Native Communities Protest at Uranium Mine Site in Grand Canyon

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 7, 2024

Havasupai were joined by Native Americans from throughout the region to protest Energy Fuels uranium mine at the mine site in the Grand Canyon on Sunday. The Pinyon Plain mine is endangering the Supai aquifer, their source of life.

The radioactive uranium haul trucks endangered Navajo, Paiute, and Hopi in Arizona on the haul route to the dangerous uranium mill on White Mesa Ute land in Utah. The trucks left the uranium mine in secrecy without notifying Native American Nations.

The protest on Sunday follows protests in Cameron on the Navajo Nation and in the city of Flagstaff, Arizona. The Canadian-owned company Energy Fuels is operating the uranium mine within the boundaries of the new national monument, Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni, on the ancestral land of Havasupai.

Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, has taken no action to safeguard the communities from the dangerous uranium mining, transport and milling.

On the contrary, Haaland said in Farmington, N.M., that the atomic bomb industry, Los Alamos Labs, would lead the transition to "clean energy" in the Four Corners region. Haaland did not point out that there is no safe way to store nuclear waste, and that Native communities here have a long history of cancer and death from uranium mining. Haaland failed to point out that the region is littered with radioactive tailings from the Cold War, which the United States has delayed cleaning up. Los Alamos Labs has already poisoned the Pueblo homeland in northern New Mexico.

During the protests on the haul route in Cameron on the Navajo Nation, Dine' spoke out about the long history of uranium mining, cancer and death.

Dine' warrior Klee Benally was honored and remembered for his life of leading with action.

Navajo Human Rights Commissioner Cora Maxx-Phillips told Dine', "We are in the Sacrifice Zone my dear brothers and sisters, and that is why we are here today!"

"We will not be silenced!"

Maxx-Phillips said privileged white people say, "Not in my backyard."

"We are just as worthy. Stop using us Indigenous Peoples to be in your sacrificial zone." Describing 80 years of cancer, corruption, toxic greed, she said, "This is environmental racism."

"How many more people have to die!"

"The sacredness of life is no longer honored."

Energy Fuels Begins Hauling Uranium Ore from Pinyon Plain Mine to Utah Processing Mill

In this long battle against uranium mining in its homeland, the Havasupai Tribe said on July 30 that the Havasupai Tribal Council was informed by the U.S. Forest Service that Energy Fuels, Inc. started hauling uranium ore from the Pinyon Plain Mine to their processing mill in Blanding, Utah.

"Originally, EFI agreed to provide the Forest Service with at least two weeks notice prior to hauling the ore. Instead, EFI provided no advanced notice and contacted the Forest Service after the haul trucks had already left the mine site."

Grand Canyon Trust Asks, "Who Will Respond if the Uranium Trucks have an Accident?"

Grand Canyon Trust said, "Canyon Mine, renamed Pinyon Plain Mine, sits near the south rim of the Grand Canyon and inside Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, in a meadow below the Havasupai Tribe's sacred mountain, Red Butte, on the tribe's ancestral lands."

"Energy Fuels Resources, the Colorado-based subsidiary of a Canadian uranium company, owns the mine, and is transporting uranium ore through the city of Flagstaff, across the Navajo Nation (passing through the Navajo communities of Tuba City and Kayenta), and across state lines through Bluff and White Mesa, Utah to the White Mesa Mill, a mile from Bears Ears National Monument."

"The Havasupai Tribe has opposed the mine since the 1980s and fears contamination from the mine could migrate downward into the Redwall-Muav Aquifer, which supplies the tribe's drinking water. The mine has been plagued by flooding problems since miners pierced an aquifer in 2016," Grand Canyon Trust said.

Navajo President Buu Nygren deployed Navajo police to stop two of the radioactive uranium haul trucks on Tuesday, but the trucks, which left the Energy Fuels uranium mine site in the Grand Canyon in secrecy, reached Energy Fuels uranium mill in Utah. President Nygren issued an executive order to halt radioactive shipments from crossing the Navajo Nation.

Series at Censored News

Navajo President Deploys Police to Halt Uranium Trucks
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/navajo-president-deploys-police-to-stop.html

Two Uranium Trucks Reached Mill as Tribal Police Pursued
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/navajo-nation-two-uranium-truck-reached.html

Live in Cameron: Navajos Protest Uranium Trucks
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/08/today-in-cameron-arizona-navajo-nation.html

Dine' in Cameron: No More Cancer! No More Death
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/08/dine-in-cameron-today-no-more-cancer-no.html