Book

Eichstaedt, Peter H., 1947- author.

If you poison us : uranium and Native Americans / Peter H. Eichstaedt.

1st ed.

Santa Fe, New Mexico : Red Crane Books, [1994]

xvi, 263 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

The supply of uranium that fueled the Cold War came largely from the Four Corners area of the United States. Some of the richest deposits were found on the Navajo Reservation. Between 1950 and 1980 as many as fifteen thousand people worked in uranium mines. About one-quarter of the miners and millers were Native Americans. Responding to an urgent plea to help defend our country, and eager to earn miners' wages, poverty-stricken Native Americans labored to feed the atomic mill. For nearly three decades in the face of growing evidence that uranium mining was dangerous, state and federal agencies avoided the responsibility for warning the miners or imposing safety measures in the mines. In this untold chapter of the U.S. government's legacy of the nuclear age, Eichstaedt reveals the sacrifices made by Native Americans to provide raw materials for the buildup of the American nuclear arsenal. He details the devastating physical, psychological, and cultural impact uranium mining has on the Navajo people and on their lands. Jacket.

Navajo Indians -- Claims.

Navajo Indians -- Government relations.

Uranium mines and mining -- Southwest, New -- History.

Radioactivity -- Physiological effect -- Southwest, New.

Navajo Indians -- Social conditions.

Indians of North America.

Radioactivity.

Mineral industries.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-256) and index.

1. The shadow of the red rock -- 2. A grave question of prosperity -- 3. Secrets of the earth -- 4. The uranium boom and the Cold War -- 5. The shadow of death -- 6. Life, not death : regulations are finally established -- 7. The fight for justice -- 8. Healing the earth -- 9. Reca revisited -- App. I. Sixty-Sixth Congress, Sess. 1, Chapter 4, 1919 -- App. II. An interim report of a health study of the uranium mines and mills, May 1952 -- App. III. Hearings before the subcommittee on research, development, and radiation, 1967 -- App. IV. Radiation exposure of uranium miners : report on the public health service epidemiological study of lung cancer among uranium miners (1967 update) -- App. V. Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, October 15, 1990 -- App. VI. Report on the uranium miner's screening project, Shiprock, New Mexico, June 5, 1993.

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

94007306

1878610406

9781878610409

30030938

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363.11 Eichstae