By Cindy Yurth
Tséyi' Bureau
MONUMENT VALLEY, Utah, Aug. 29, 2011
Jeff Spitz wasn't looking for uranium when he made the documentary "Return of Navajo Boy."
The Chicago documentarian had come across an old film clip from the 1950s, and was curious about what had happened to the people in the movie.
But when he got to Monument Valley, he found a story no one could make up - a missing relative who had been adopted by missionaries as a baby, houses built out of waste rock from uranium mines, children who had grown up playing in the tailings, elders who had never been compensated for the damage done to their health.
The resulting film garnered Spitz armloads of awards and an entrée into the prestigious 2000 Sundance Film Festival, but it also gave him a mission. For years, the Cly family had been photographed and filmed and never had a voice. Spitz wanted his film to let them speak and bolster them in their struggle for justice.
A decade after the film was released, many would say, "mission accomplished."
The elder who had been that long-lost baby read about Spitz's film in a newspaper and came home.
Because of information documented in the movie, some Cly relatives got their government compensation for uranium exposure.
Read more:
http://www.navajotimes.com/news/2011/0811/082911navajoboy.php
