Manny Pino discusses uranium mining in New Mexico pueblos

Manny Pino discusses the impact of uranium mining on the Acoma and Laguna pueblos in New Mexico.
This clip is a short excerpt from the documentary film "Do It For Uncle Graham" by Candy Jones and Just-Us Productions :http://www.just-usproductions.com/films-uncle-graham.html

Comment:  Mr. Pino will be at the Mar 11: Uranium Mining in Virginia Symposium, please attend.  Now look at this true statement: "To destroy the land is to destroy the people."  Demand our leaders to ban uranium mining and milling now!


Manuel Pino, Acoma Nation, New Mexico, USA. Currently working on a Ph.D. about the effects of uranium mining on the identity of the Indian people.


Greetings to all the Indigenous people and European people! We are here representing our Elders from Acoma and the Laguna Pueblo. We bring our Elders' message because flying across the great Atlantic Ocean is something they cannot conceive.

We are still a very traditional people. Us, like the Hopis and Acoma, claim to be the oldest continuous village in North America. As you can see by the transparency upon the screen here, we come from the southwestern part of the United States and like numerous of the groups that have preceded here today, we have been impacted by uranium development for over 40 years, and we bring the message of our Elders because they are our wisdom. They are our future and they are our past.

One of the hardest things for us to deal with as human beings, is to watch and sit throughout this 30 year period of development as our sacred mountain, Mount Taylor, was desecrated. They stuck the world's deepest uranium mine shaft into our sacred mountain.

Well, us Indian people contradict that argument. We live the opposite. We believe that Mother Earth is not to mess with. And all those species and living things from the smallest insects that crawl to the elk, to the buffalo, they are all our brothers and sisters.

 Part of this struggle is tied to uranium development. It is that generation that had to live through the assimilative policies of this country that made the decision to mine uranium on our land. They had been to World War II, they had been through World War I, and they were told that they were heroes and that in order to continue to protect our land, uranium would have to be mined. This is the generation that has affected us for the future, that made those decisions.

In the bureaucracy of our federal government in the United States is the Bureau of Indian Affairs who helped negotiate these leases on behalf of the tribe in the 1950's. As our trustee,

 The economic benefits that the corporations received compared to my people is outrageous, and they leave us with the contaminants that my brothers and sisters will address here today. I showed you the map of the region where we come from. This is the San Juan Basin Mineral Belt in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah, the Four Corners.

In this area, over 30 years uranium was developed from the 1950's to the closing of the last mine, the Chevron mine, which had the world's deepest uranium mining shaft into our sacred mountain. The Grants Mineral Belt extends from about 15 miles West of Albuquerque to the Arizona border. It's approximately 60 miles wide and 100 miles long.

At the height of uranium development within a 30 miles radius of our reservation are Laguna Pueblo, Acomita, McCartys -- all communities within the Acoma Reservation -- and Paraje and Paguate on the Laguna Reservation. You can see by the numbers of all the mines that existed were downwinders from the Grants Mineral Belt and the Ambrosia Lake Area to the West and the uranium that was developed on the Navajo Land. You know, this area produced great amounts of uranium during the height of development.

In this area, Indians owned or controlled about 50 percent of the nation's uranium supply and mostly concentrated on Navajo and Laguna reservations. Within the Grants Mineral Belt, 25 percent of the United States' uranium in the 1970's and eleven percent of the world's uranium were mined in this area within a 30 mile radius of our people's native lands. Along with the world's deepest mineshaft was also the world's largest uranium mill at Ambrosia Lake. Within the Pueblo of Laguna lay the world's largest open pit strip mine, in operation from 1953 to 1982. You know, these are "world bests" we don't want on our land anymore, we don't want to be known for all the world's deepest and worst uranium atrocities on our land, never again!

As Jackpile opened in 1953, 24 million tons of ore were mined over a 30 year period. This was a 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year operation for 30 years until it shut down on March 31, 1982. The Atomic Energy Commission was the primary buyer of uranium from Jackpile.

Right now, Jackpile Mine lies like a sore in the middle of the New Mexico desert. And within 1,000 feet from the world's largest open pit uranium mine lies the village of Paguate. When the wind blows from an easterly to westerly direction, these people are directly in line with the waste overburden and tailings that laid unreclaimed from when the mine closed in 1982 till the reclamation project began in 1989. Seven years these people had to endure radioactivity in their backyard. This is what we had to deal with, this is what we have to live with, and this is what my people will reiterate to you here, today.

Granted, uranium development improved the quality of life on the reservation when you look at it from a monetary perspective. Over 800 Laguna Pueblo Indians were employed at the mine at the height of development, the unemployment rate dropped to less than 20 percent. Prior to uranium mining it was in the 70 percentiles. But after the bust it has returned to that percentage.

If uranium mining would have continued in the Grants Mineral Belt, this is what we would be looking at today. These many mines within the San Juan Basin area and the aboriginal homelands of the Diné and the Acoma and Laguna people. So I ask you today here at this World Uranium Hearing: Put yourself in our place! Think about with what we have to live, what we have to endure, what we have to continue to endure, and I will leave you with the words and wisdom of my grandfather who entered the spirit world four years ago.

 I've been in this struggle a long time, when it was unpopular to speak out about the mine. When those 800 people were employed, I was a very unpopular person because I was speaking the issues that I speak here today. No one wanted their job threatened, no one wanted the tribal budget threatened, no one wanted to take a stand about these issues that we're talking about here today.

 But my grandfather gave me a basic philosophy that I continue to live by today and that is: "To destroy the land is to destroy the people."

My brothers and sisters, my fellow panel members will show you how this destruction has taken place. As a humble Acoma man I thank you for giving me this opportunity to come half way around the world to address you here today.

Read more:
http://www.ratical.com/radiation/WorldUraniumHearing/ManuelPino.html