Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

November 4, 2024

Interior Sec. Haaland's Pueblo is in the Ballistic Missile Parts Business

 Laguna Industries manufactures parts for the ballistic missile, LGM-30G Minuteman III


Interior Sec. Haaland's Pueblo is in the Ballistic Missile Parts Business

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Nov. 4, 2024

LAGUNA PUEBLO, New Mexico -- Interior Sec. Deb Haaland's tribe's enterprise, Laguna Industries, manufactures parts for both the ballistic missile, and parts for combat jets, including the F-15. Biden recently approved the sale of fifty F-15 jets to Israel in a $20 billion deal.

The discovery comes after Biden was protested at Gila River Indian Community, and Interior Sec. Haaland was sued by three Arizona tribes for targeting and destroying the sacred.


The F-15 combat jet by McDonnell Douglas.

Laguna Industries, owned by Laguna Pueblo, is a defense contractor and produces electrical components. As a Native American owned company, it receives priority in defense contracting.
Laguna Industries' parts listing show the ballistic missile test, and weapon component for jets are listed for sale by Laguna Industries.

The weapon system component is for the Thunderbolt A-10, F-16, F-15 and A-10.

Laguna Industries' guided missile part provides a circuit isolation test for the LGM-30G Minuteman III. The land-based intercontinental ballistic missile is used by the Air Force Global Strike Command.


The parts for the guided missile test are manufactured at two locations, Laguna Industries and Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, according to the parts description.

Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo and Norweigan, grew up in a military family

Interior Sec. Deb Haaland grew up in a military family. Her mother, Laguna Pueblo, was in the Navy, and her father was a Norwegian who spent 30 years in the Marines, moving the family frequently. Haaland attended 13 schools, and her mother worked for the BIA.

Haaland graduated from the University of New Mexico and served on the board of the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors, overseeing business operations of the tribal enterprises. Haaland served as U.S. Congresswoman from New Mexico, 2019 to 2021, and was a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Haaland's Permits Target Native Ceremonial and Burial Places

Interior Sec. Deb Haaland's permit for lithium mining at Hualapai ceremonial spring south of the Grand Canyon, and her promotion of lithium mining now digging in to the Paiute Massacre site, Peehee Mu'huh, Thacker Pass in northern Nevada, were difficult to understand. Until now. 

The lithium mining into the Paiute Massacre Site is for the benefit of big industry electric vehicles, and violates all federal laws that protect religious and historic sites, the water and environment, and endangered species. The mining operation is by Lithium Americas of Canada.

Hualapai have used Ha'Kamwe' for centuries for healing, prayer, and ceremonies. The spring is described in tribal stories and songs, and its historic flow and temperature are important for traditional uses.

The Hualapai Tribe said Hualapai were never consulted before Haaland granted the drilling permit to the Australian company Hawkstone Mining. The Hualapai Tribe filed a federal lawsuit against Haaland.

In a separate federal lawsuit, the Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache Nations have filed a lawsuit against Haaland for the bulldozers now destroying ancient villages sites, burial places and medicine grounds in San Pedro Valley in Arizona, for SunZia's transmission lines for a wind energy project.

(Above) Bulldozers are scraping away ancient village sites and burial places of the Sobaipuri O'odham, ancestors of O'odham in San Xavier, descendants of the ancient Hohokam who lived here. The Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache Nations have a federal lawsuit against Interior Sec. Deb Haaland for the destruction of their ancestral homelands for a wind energy project. Now, a third tribe in Arizona, the Hualapai Tribe, has filed a federal lawsuit against Haaland for giving an Australian company a lithium mining permit to drill into their sacred spring. Meanwhile, in a cloud of secrecy, Haaland's Pueblo is a defense contractor, selling parts for combat jets and ballistic missiles.

The United States government is also allowing Energy Fuels to operate a uranium mine in the Grand Canyon, now threatening the aquifer and poisoning Havasupai's air and ancestral homeland. The radioactive haul route to Energy Fuels uranium mill in the White Mesa Ute community in Utah endangers Supai, Paiute, Dine' (Navajo), Hopi, and Ute.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, BLM, has a history of rubber stamping environmental impact statements, resulting in devastation.

Haaland announced in Farmington, New Mexico, that the atomic bomb industry, Los Alamos National Laboratory, would lead the green energy transition in the Four Corners region. The CEO of the Navajo Nation tribal enterprise, Navajo Transitional Energy Company based in Farmington, was hired by the Australian company Hawkstone to operate the lithium mine at Hualapai's sacred spring. Federal judge Diane Humetewa, Hopi, has temporarily halted the drilling.

The United States is pushing for more plutonium. A federal judge recently halted increased plutonium production and storage at Los Alamos Labs -- located in the heart of Pueblo lands in northern New Mexico -- due to environmental risks.

The following two reader comments were posted on Censored News in response to our article, "O'odham Woman Becomes Hero when Genocide Joe Comes to Town." O'odham women stood in solidarity with Palestine at Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. 

The reader comments said:

"Deb Haaland's tribe's business, Laguna Industries uses depleted uranium in their military components. Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process, and it's incredible dense, making it ideal for military applications. It's used to make armor-piercing ammunition for tank armor because it can easily penetrate armored vehicles. Their front company is a maker of car wash components."

"Deb Haaland's tribe's Laguna Industries' manufactures electronic components are indeed used in smart munitions guidance systems. These components play a crucial role in ensuring the precision and accuracy of guided munitions, which are designed to hit specific targets while minimizing collateral damage. So I guess you can see why she has been such a big disappointment to Indian Country. She is a player in the military industrial complex. In Grand Prairie,Texas, their front operation is car wash components."

O'odham women protested Biden at Gila River Indian Community, south of Phoenix.

Depleted Uranium at Utah Air Force Base

The Utah Air Force base that manufactures parts sold by Laguna Industries reported depleted uranium in its waste in 2008.

"Hill Air Force Base reported Wednesday it has learned that materials it sent to the burn plant in Layton contained small amounts of depleted uranium," reports Deseret News about the radioactive waste.
https://www.deseret.com/2008/4/10/20081379/depleted-uranium-sent-to-burn-plant/


Laguna Industries funded by uranium mining operations

A court case reveals the history of Laguna Industries, which involved Raytheon Missiles and New Mexico taxes.

"Laguna Industries, Inc., is a New Mexico corporation wholly owned by the Pueblo of Laguna, an Indian tribe organized under the Indian Reorganization Act, 25 U.S.C. § 476 (1988 Supp. 1992). In the early 1980s, the Pueblo sought to invest capital accumulated from uranium mining operations and to find employment for tribal members who were unemployed because of the decline of the uranium industry."

"To accomplish this purpose, the Pueblo incorporated Laguna with the goal of obtaining federal contracts from the Department of Defense (DOD). To assure DOD that Laguna would be competent to handle these contracts, Laguna contracted with Raytheon, a major defense contractor, for technical, training, and management assistance."


Dorothy Purley

Dedicated to Dorothy Purley, Laguna Pueblo

This article is dedicated to the memory of Dorothy Purley, Laguna Pueblo, who died of cancer and spent her last years exposing the uranium mining where she worked at the Jackpile Mine, on Laguna Pueblo.

Before she died of cancer, Dorothy Purley of Laguna Pueblo described driving a uranium truck at the Jackpile Mine. Dorothy said the Pueblo workers were never told what the yellow radioactive dust would do to them. The radioactive dust blew onto their drying meats, and it poisoned the grasses that the animals eat.

The U.S. government knew that the radiation would kill the Laguna and Acoma Pueblos working in the mines, but never told them. They were never given protective clothes.

Dorothy warned the people before she died.

"What I am now is a bag of bones standing before you," said Dorothy Purley, on Laguna Pueblo at a gathering in 1999.

Dorothy drove a truck and worked as an ore crusher at the Jackpile Mine in Laguna Pueblo.

"We say we love Mother Earth. Then, why are these things happening on the reservations? She is your best friend."

Dorothy miscarried three children. Her brother had cancer and other family members are victims of leukemia and are diabetics on dialysis.

"There are so many people that have died, people that I worked with at the mine. There are children who never knew their fathers."

Unable to halt her flow of tears, Dorothy said, "Look at me. Some of my friends don't even recognize me. But I thank the Good Lord and Mother Earth who is helping me stand on her."

Jackpile Mine: Nearly half of the uranium supply used by the United States for nuclear weapons in the Cold War came from New Mexico's Grants Mineral Belt, a deposit of uranium ore in the northwest corner of New Mexico.

Dorothy Purley at Hague Appeal for Peace Conference

Dorothy Purley told the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference in 1999 that the U.S. government had known since 1935 of the extreme dangers of radiation from uranium ore.

"The explosives that they used to dismantle the uranium caused our homes to become unsafe. Our village was just 1000 feet from the mining area. We could smell the sulfur and other blasting compounds that they used in their explosives.

"They usually conducted their blasts during our noontime and evening meals, when our village women would dry their fruit and vegetable during the harvest season. A fine layer of dust would cover our food, but we simply rinsed it off not knowing that it was toxic. In 1975 I became an employee at the Anaconda Uranium mine.

"I was now a single parent and had to support my daughter. I was employed as a truck driver and hauled high-grade uranium ore to the milling site. I was exposed to high amounts of radiation and did not know this at that time.

"We would eat our lunches while sitting atop of the high-grade ore. We were never advised of any safety techniques or given any safety equipment at the time. During my employment at the time, I never realized that there was any danger and was never advised about any of the harmful effects of radiation.

"They never told us that they were going to use this uranium to make a weapon of mass destruction. The company never gave us any information whatsoever. Just recently, our tribe has learned that the government and the mining operation knew about the danger that mining uranium ore would bring.

"As early as 1935 when the mine first opened, there were documents from scientists warning them to minimize exposure to the uranium ore." 

The Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine, located in Paguate, New Mexico, was operated by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and later merged with Atlantic Richfield Company, or ARCO from 1952 to 1982. The mine was one of the largest uranium mines in the United States.

Read more:

Remembering Dorothy Purley
Censored News

Laguna Construction in Iraq: Kickback Case

Laguna Pueblo's enterprise of Laguna Construction was involved in a criminal kickback case in defense contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq. The former vice president and a former project manager of Laguna Construction Co. admitted they over-billed the Defense Department in order to receive kickbacks from the proceeds in 2016.

From Jan. 2005 through Feb. 2009, kickbacks were received from foreign nationals.  The kickbacks included $360,000 in monetary kickbacks, a 2006 Porsche Cayman valued at $65,163, a Ford GT350 Shelby valued at $290,000, several watches valued at an aggregate of $103,800 as kickbacks from the foreign nationals. 
Continue reading:

References:

The LGM-30 Minuteman, also known as the Minuteman III (LGM-30G), is a land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) used by the Air Force Global Strike Command. It's a three-stage, solid-propellant nuclear deterrent missile that's housed in underground silos.

https://www.parttarget.com/Laguna-Industries-Inc_nsn-parts_A3245934_A3205325.html


Laguna Industries parts listing includes this link to background of the missile and radio equipment
https://oscarzero.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/t-o-21m-lgm30f-1-22-21-nov-1995-section-1.pdf

Guided Missile System Test SetModel / MPN: 9496455-1 | NSN: 4935-01-430-5271

A test set specifically designed for making examinations of guided missile system, including electronic components and circuits. Excludes individual test sets designed for a single specific function. Excludes test set, electronic systems.



Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News. Content may not be used without written permission.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Lloyd Vivola said...

You would have to be blind to the dark, sordid side of colonial history not to have see this coming. Thanks for tracing all the roots and ramifications of this still unfolding episode. Excellent report.

Anonymous said...

Haaland, while her own people are fighting for the approximately 368 treaties that have yet to be honored, is strangely silent. She conjures up images of Custer's Crow Scout, White Man Runs Him or Chato, the Apache scout who helped hunt down Geronimo. We have always had people who became traitors for personal gain.






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