Annual White Mesa Ute Spiritual Walk Draws Attention to Threats from Nearby Uranium Mill
White Mesa Concerned Community
What: A rally and spiritual walk to protect the White Mesa Ute community’s health, water, air, land, culture, and sacred sites from the nearby White Mesa uranium mill and show community opposition to the mill operating as an international dumping ground for radioactive waste from around the world. The protest and walk are sponsored by the White Mesa Concerned Community and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. All supporters are welcome.
When: Saturday, October 7, 2023, 11 a.m. MDT rally followed by spiritual and protest walk to the White Mesa uranium mill.
Where: The White Mesa Ute Community Center, located in White Mesa, Utah, just south of Blanding, Utah off of Highway 191. The community center is located on the west side of the highway. Turn in at the gas station and continue one block south to the community center.
Why: Citizens of the Ute Mountain Ute community of White Mesa and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe are concerned about contamination from the nearby uranium mill and desecration of sacred sites and cultural resources.
The mill is now taking radioactive waste from Estonia in Europe.
Quotes:
“We live down the road from this mill. When it’s running, we can smell it from our houses. They’re bringing radioactive wastes from all over the country and the world to this mill. We want this to stop. We want the mill to close and clean up its mess.” –Yolanda Badback, White Mesa Concerned Community
“I’m walking with my family, my kids and grandkids. We’re just a small reservation, but people need to know what is going on at the mill. We’re doing this for our young ones, our future generations. Walk with us, for our children and our grandchildren here in our Ute Mountain Ute community.” – Thelma Whiskers, White Mesa Concerned Community
Censored News coverage:
Dumping on Indian Country -- The White Mesa Uranium Mill Poisoning Utes with Radioactive Waste
Grand Canyon Trust's Report Reveals Facts:
The company that is poisoning Utes with radioactive dumping keeps a lot from the public. (1) The radioactive waste ponds are above the Navajo Aquifer, where Dine' and Hopi get their water. (2) Radioactive waste from the Nevada Test Site -- among the deadliest places in the world -- has already been received at the White Mesa uranium mill. (3) The mill has been approved to receive radioactive waste from Japan and now receiving radioactive waste from Estonia in Europe. Censored News https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2022/10/water-is-life-white-mesa-ute-spiritual.html
Contact for White Mesa Ute Spiritual Walk and Protest:
Yolanda Badback, White Mesa Concerned Community ybadback427@gmail.
Bradley Angel, Greenaction for Health & Environmental Justice bradley@greenaction.
White Mesa Concerned Community is a grassroots group of concerned citizens of the Ute Mountain Ute community of White Mesa, Utah, located south of the White Mesa uranium mill. We work to inform our fellow citizens and protect our community, health, water, air, land, culture, and sacred sites from toxic contamination.
The 2023 Rally and Spiritual Walk is sponsored by the White Mesa Concerned Community and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
Event co-sponsors: Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, Earthworks, Grand Canyon Trust, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, HEAL Utah, Indigenous Environmental Network, National Parks Conservation Association, PANDOS, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Uranium Watch, University of Utah Environmental Justice Clinic, and the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club.
