white government entity …. Just think about it….

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