By Al Henderson, Patricia Rife and Perry H. Charley
April 25, 2008

I. Uranium is found in Navajo Land

In the eastern Navajo land near the small towns of Milan and Grants, New Mexico stand two majestic landmarks separated by about 15 miles. The western landmark is a mesa known as Haystack. Surrounding Haystack are numerous scattered homes, most of them occupied by Navajo families.

The eastern landmark is a mountain, towering 11,301 feet at its highest peak, known as Mt. Taylor. Navajos call it Tsoodzil, the sacred mountain of the south. Both landmarks can easily be seen by travelers going east and west from Interstate 40.

It was there in 1950 that Patricio “Paddy” Martinez, who is part Spanish and Navajo and spoke the Spanish, English, Navajo and Laguna languages, walked into a trader's store to buy cigarettes when he saw two men examining a fist-sized, yellow-streaked piece of rock. He heard them say, in Spanish, that it was a sample of uranium ore, and that the federal government was offering a $10,000 prize to any prospector who made a “big strike.” Paddy decided to find some and that same day, as he rode his horse back home, he spotted an outcropping of the odd-looking rock. He took a piece of the rock and had it analyzed in the town of Grants.¹ The rock, as it turned out, contained streaks of a low-grade uranium ore called carnotite. Paddy was very surprised.

After having the low-grade uranium ‘find’ confirmed, Paddy staked out a 160-acre claim for himself, a few more for his sons and waited for the U.S. Federal government agent to come and pay him $10,000 – which never came. It turns out the $10,000 prize was offered only to those who found deposits of “high-grade” uranium ore! Nevertheless, Navajo history would recognize Paddy Martinez as the discoverer of uranium on their land near Mt. Taylor who sits north of the city of Grants, New Mexico.

II. A Brief Scientific History of Uranium

Uranium is a metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, atomic number 92 -- which stands for 92 protons and electrons in its core. After the American Revolution, in Germany during 1789, the “discovery of uranium” in the mineral pitchblende was credited to chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth, who named the new element after the planet Uranus.² Uranium has the highest atomic weight of any naturally occurring elements: it is approximately 70% more dense than lead (hence, heavy!) and is weakly radioactive in its natural state under the ground. Similar to thorium and plutonium, uranium is one of the three “fissile” elements, meaning it can easily break apart to become lighter elements – it ‘fissions’ or divides, releasing energy.

Uranium was mined by the Belgian explorers of the African Congo as early as the 1920s, and it is mined throughout parts of southern Russia. Uranium occurs naturally in low concentrations (a few parts per million) in soil, rock and water, but is normally commercially “extracted” from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite that began when commercial mining companies set up factories in the 1940s.³

In nature, uranium atoms exist as uranium-238 (99.275%), uranium-235 (0.711%), and a very small amount of uranium-234 (0.0058%)⁴. Uranium decays slowly by emitting an alpha particle. The half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.47 billion years and that of uranium-235 is 704 million years,⁵ making these derivatives useful to geologists in dating the age of the Earth.

As early as 1896, Antoine Becquerel in France, who was the discoverer of X-Rays, thought uranium might be useful for medical purposes. Sadly it is not -- the health products of radium, not like uranium, are used in treating cancers worldwide. There were many ‘nuclear pioneers’ in the 1920s who were experimenting with radioactive properties of all the elements in the Periodic Table. The Berlin team of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn, the French team of Frederic and Marie Joliot-Curie (daughter of Madame Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics for her discovery of radium) and in Italy, research teams led by Enrico Fermi and others experimented with uranium and other heavy metals to learn more about the structure of the inner nucleus and properties of radioactive decay, when electrons are emitted from atoms.⁶

In the face of rising fascist tactics in Nazi Germany and Italy, Austrian born Lise Meitner fled secretly out of Hitler’s capital, Berlin, and with the aide of Niels Bohr, she went to Stockholm. Enrico Fermi left Rome with his Jewish wife. They secretly took a boat departing for America after the 1939 Nobel Prize ceremonies. It was ironic that in 1938, the “discovery of nuclear fission” by Meitner and her nephew Frisch, both refugees from Nazi Germany, led the entire scientific world – from Russia to Germany to the U.S. – to focus upon “harnessing” nuclear energy.

Albert Einstein had warned President Roosevelt in a famous letter he was urged to write in 1939 that uranium in the Congo might be captured by Hitler⁷ – which led the U.S. President, years before America entered World War II, to create an Army project in Los Alamos, New Mexico to continue research on harnessing uranium fission for the potential production of weapons.⁸ Many emigrant scientists were extremely concerned that Hitler could – and would – produce a “nuclear weapon” by the 1940s.

Discoveries of any naturally-caused element and its properties are often documented differently by many different cultures. Of course, in Navajo, minerals are described in the native language, and hence when research at the top secret labs in Los Alamos, New Mexico began, many in the tribal government as well as local people were not aware that the “top secret” laboratories there were working on weapons. [Navajo] locals were just as surprised as most U.S. citizens with the explosion of the world’s first atomic bombs at the end of the war.⁹ But many scientists, looking
back, also tell us that they had no idea if the nuclear fission of uranium would work to end the horrible war in the Pacific.

By the end of the 1940s, uranium research on atomic fission weapons led to its use as a fuel in the nuclear power industry. As the encyclopedia Wikipedia.com states:

“An ensuing arms race during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union produced tens of thousands of nuclear weapons that used enriched uranium and uranium-derived plutonium. The security of those weapons and their fissile material following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 along with the legacy of nuclear testing and nuclear accidents is now a major concern for public health and safety worldwide.”¹⁰

III. Dine Creation and Traditional Beliefs

Dine as most Navajos prefer to be identified, believe that when they entered into this world they emerged from the underground. Upon their emergence, they saw a place of salvation from the underground flood that had forced them to climb up through the reed plant. Their salvation dimmed almost immediately when they noticed they were not the only living beings in the new world.

These beings did not welcome the newcomers who were the holy people or Diyin Dineh.¹¹ To win their right to become neighbors the newcomers were asked to select one of their members to past a physical test. The test required the member to withstand the passing through of his body an arrow from four different directions. If the member survived the test, the newcomers would win their right to become new neighbors.

After much discussion, cicada the insect was selected to take the test because, as the traditional elders say, the insect has a hollow body. Cicada emerged from the underground and announced that he has been chosen to take the test. Four times the arrows passed through his body. Each time an arrow passed through his body cicada was unfazed. Eventually he won the right for everyone to exist in the new world.

From the underground world emerged the newcomers who quickly embarked on homesteading. They began by recreating the land they knew. With a huge breath of air they released onto Earth, churning up the ground to form a large land mass sending them in four directions.¹² The land masses became the sacred mountains: To the east is Sis naajini, to the south is Tsoodzil, to the west is Dook’o’oosliid and in the north is Dibe Nitsaa. The English names for these mountains are Mt. Hesperus, Mt. Taylor, San Francisco Peak and Blanca Peak in the same order.

The holy people anchored each sacred mountain with stones. Sis naajini was anchored with white shell. Tsoodzil was anchored with turquoise. Dook’o’oosliid was anchored with abalone shell and Dibe Nitsaa was anchored with jet stone. These stones became known as the four sacred stones of the Navajo people.

Next, the holy people placed atop each mountain a feather to give it life and the ability to communicate with one another and throughout the universe. With these tasks completed the holy land, or Diyin tah, was formed. Finally, the holy people put out instruction that “for eternity this land is where the Navajo people shall live. Do not disturb what has been created. Honor all things within these four sacred mountains. Live in harmony and respect all things. When you do this, you will live a life of abundance and happiness.”¹³ The traditional elders are the caretakers of the Navajo cultural teachings, history and practices. To them, it is the way the world is – a balance between all things they designate that are in existence between Mother Earth and Father Sky. To this day, it is a common occurrence throughout Navajo land where traditional ceremonies are being conducted to heal and protect one’s self from adversity or disharmony.

There are many traditional ceremonies which are conducted by medicine men/women and all of them are done in the Navajo language. In each of the ceremonies the songs and prayers acknowledge and recognize the sacred mountains, holy people, plants and animals. Each ceremony focuses on restoring harmony between the person and the environment.

According to traditional Navajo teachings, the subject of uranium must be approached with an understanding of its placement in the natural order and of its properties. Uranium is a heavy metal. It has been regarded as the antithesis to the sacred corn pollen that is used to bless the lives of Navajos.

The ultimate goal of the Navajo is to maintain the delicate balance between humans - Bila’ashdla’ii, the five fingered ones - and nature.¹⁴ The traditional Navajo’s belief system taught Navajos that their illnesses maybe related to an imbalance in their lives. Uranium mining and milling was regarded as a disruption in the balance of Earth and Sky, and is therefore disrespectful to Mother Earth.¹⁵

Navajo people view Earth according to the four related elements: Air, land, water and fire/sunlight. Earth is viewed as the female counterpart to Sky, who is male. Their relationship is reflected in the sphere of human existence, a delicate balance of harmony between human and nature. Navajos refer to this as Hozho or the “beauty way.” Unknowing to the Navajo people the delicate balance was about to be disrupted.

Traditional Navajos see uranium and materials used for nuclear power as a monster or Nayee, in the Navajo language. The Nayee was conceived in 1896 upon the discovery of radioactivity by Madam Curie. In 1938, it started assuming shape into a Nayee when nuclear fission was achieved. On July 16, 1945, Nayee was born, thus, bringing the entire world into the nuclear age when, at Alamogordo, New Mexico the first atomic bomb was detonated. It assumed a full-fledged Nayee, capable of mass destruction when, on August 6 and August 9, 1945, over 220,000 human beings died in a split second with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

By joining the war effort and the subsequent “cold war” the Navajo people unwittingly played a role serving as the midwife of the Nayee. Over 2,000 uranium mines were dug and four mill processing sites were constructed on Navajo lands by the U.S. government. The “Manhattan Engineer District” was the U.S. Government entity that was established on August 13, 1942 to administer and oversee the entire Manhattan Project.¹⁶ However small, the Navajo people had played a role in the development of the atomic weapon.

The central principle in traditional teachings of moderation and balance were forever disrupted. Not only was holistic healing disrupted, but along with it, the delicate balance between our physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual existence was disrupted. In their place, many Navajos started experiencing diseases they never heard of: non-malignant and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, lung cancers, birth defects, involuntary human research, contaminated homes, lands, air and water. The Navajo way of life, their songs, chants and ceremonies were disrupted. Without these rites, chants and ceremonies, death came upon the Navajo people with increasing frequency.

To complicate these problems, one of the strictest taboos forbade speaking about death or the deceased. These impeded discussion and dialogue of health and environmental affects from uranium exposure. Traditional Navajos believe talking of the deceased may call their ghosts (Chiidii) and bring harm to the speaker.¹⁷ In addition to not being warned of the potential health hazards associated with mining and milling, many of the non-English speaking traditional uranium workers and their families did not recognize or understand that their uranium work was likely the cause of their health problems. There are no Navajo words for many common nuclear terminologies. Words such as radiation, radon gas, gamma, alpha, beta decay and many other terms used in the English language [did not exist in their language.]¹⁸

This angered traditional Navajo elders who forbade discussions to the outside world of nuclear technology capable of mass destruction. The thought of thousands of people dying at the hands of another was so horrible that many wanted no further mention of such an immoral act. After all, death and dying was already a taboo and must not to be discussed under any circumstance.

The thought that uranium mining and milling had disruptive potential went beyond the Navajo concept of Hozho. There is no doubt that uranium is a powerful Nayee. The Navajo could not control uranium and its enormous power. Its power is the nexus which stands in the way of Hozho and is therefore a Nayee.

Traditional stories often tell us the Nayee was born when Navajos committed evil. Oftentimes, these evil are affiliated with disrespect and abuse of power, powerful forms of coercion. To the Navajo, coercion is a form of witchcraft and dwelling in the area of witchcraft that are strictly taboo. It requires specialized chants, prayers and ceremonies to combat and free it’s victims of its influence. It is an area of life to avoid at all costs.

IV. Role of the Federal Government and Mining Companies

At the end of World War I in Europe, around 1918, a Caucasian trader named John Wade had discovered small outcropping of uranium ore in the eastern Carrizo Mountain,¹⁹ located in northern Navajo Nation near the Arizona and New Mexico state line. The mines produced small quantities of uranium which he sold to the U.S. Government. At that time, the Navajo reservation was closed territory to prospecting and mining, but not for long.

The Congressional Act of June 30, 1919, opened the Navajo reservation to prospecting and locating mining claims under the same manner as prescribed by the United States 1872 Mining Law. By 1930’s, there were several mining operations underway to mine uranium and produce radium and vanadium.

Mining by corporations began on the early land claims of Mr. Wade. The first mines were in Cove and Red Valley, Arizona. Years later, deep mine shafts were dynamited in Monument Valley (along the Arizona and Utah borders) and in the Tuba City region (near Dook’o’oosliid.) The by-products from these mines would, in later years, be identified as the source of cancer that began to afflict Navajo mine workers and members of their families.

Mother and child doing laundry, circa 1940.
Smithsonian Institution Cultural Resources Center,
Suitland, MD. Photo by Paul J. Woolf

Water in the wind-hollowed red rocks and earthen dams became radioactive. Along with the water, the surrounding plants and vegetation eventually tested out as contaminated. These are food sources for the animals, particularly sheep, which Navajo families routinely butchered for food. People became ill and sicknesses that could not be identified began to emerge.

No one knew the long-term health effects of uranium mining at the time. If anyone did, it wasn’t publicized. So, quietly, the Navajo miners kept mining in unventilated mines. On the surface, uranium was milled to separate out the yellow ore – the valuable mineral that was needed to fuel the U.S. atomic energy program.

The mine ore was hauled to mill processing sites where the ore was sampled, crushed and turned into fine white sand that lay stockpiled near the mills. These unsecured and unmarked stockpiles became known as mill tailings. One of the mesa-like waste piles grew to be a mile long and 70 feet high.²⁰ Children of families living near these mill tailings have been observed playing in the fine white sand–like tailings – not knowing how very, very dangerous radioactive materials can be.

Some Navajo families even used the fine white sand. They mixed it with other sand and concrete and used it for home foundations and wall plaster. Not much information is available on how many of these “radioactive” homes exist on Navajo land nor how many families are affected. What is known is that those who lived in these houses have succumbed to increased incidents of respiratory illnesses, sicknesses and cancer. Many eventually died.

V. The Role of Treaties and Mining on Navajo Land

It’s been nearly 140 years since the Navajos returned to their homeland in Dinetah.

In 1864 many of the Navajos who lived and thrived within the four sacred mountains were rounded up and forced marched to Ft. Summer, New Mexico or Hweeldi (the place of hardship to the Navajos). The U.S. removal policy was done to prevent the Navajos from warring with white settlers traveling west and raiding and stealing property from neighboring villages.

In 1868, a treaty between the Navajos and U.S. allowed the return of some 7,000 to their homeland. Twenty nine Navajo leaders signed the treaty agreeing to lay down their weapons and cease all wars against the U.S. in exchange for peace and protection.

By the early 20th century federal Indian agents reported the resurgence of economic vitality among the Navajos. They had taken their allotted provisions under the treaty and turned themselves into successful farmers, livestock herders, weavers and silversmiths which had been their principle occupation before Hweeldi.

The pastoral and agrarian way of life lasted until around1923 when oil was discovered in the Tocito Dome area located south of the famed Ship Rock formation known to Navajos as Tse Bit’a’i or “rock with wings.” Geologists report this to be the remains of a volcanic cone that has weathered away over millions of years.

When oil was discovered, the federal trustee found himself in a perplexing position when oil companies asked for permission to explore and develop oil properties on Navajo lands. Since the Navajos’ return from Hweeldi no formal body was in existence to grant such permission. What were in practice at the time were those who were interested in prospecting and mining merely laid claims to parcels of land and obtained a lease from the trustee as was permitted by the Congressional Act of June 30, 1919. Navajos had no say in the matter.

Guilty conscience must have dictated what happened next. Rather than continuing with approving mineral leases, the federal trustee let out word to Navajo leaders to meet with him to approve the oil and gas leases. This first formal gathering in 1923 of Navajo leaders gave birth to the contemporary tribal government.

On March 25, 1936, the Secretary of the Interior closed the Navajo reservation to claim location and prospecting for minerals until further notification. In July 1936, an application to prospect was made to the Executive Committee of the Navajo tribal council requesting the council to pass a resolution asking the Secretary to open the reservation for mining. The resolution was rejected by the Executive Council who did not want mining or prospecting on the reservation at the time.

The Navajo reservation was opened again to prospecting and mining by a Congressional Act of May 11, 1938 with new procedures. The Act gave the tribal council the authority to enter into leases for the reservation lands with approval of the Secretary of the Interior. Prospectors could no longer stakes claims similar to the Mining Law of 1872. The new regulations stipulated that the lessee must pay escalating annual rentals, royalty of 10% value, bond requirements, acreage limitations and a term of 10 years which could be extended by production.

By the early 1950’s the Navajo tribal council adapted a series of resolutions dealing with uranium mining. Also, mining permits could only be assigned to Navajos. Due to their lack of capital, many assigned their permits to non-Navajos. Mining leases were no longer subject to competitive bidding, thus, greatly increasing prospecting and mining throughout the Navajo reservation. The first of many uranium exploration and mining leases were issued to such companies as Vanadium Corporation of America, U.S. Vanadium Corporation, Navajo Uranium Mining Co., Climax Uranium Company, Kerr-McGee and United Nuclear Corporation.

By the early 1970’s, when demand for uranium was low, companies merely packed up and left behind its “contaminated” machinery and equipment, as well as leaving dangerous abandoned mines and radioactive mill tailings. Once the sickness, illness and cancer was linked to these mining activities, companies were no where to be found. There were no companies for victims to sue to make claims of liability.

Only when public pressure was exerted on both the companies and the federal government did Congress step in and in 1990 they passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). Although some of the victims were compensated, many more have filed claims, but were denied or told they need to provide more documentation. There it stands today, tied up in bureaucracy and red tape. The result has been that many victims have simply given up because they say it’s a hopeless case and “…the lawyers took a portion of [the money] from us”²¹ – alluding that they weren’t the ones making money from RECA.

The U.S. Department of Justice reported in February 2007: “there have been 25,696 claims filed and more than $1.1 billion has been awarded to 16,867 claimants.”²² The report does not mention how many Navajos filed claims and how much those determined to be eligible received in compensation. “There are a total of about 5,000 Navajo uranium miners, and so far, only 10 to 12% of them have been compensated,” said Phil Harrison, a Navajo Nation council delegate from Red Valley who has been working with the afflicted miners and their families to qualify for RECA compensation.

VI. Strengthening Dine Sovereignty

Navajos refer to uranium in a descriptive form, calling it Leetsoii or yellow dirt,²³ whose legacy has not been good. Yes, the money was good, but it has caused cancer among the miners and their family members, embedded emotional stress on many, built radioactive homes, contaminated plants, animals and drinking water. How much and for how long must human suffering and environmental damage occur before powerful politicians and corporations listen?

The Navajo Nation has answered this question many times. The first uranium ban was in the form of an Executive Order Moratorium on Uranium Mining issued by former Navajo Nation president Peterson Zah in December 1992. That order placed a "moratorium . . . on uranium mining activity until such time that the Navajo people can be assured that all safety and health hazards related to such activity can be addressed and resolved." This moratorium was in effect until 2005.

On April 29, 2005, the Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., signed the Dine Natural Resources Protection Act (DNRPA) of 2005 which is believed to be the first Native American tribal law banning uranium mining and milling. In part, the act states, "No person shall engage in uranium mining and processing on any sites within Navajo Indian Country." The law is based on the Fundamental Laws of the Dine, which are already codified in Navajo statutes. The act finds that based on those fundamental laws, certain substances in the Earth (doo nal yee dah or “not to be handled”) that are harmful to the people should not be disturbed, and that the people now know uranium is one such substance so its extraction should be avoided to conform to traditional practice and as prohibited by Navajo law.²⁴

Gradually, over the last ten years, companies have renewed their interest in uranium mining. They include United Resources, Inc., Strathmore Minerals Corporation, Energy Metals Corporation and Neutron Energy.²⁵ These companies plan to either mine by in-situ leaching or conventional method. No matter which mining technology is used it will likely displace land and water much like it has done in the past.

VII. Looking Back ~~ and Forward

By 2007 the global market price hit a high of $138 for a pound of uranium -- more than enough to maintain peak interest of uranium mining executives. Couple the market price with rising demand for alternative fuel sources to meet U.S. energy requirement, the questions being asked are: Will the Navajo ban on uranium mining hold up against political and economic pressures?
Have we learned from the mistakes of the past? How can we be reassured that this won’t happen again? Or will children and Navajo workers, as well as all those living near the radioactive tailings, be affected for generations with horrible health conditions due to uranium mining on Navajo land?

The Henry Draper Collection, Navajo silver and turquoise necklace, before 1917. Smithsonian Institution Cultural Resources Center, Suitland, MD.
Photo by NMAI Photo Services Staff.

Leaders of the Navajo Nation are confident that their sovereign actions to protect the environment will prevail -- as long as they practice the traditional cultural teaching of respect for Mother Earth and Father Sky. After all, it was the traditional cultural practices that released them from captivity at Hweeldi nearly 140 years ago.

Since then, they have been under the protection of the four sacred mountains, surrounded by Naat’sii’liid (rainbow) that for many traditional Navajos is the foundation of their sovereignty. This sacred protection is visibly depicted in traditional art forms, such as we see in the early 20th century squash blossom necklace (pictured on the left) whose pendant tips show hands that are embracing Mother Earth. What is astounding in this symbol is that she embraces to protect all Creation– and her people -- from harm

References

1. Oral conversation with Darryl Martinez, Window Rock, Arizona, 1986.

2 See Dictionary of Scientific Biography, V. “Martin Heinrich Klaproth.”

3 The early mining companies in New Mexico, now large corporations, included Kerr-McGee, United Mining and Hydro-Resource Inc.

4 See Wikipedia, 2007.

5 See “Uranium” in Chemical and Engineering News, The History of the Periodic Table 50th Anniversary issue, Sept. 8, 2003.

6 See Patricia Rife, Lise Meitner and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age (Boston: Birkhauser, 1999); Emilio Segre, Enrico Fermi: Physicist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970); and Spencer Weart “The Discovery of Fission and a Nuclear Physics Paradigm”, pp. 91-133 in Wm. Shea, editor, Otto Hahn and the Rise of Nuclear Physics (Boston: Reidel, 1983).

7 See Patricia Rife, “Einstein, Ethics and the Atomic Bomb”, American Physics Society News, June 2005 delivered at the Einstein Centennial Conference, American Physics Society, L.A., CA, March 2005, Social Responsibility section); Alan Beyerchen, Scientists Under Hitler (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977); Mark Walker, German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power 1939-1945 (Cambridge University Press, 1989). The original letter from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt, August 12, 1939, has been reprinted in Gertrud Szilard and Spencer Weart, editors, Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1979).

8 See Tom Shachtman, Laboratory Warriors: How Allied Science & Technology Tipped the Balance in World War II (N.Y.: HarperCollins, 2002); Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1986); Patricia Rife, Lise Meitner and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age (Boston: Birkhauser, 1999).

9 Interview with Navajo woman in Alamogordo, NM by Patricia Rife, 1983: also see Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1986).

10 Retrieved from WWW. Wikipedia.com, “Uranium”, Nov. 9 2007.

11 Oral conversation with Johnson Yazzie, Flagstaff, Arizona, October 4, 2007.

12 Ibid.

13 Oral conversation with James Peshlakai, Flagstaff, Arizona, October 10, 2007.

14 Csordas, 1999; Eischstaedt, 1994; Woody, et al., 1981.

15 Dawson & Charley, 2004, Markstrom & Charley, 2003.

16 See Tom Shachtman, Laboratory Warriors: How Allied Science & Technology Tipped the Balance in World War II (N.Y.: HarperCollins, 2002); Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1986); Patricia Rife, Lise Meitner and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age (Boston: Birkhauser, 1999).

17 Kluckhohn & Leighton, 1946

18 Dawson & Charley, 1992

19 History of the Uranium Mining on the Navajo Nation: Cove and Red Valley Chapters, Report prepared under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Western Region Restoration of Abandoned Mines Sites (RAMS) Program for the Navajo Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation Program (NAMLRP), October 2005.

20 Johansen, Bruce E., The High Cost of Uranium in Navajoland, Akwesase Notes New Series, April May June, 1997, Volume 2 #2.

21 Brugge, D., Benally.T., and Harrison, P. 1997. Memories Come to Us in the Rain and the Wind: Oral Histories and Photographs of Navajo Uranium Miners & Their Families. Navajo Uranium Miner Oral History And Photography Project. Red Sun Press, Jamaica Plain, MA. P.24.

22 U.S. Department of Justice, Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Trust Fund, FY 2008 Performance Budget Congressional Submission, February 2007.

23 The Navajo Language Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary, Revised Edition, (Young & Morgan)

24 Navajo Tribal Council Resolution, 20th Navajo Nation Council, Third Year, 2005, Tracking No. 0886-04, April 2005.

25 See “Companies hope to jump-start uranium mining,” Gallup Independent, Kathy Helms, October 31, 2007; “Uranium Mining in the Navajo Nation,” Sprol, July 19, 2006. Available also at <http://www.sprol.com>; and “Mining firms again eyeing Navajo land,” Los Angeles Times, Judy Pasternak, November 22, 2006

Mr. Al Henderson would like to thank the Smithsonian Institution Native American Community Scholars program for their support for his research during the summer of 2007 in conducting archival and artifacts research for this article.