Marchers back cause of Native Americans
A number of walks have been organised in the United States to raise public awareness of issues affecting Native Americans, particularly nuclear weapons testing. SHARON NAGLE, who has been participating in one of the walks since April, explains the issues.
Two of the walks, the European Peace Pilgrimage '92 and Walk for Mother Earth, will finish at the nuclear test site in Nevada. This is situated on land which was acknowledged by the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley as belonging to the Western Shoshone people.
Today the US government continues the policies which have decimated Native American cultures over 500 years. In one recent instance, the Havasupai people, who are the custodians of land bordering the Grand Canyon, opposed a uranium mine in one of their holy places. Their court challenge was rejected on the grounds that spirituality cannot stand in the way of national security.
Land granted to Native Americans is not subject to the same pollution regulations as other public lands. Uranium mines —, open pits which contaminate ground water, rivers, earth and sky — are left uncleaned by the companies which run them. Tailings are left to blow away in the wind. One small area on the Navajo reservation has 98 open pits. There are said to be more than 600 open uranium mines on Navajo and Hopi land.
The government has proposed that the tribes "take care" of the toxic and nuclear waste which is left on their land. Waste that is too dangerous to be stored on land inhabited by people of European ancestry would be left in "Monitored Retrieval Storage" facilities on Native American land.
These underground MRS facilities are claimed by the government to be only temporary storage sites, supposedly for 40 years. Tribes which accept the facilities on their land are rewarded with money, better health care, education and roads. It is the same old story of buying land with trinkets.
Several tribes have accepted the initial US$100,000 for the first phase of a feasibility study, but most have rejected the proposal. The government continues the pressure. There are plans for seven MRS facilities, all on indigenous people's land.
There will be 10 days of events in Las Vegas and at the Nevada test site to demand an end to 500 years of injustice to Native Americans and an end to nuclear testing on native lands. Indigenous people are leading the way in speaking the truth about what really happened 500 years ago, in promoting respect for the cultures and contributions of those groups whom history books ed and in taking action against continuing injustice.