Ute March to Dangerous White Mesa Uranium Mill, Demanding Shut Down in Utah

White Mesa Utes and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Say “No to Uranium! Our Community is Not for Sale!”

Article by Bradley Angel, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Photos by Tim Peterson, Censored News

WHITE MESA UTE, Utah -- The long campaign by the White Mesa Ute people and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe against Energy Fuels’ uranium mill is heating up. The mill is located adjacent to the White Mesa Ute Community in southern Utah, is the last uranium mill in the United States, and was built literally on top of dozens of sacred and culturally significant sites including burials and ceremonial Kivas.

On October 12th, 150 people participated in the White Mesa Ute Community’s Spiritual Walk and Protest against Energy Fuels’ uranium mill located next to their community in southern Utah.

Led by the grassroots tribal member organization White Mesa Concerned Community, the Spiritual Walk and Protest kicked off with a rally in front of the community building with prayer, song, and passionate statements from White Mesa residents about their concerns with the mill and their commitment to protect their health, environment, families, and sacred sites from pollution and destruction. The participants then walked and caravaned five miles to the front gate of the Energy Fuels facility, rallying again with speeches and several Ute songs.

Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Councilman Malcolm Lehi affirmed the Tribe’s support for the White Mesa Ute Community and honored the tribal members working for years to close the mill and get it cleaned up. He also spoke of a tribal member who just got diagnosed with cancer, and the fear that the radioactive and toxic waste being disposed of at the mill is harming people.

White Mesa resident Michael Badback said “Our community is not for sale.”

Yolanda Badback, Coordinator of White Mesa Concerned Community, spoke for her family and neighbors saying, “We won’t move from our homes, we will continue this fight till we close the mill and get it cleaned up.”

Supporters from other Native Nations impacted by uranium and similar threats to their
environment and sacred areas traveled from far and wide to join in solidarity with White Mesa, including grassroots indigenous leaders from the Navajo Nation, Tohono O’odham, and the Quechan Tribe.

A large and growing number of diverse environmental justice, social justice, environmental, faith, and Indigenous organizations have joined in coalition with White Mesa Concerned Community and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. On October 11th , the day before the Walk and Protest, White Mesa Concerned Community hosted a regional networking and strategy conference to build the campaign against the uranium industry and the state and federal agencies and politicians promoting uranium mining and nuclear power.

On Friday, October 4th, twenty tribal members and dozens of supporters rallied on the steps of the State Capitol in Salt Lake City, challenging the Governor, legislators, and government regulatory agencies to stop dumping at White Mesa and protect the people, their environment, and sacred sites.

Read more: Live photo coverage of White Mesa Spiritual Walk and Protest by Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, at Censored News
The Spiritual Walk began with a prayer song acknowledging the Creator this morning, and the reminder that this is Indigenous land. Walkers were asked to respond if they were called on to stop the trucks bringing in radioactive loads, with the reminder that the radioactive trucks are endangering everyone on the haul route.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/09/white-mesa-ute-community-spiritual-walk.html

The White Mesa Mill is now bringing in ore from the Pinyon Plain uranium mine in the Grand Canyon, spewing out radioactive dust on Havasupai's medicine plants, and endangering their water. The deadly haul route of radioactive trucks from the Grand Canyon in Arizona, to the White Mesa Mill in Utah, endangers Havasupai, Paiute, Dine' (Navajo), Hopi and Ute. Energy Fuels of Canada owns both the Pinyon Plain uranium mine and White Mesa Mill.

The White Mesa Mill is now bringing in radioactive waste from Europe and Japan. The mill brought in waste too deadly to leave at the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada. Leaking storage containers threaten the water supply in the Four Corners region.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/10/white-mesa-ute-march-against.html

The Silent Killers in Indian Country: Copper, Lithium, Uranium and Plutonium, by Censored News

While Indian country is targeted with copper and lithium mining -- destroying sacred sites, water and the environment -- the U.S. government's agenda is to increase uranium and plutonium production, endangering Native Americans already suffering from cancer and strewn radioactive waste from Cold War uranium mines and atomic bomb testing across the Southwest, from Western Shoshone, to Navajo and Hopi lands, to the Pueblos.

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-silent-killers-in-indian-country.html

Supai, Navajo, Ute, Lakota testify on uranium exploitation before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/02/navajo-ute-lakota-to-testify-on-uranium.html

Photos copyright Tim Peterson: All images may be used royalty-free by members of the media for reporting and by Tribes and non-profit partners in campaign work. Unless you are the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe or White Mesa Concerned Community, please do not use these images for fundraising purposes. Please credit images: (c) Tim Peterson. Please credit aerials: (c) Tim Peterson, flown by EcoFlight. Contact tpeterson [at] grandcanyontrust.org with questions or for high res files and custom sizes.