July 14 Uranium Legacy Commemoration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 3, 2018

 

Contact: Edith Hood, Red Water Pond Road Community Association

505.905.8051 home, 505.713-4085 cell

Susan Gordon, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, coordinator

505.577.8438  sgordon@swuraniumimpacts.org  contact for photos or graphics

 

Red Water Pond Road Community: 39 Years Since North East Church Rock 

Uranium Tailings Spill That Was Never Investigated Nor Cleaned Up

 

•  Uranium Legacy Commemoration, Saturday, July 14, 7 am to 3 pm
•  12 miles North of Red Rock State Park on State Highway 566 near Church Rock, NM

The Red Water Pond Road Community on Navajo Nation will be hosting their 39th annual commemoration of the 1979 Uranium Tailings Spill that is the largest uranium tailings spill in the United States. 

   

On July 16, 1979, an earthen dam that held liquid uranium waste broke, releasing 1,000 tons of solid radioactive mill waste and more than 90 million gallons of acidic and radioactive liquids into the Rio Puerco. The contaminants flowed downstream through Gallup, NM and across nine Navajo chapters. Several days after the spill, United Nuclear Corporation sent a handful of people out with shovels and buckets in an attempt to remediate the mess. To this day there has been no reclamation, no study to see how far the contamination went and its impacts on local water systems and people’s health. United Nuclear Corporation has not been held accountable for the spill.

    

“Let us come together again and share these issues and concerns, collaborate and strategize, to push clean up of these contaminated environments among our Diné people, to restore, preserve and protect our Mother Earth,” said Edith Hood, Red Water Pond Road Community resident. “It is time for our state and tribal governments to stand up and help these impacted communities on Dinetah. There has been enough talk. It is time to take action on behalf of the people."  

    

The North East Church Rock community are concerned about the uranium contamination legacy that has poisoned Mother Earth, including our sacred waters, land, and livestock. This gathering will provide a venue to discuss and educate everyone about the impacts of uranium mining and milling and about the ongoing work to remove uranium contaminated soil from the surrounding areas to protect our families and environment. 

    

There will be a 7 am walk to the spill site to offer healing prayers. Following the walk people will gather under shade for food, community education, speeches, and a silent auction.

     

www.swuraniumimpacts.org

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UN Side Event Webcast April 23: Radioactive Waste and Canada's First Nations

Message from Dr. Gordon Edwards of CCNR (Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility):

The following is a link to the United Nations archived webcast of a special event, “Radioactive Waste and Canada’s First Nations”,  held on April 23, 2018, on the occasion of the 17th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. 

Speakers are:

1. Candace Neveau, youth and mother, Bawating Water Protectors, Anishinabek Nation.

2. Grand Chief Joseph Norton, Mohawk Nation of Kahnawà:ke, Iroquois Caucus.

3. Grand Chief Patrick Madahbee, Anishinabek Nation, Union of Ontario Indians.

4. Dr. Gordon Edwards, President, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.

5. Chief April Adams-Phillips, Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, Iroquois Caucus.

6. Dr. Ole Hendrickson, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, Ottawa, Ontario.

7. Chief Clinton Phillips, Mohawk Nation of Kahnawà:ke, Iroquoid Caucus.

8. Chief Troy Thompson, Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, Iqoquois Caucus.

http://webtv.un.org/watch/radioactive-waste-and-canadas-first-nations-unpfii-side-event/5775372426001/

Racial Equity and Nuclear Weapons: A Discussion about Ending the Age of Oppression and Abuse of Power

“Racial Equity and Nuclear Weapons:

A Discussion about Ending the Age of Oppression and Abuse of Power”

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) outreach event

to youth and people of color

Let’s celebrate our diversity and intersectionality as we join forces to abolish nuclear weapons & power, secure radioactive waste, save the climate, & protect people and the planet!

Wednesday, May 24, 7 to 9pm

Nicolás Guillén Room

Busboys and Poets @ Takoma

235 Carroll St. NW, Washington, DC 20012

(very near the Takoma Red Line Metro Station, and immediately adjacent to the Nuclear-Free Zone of Takoma Park, Maryland)

Busboys’ delicious hors d’oeuvres (meat, vegetarian & vegan), desserts, and drinks (beer, wine, & non-alcoholic beverages), are free

for the first 50 attendees who RSVP*

Speakers:

Sebastian Medina-Tayac, Piscataway Nation

Cee’ Cee’ Anderson, Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions

<http://www.gawand.org>, an independent grassroots, woman-led organization that seeks to direct women’s voices into a powerful movement for social change. WAND empowers women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism, and redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs

Lisa Fager, Director of Public Policy and Operations, Hip Hop Caucus

<http://www.hiphopcaucus.org/>, a national, non-profit and non-partisan organization that connects the Hip Hop community to the civic process to build power and create positive change

Short selections from the documentary films “Containment” (<http://www.redactedpictures.com/>, 2015, by Robb Moss and Peter Gallison) & “Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1” (<https://www.nuclearsavage.com/>, 2011, by Adam Jones Horowitz), will also be shown

Georgia WAND is a member of ANA <http://www.ananuclear.org>, a network of organizations and leaders seeking a nuclear-free future that safeguards our communities and environment. This event is being held in conjunction with the conclusion of ANA’s annual DC Days

*For more information, and to RSVP, please contact Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216, <kevin@beyondnuclear.org>

See updates on Water Protectors' resistance to the Dakota Access [Oil] Pipeline

Indigenous resistance mounts against the so-called Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

See Beyond Nuclear's Human Rights website section, for updates on Native and non-Native resistance to DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline).

Longtime Native American allies of the anti-nuclear movement, Indigenous Environmental Network and Honor the Earth, have issued an urgent call for solidarity (including an appeal for human rights observers from the UN, NGOs, churches, etc.) in their struggle against yet another dirty, dangerous, and expensive energy industry -- the so-called Dakota Access Pipeline for pumping Bakken crude oil, targeted at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's land on the Missouri River in North Dakota. Environmental groups have long stood in solidarity with traditional indigenous peoples to successfully block high-level radioactive waste dumps targeted at the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah, Western Shoshone Indian land at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and many other Native lands across the U.S., as well as to resist uranium mining on Native lands (including in the Dakotas) and beyond. We must again now stand with our environmental justice allies in their time of escalating crisis -- as local, state, and even federal governmental and law enforcement agencies are unnecessarily increasing the tension, and safety risks, in an attempt to disperse a peaceful, growing encampment of many hundreds of Native Americans (including women, children, and elders), who have gathered to protect sacred land and water against an illegal, polluting, and dangerous crude oil pipeline. More

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues, Oct. 10-11, 2016, U. of NV Las Vegas

Native Community Action Council logoBeyond Nuclear is honored and privileged to be invited by the Native Community Action Council (NCAC) to present at its Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues, taking place on October 10 & 11, 2016, at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas (UNLV).

See the event flier here.

See the agenda/program here.

The Forum is sponsored by the UNLV Academic Multicultural Resource Center and UNLV Boyd School of Law.

Learn more about NCAC at its website.