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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Our leaders in government SAY they care about all Americans but their actions have continuously shown just how little they care. They’ll dump any and everything right in our backyards and just hope we don’t find out about it. Nothing could be more wrong and we keep letting them do it.
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
Bro, my grandpa Henry Jay Benally was a uranium miner after returning from military service in Germany during World War 2 and worked throughout the Cold War era. He died in 1994 from lung cancer due to the radiation exposure while working around the Navaho Nation. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to see him since I was born 2 years after that. He was a well-respected man in the community (we are from the northern mountains in Red Valley, AZ, a few miles/ kilometers south of the 4 Corners). Rest in piece shi cheii, grandpa Henry🙏.
1. Should do a VOX international missing chapter
2. Unfortunate for Navajo. but that was necessary for US to win WW2. Instead of subsidies, they should relocate and offer retraining programs
They poisoned the Navajo and the Uranium was shipped to the Appalachia’s and they poisoned us Eastern Natives. Greed is evil! 😞
If I was rich I’d clean up and then dump the contaminated waste at the white house.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.
WHO is my neighbor ?
Answer:Luke10:30-37
Jesus said , Go and do thou likewise.
I love VOX you guys are awesome!!! This is stuff that the US history does not teach and they dont teach how the US government poisoned Native American lands.
The more videos i watch the more i think the U.S.A is the worst country in the world
But we changed the name of an NFL team to avoid anyone being “racist”. This is the real travesty of the Indian plight in the US.
What would happen if white people left america?
It’s hard to watch this video without crying. I myself have experienced this problem. My mom never told us to stay away from the mines and to not drink the water from the stream. As a Navajo myself I never knew it was that bad.
My people lived in peace and then….well you know what happened.
Yikes. US’s has some dark deep uncovered sins. How come these things are not much talked about ?
We are all going to walk the trail of tears one day. Agenda 21. Agenda 30. UN.
I live in Houck/Sanders right next to the river and I have asthma so I am directly affected by it🤧 my grandfather passed away from lung cancer due to the river and downwind from atomic bomb testing. People have no clue about this and I wish more people knew about this.
Was just there last week. The US robbed Native Americans of all the good land
The U.S is the worst country I have ever seen for Native people and minorities
I have no sympathy for 65 yr old radiation victims…we didn’t know, no body knew…the whole nuclear issue is just political points for arguing egos.
Tribal land is “govt property”….can’t buy land…
Is this the wizard of Oz I just seen an evil witch begging for money evil witch of the West Nancy poopsie hahaha thousands of pounds of poo
This is so sad
DuPont did this to water in West Viginia, Duke Energy in North Carolina, oil frackers in PA, Rockedyne in California. Big Businesses elect politicians. Politicians protect big business. Navajos have it worse, because they are technically another Nation.
We need to join all the tribes and revolt to regain our lost land. 🤬🤬
Thank you, Vox, for doing this crucial work. It was here that I learned about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 way back in 2018 or so. It’s here that I learned about the Wilmington coup committed by white supremacists in 1898. It’s here that I learned about the violent lynchings of Chinese immigrants in the 1870s and 1880s. Now I am learning about yet another horrible event that I was not aware of. Thank you.
Sickening, so terrible that these people were treated like this. Crimes Against Humanity. Maybe this is why Dr. Jill Biden is there right now?
I am Navajo and I know that people do and did worse things than this
Wow I am so glad for the internet to properly educated me especially being a Native American enrolled tribal member of the eastern Shoshone tribe. Shocks me how I’ve learned more from the internet about MY history than I actually did in school. I HATED history cause the teacher would always put it in the perspective of us vs. them which is whites vs. the minorities and the only thing I learned was the colonization and falsification of facts that were whitewashed which in turn made me think well because this is a school with college educated people teaching me, with these books written by PHD professors.. I hope they have changed they’re perspectives since the last time I’ve seen them or been in their class room
Love the 652 downvotes. Must be Republicans appalled at the fact that the video doesn’t ignore or celebrate the mistreatment of indigenous people.
There’s no such thing as a democracy on this planet
The material value unprecedentedly fax because sound arespectively spot an a naughty saturday. chilly, pleasant climb
This is a Cr..e against Humanity maybe why Dr. Jill is currently visiting the area.
Humanity means hypocrisy…
I think these American super Powers shouldn’t exist. They damage the nature for their own good and never look back at who worse they made everything. Shame on them
Clean out the uranium already, take it to Antarctica and destroy the place that deserves to be destroyed (under the surface inside the DUMBS).
बहुत सारे लोगों के हित में यदी है कि आप जो कुछ दर्जन लोग हैं। वहॉ रहने का हठ छोडकर कुछ दूरी पर दूसरी जगह में जाकर बस जाएं।
ऐसा अडियल पन ठीक नहीं है।
USA has everything despicable in their resume LOL
I continue to be more and more horrified at not only this country’s dark history, but its willingness to gaslight its victims and ignore them.
Corporations have always, and always will, get away with murder.
Never learned this in school I wonder why
US: Poisons Navajos, hailed as international becaon of human rights.
China: plants trees, create jobs, gets accused of genocide.
More truth will come out about the peaceful usa …
This made me cry .. because that is so true … I’m from the navajo reservation … Like man … You don’t understand how bad we’ve had it ….and still do …. Yet our grandparents nd family members have and still serve and protect this country…WWII ..never forget that .
I like how the announcer says uranium discovered
At first I thought that this is what the 1992 movie Thunderheart is based on. Turns out no, Thunderheart is based on basically the same story in a different reservation – Pine Ridge…
And the Uranium dumpster on the Marshall island? Okay that doesnt belong to USA anymore but used to and they caused that as well. And its currently leaking into the ocean. So which one is bigger? Who knows.
Thank you for sharing this video. I had never heard this story before.
It’s so often brown and black people suffer the brunt of industrial and extractive culture.
So important that we learn about this. Absolutely crucial that we provide reparations, like beautiful and pristine land as well as regular compensation, for the folks who deserve it.
People talk about representation and all this stuff. Take a minute to think about Natives and the last time you saw us being represented in a tasteful manner when it comes to mainstream media. Exactly theres little to none that come to mind. We dont have sit coms based on us we have nothing when it comes to representation in this country. Why does this happen? One, in order for us to be recognized people also must face things like this video and thats a truth many don’t want to hear and its disappointing.