http://turtletalk.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/news-article-on-uranium-mining-impact-at-navajo/Meanwhile, miners labored underground, unaware that the poorly ventilated shafts held the radon that would lodge within their lungs, causing cancer and other respiratory ailments.
The elevated lung cancer rates, some three to five times higher among Navajo miners than the rest of the American population, is as ironic as it is tragic. Prior to the inception of uranium mining in the 1930s,the Navajo people were virtually cancer-free and had the lowest lung cancer rate of all Native American groups.
On April 19, 2005, the Navajo Nation Council adopted the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act, and banned uranium mining and milling, in part to “ensure that no further damage to the culture, society and economy of the Navajo Nation occurs because of uranium mining within the Navajo Nation and Navajo Indian Country and that no further damage to the culture, society and economy of the Navajo Nation occurs because of uranium processing.”
In a November 2005 press release, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr. explained an executive order prohibiting any discussions with uranium mining companies. “As part of the findings of the law,” he wrote, the Navajo Nation Council had determined that “‘the
Fundamental Laws of the Diné, Diné Bi Beenahaź annii,
support preserving and protecting the Navajo Nation’s natural resources, especially the four sacred elements of life – air, light/fire, water and earth/pollen,’” which form the foundation of the Navajo people’s spiritual ceremonies and the Diné way of life, had been violated.
According to Shirley, “It is the duty and responsibility of the Diné to protect and preserve the natural world for future generations.”
The Council found that the mining and processing of uranium ore since the mid-1940s had “created substantial and irreparable economic detriments to the Nation and its people.” Henceforth, the Resources Protection Act declared, “no person shall engage in uranium mining and uranium processing on any sites within Navajo Indian Country.”
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