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'Downwind' reveals the trail of cancer and death for Western Shoshone and those living downwind from atomic bomb testing in Nevada. The U.S. government detonated more than 900 atomic bombs on Western Shoshone land in secret from 1951 to 1992. |
The Silent Killers in Indian Country: Copper, Lithium, Uranium and Plutonium
Judge finds plutonium plans in New Mexico and South Carolina violated environmental laws
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Oct. 10, 2024
The U.S. government's plan for increased plutonium production at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in the heart of Pueblo lands in northern New Mexico, has been delayed by a federal judge.
Continuing the U.S. legacy of poisoning Indian country with radiation, this comes as the U.S. government is granting leases to foreign mining companies targeting Native sacred lands and communities.
Copper mining is targeting San Carlos Apache's sacred Oak Flat; Hualapai are suing the US Department of Interior to halt lithium mining at their sacred spring Ha'Kamwe'; and the U.S. government is promoting the ongoing digging into the Paiute Massacre Site in northern Nevada for lithium, in violation of all federal laws that protect Native religious and historic sites, the environment and endangered species.
Uranium mining in the Grand Canyon threatens Havasupai's aquifer, the haul route endangers everyone in the Four Corners region, and the uranium mill at White Mesa Ute in Utah is poisoning Utes.
Interior Sec. Deb Haaland said in Farmington, N.M., that Los Alamos Labs would be the leader in the so-called green "energy transition" in the Four Corners region.
More than 500 radioactive uranium mill sites remain on the Navajo Nation that have not been cleaned up by the U.S. EPA, which deceives the public by announcing plans and promises to clean up the Cold War sites.
In the current federal lawsuit, a federal judge in South Carolina ruled that U.S. energy officials illegally neglected to study impacts to the environment in efforts to increase plutonium production for nuclear weapons in New Mexico and South Carolina.
"South Carolina District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis sided with environmental, anti-nuclear proliferation and community groups last week who sued the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which oversees the nuclear weapons stockpile as part of the U.S. Department of Energy," reports Source New Mexico.
The U.S. is investing billions into restarting the manufacture of plutonium “pits,” the grapefruit-sized spheres developed for nuclear weapons. The plutonium is produced from uranium.
"The federal government halted its manufacturing program at the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado in 1989 after an FBI raid due to safety concerns and environmental crimes," Source New Mexico reports.
The U.S. government's atomic bomb testing in Nevada left a trail of cancer and death for Western Shoshone. The documentary 'Downwind' reveals the truth.
"This is a very serious issue and that's why I can't let it go. I can't move on. People say, 'oh, why don't you just let it go?' Because it's killing my family. It's killing my land. It's killing my people. And that will not stand. It's being done in secret. And killing Indians in secret will not stand," said Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians. Zabarte is featured in 'Downwind' about radiation poisoning from U.S. nuclear tests.
Currently, foreign companies -- which receive the profits and find it easy to avoid clean up and responsibility for environmental crimes and deaths from cancer -- are receiving the mining leases from the U.S. government. The leases are granted by the U.S. Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and in the case of uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, it is the USDA's Forestry Service. Biden's attorneys have joined the lawsuit with Rio Tinto to devastate Oak Flat.
Australian and Canadian mining corporations are devastating Native lands and communities, poisoning the water and causing widespread cancer.
Rio Tinto, targeting Apaches Oak Flat, is an Australian company which destroyed 46,000 years of Aboriginal sacred history in caves in Australia. Another Australian mining company is targeting Hualapai's sacred site. It is Hawstone/Arizona Lithium, in Perth, Australia.
Energy Fuels, now uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, and operating the uranium mill at White Mesa Ute, is a Canadian company. Another Canadian company is digging into the Paiute Massacre Site. It is Lithium Americas.
Hopi judge Diane Humetewa granted a temporary restraining order to halt the lithium mining at Hualapai's sacred spring.
Read more:
Judge Finds Plutonium Production Plans Violated Environmental Laws
https://sourcenm.com/2024/10/08/judge-finds-plutonium-production-plans-violated-environmental-laws/
Documentary 'Downwind Shows Deadly Consequences of Nuclear Testing on Tribal Lands
