Research Question: Is uranium mining for nuclear power in the Grand Canyon a responsible reaction to climate change given the local history of mining and its effects?
Introduction:
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My Story:
Our family farm in Shiprock, New Mexico is not too big, but you can feel the age of the house, and of the dirt. I remember when I was younger, playing with my cousin at “the farm.” We would run back and forth between the house and the apricot tree behind the trailer, taking supplies to our fort. We went through the old shed to find plates and pans to play “kitchen” with. We searched for extra pieces of scrap wood and shovels so we could construct the next section of the house. We had to sneak into the shed, knowing we shouldn’t be in there, knowing we would soon hear the sharp sound of our mother, and other mother’s voices telling us to “get back here!” (figure out punctuation here) But we did it anyway, not understanding the dangers.
In the 1930’s sometime (revise and actually cite when and who and where this happened), someone somewhere found out that when you blast a uranium particle with another one, nuclear fission happens! Which then makes heat, which can therefore be turned into energy! At this point I will go more in depth about how exactly uranium and nuclear energy works, and talk about how radiation is bad bad bad, and tie my story in about the stories of kids playing with radioactive shovels that my grandpa and great-grandpa used to bring home after working in the mines, and talk about how that had an effect on my cousin, and try to cite some report about how radiation is linked to cancer and birth defects.
In The News:
March 14, 2011, three uranium mines received approval to open in the Grand Ca...
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...20Clips/05-11-2011.Federal%20Plan%20Won't%20End%20Uranium%20Mining%20Near%20Grand%20Canyon%20(Tucson%20Sentinel).pdf (accessed June 16, 2011).
Brugge, Doug, Timothy Benally, and Esther Lewis. The Navajo people and uranium mining . Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006.
Markstrom, Carol A., and Perry H. Charley. "Psychological Effects of Technological/Human-Caused Environmental Disasters: Examination of the Navajo and Uranium." American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research 11, no. 1 (2003): 19-45. HYPERLINK "http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ775485&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ775485" http://ww w.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ775485&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ775485 (accessed June 15, 2011).
Weisiger’s narrative explains the relationship of “livestock grazing, environmental change, cultural identity, gender, and memory during the New Deal era of the 1930s and its aftermath” (p xv). Weisiger relies on oral histories, environmental science, and government documents. Weisiger begins by discussing the debate about the Stock Reduction Program from 1933-1934. She goes on then to detail the importance of livestock to Navajo cultural identity and way of life. Weisiger writes, “Dine knew nature not only through their connections with the physical environment but also
The service of the code talkers was not declassified until 1969, after which public attention grew. The purpose of this investigation is to assess what factors led to differences in the amount of public attention given to the Navajo code talkers and their Comanche counterparts after the declassification. Factors possibly affecting the fame of both tribes’ code talkers will be examined to gain an understanding of why the Navajo received more public attention. These factors include circumstances surrounding their training prior to their service, their performance during the war, and their situation after the war. Due to the limited number of works regarding the Comanche co...
The tar creek mining site originally was owned by a Native American tribe, the Quapaw. The Quapaw wanted to keep these lands, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs deemed members opposing a transaction to mining companies “incompetent” (1). In such a case the business could continue and the Bureau of Indian Affairs sold the lands to mining companies. In essence these lands were stolen from the Quapaw because they were ripe for mining. These mines were then used from approximately 1891 to 1970. In the 79 years the mines were open 1.7 million metric tons (~3.75 billion pounds) of lead and 8.8 million metric tons (~19.4 billion pounds) of zinc were withdrawn from the mine (2). The entire area around Tar Creek is known as the tri-state mining area. This tri-state area was a massive source of metals. This area accounted for 35% of the all worldwide metal for a decade. It also provided the majority of metals the United States used in World wars I and II (3).
suffering the Native Americans are plagued with as a result of the lack of acceptance towards
"The Effects of Removal on American Indian Tribes, Native Americans and the Land, Nature Transformed, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center." The Effects of Removal on American Indian Tribes, Native Americans and the Land, Nature Transformed, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. .
American Indians have had health disparities as result of unmet needs and historical traumatic experiences that have lasted over 500 hundred years.1(p99) Since first contact American Indians have been exposed to infectious disease and death2(p19), more importantly, a legacy of genocide, legislated forcible removal, reservation, termination, allotment, and assimilation3. This catastrophic history had led to generational historical traumas and contributes to the worst health in the United States.2 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) represent 0.9 percent of the United States population4(p3) or 1.9 million AI/AN of 566 federally recognized tribes/nations.5 American Indians/Alaska Natives have significantly higher mortality rates of intentional and unintentional injuries, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease and chronic lower respiratory disease than other American.6
To the northeast part of Arizona lay a conflict between two indigenous groups from the surrounding area and the world’s largest coal company formerly known as Peabody Coal (now Peabody Energy). The Hopi and Navajo reservations surround a region known as Black Mesa. Black Mesa is located on both the Navajo and Hopi Reservations which is a target source for underground water called the N-aquifer. The N-aquifer contains a great amount of pristine Ice Age water. As time drew on, many indigenous people were alarmed that the water was carelessly being depleted from their land. Mining on Black Mesa should be stopped because the inhabitants are affected by Peabody, livestock in the area must depend on the local springs, groundwater is being depleted at an average of 3.3 million gallons per day, and the water is being contaminated (SBMW Online par 1).
Native Americans have undergone a horrific past of genocide, discrimination, forced acculturation, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. They were frequently dehumanized and stripped of basic human rights. Treated as “savages” they were herded into areas of confinement and robbed of their language, culture, and way of life. In many instances of genocide, experts have noted a type of historical trauma that may be passed down through families, known as generational trauma. While the potential effects of this concept are not proven, the stories, images, and memories of thousands of Native Americans continue to be shared with their children, thus perpetuating, and never forgetting the pain and embarrassment that their people have experienced.
Bouchard, Jen. "Native American Education and Employment." Suite101.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. .
into the Native American way of life and some of the hardships that can befall the victims
...nce World War II to the present day, the technology of nuclear power has increased significantly in terms of energy output and safety. The energy efficiency of nuclear power is far superior to its counterpart fossil fuel and renewable energy. Compared to fossil fuels, tiny amounts of fuel used by nuclear reactors is equivalent to a large sum of coal. This is a no brainer. Why mine a ton of coal when a little uranium can be used to gain the same amount of energy? Not only is it efficient, it’s safe to use. Used fuel is packed away in storage safely, so there isn’t any chance of radiation leaking out. In the present day, nuclear power incidents haven’t been occurring lately. Advancements in technology and equipment used have made nuclear energy a very reliable and safe source of energy. With today’s energy needs, nuclear power has the ability to keep up in the race.
The movement westward during the late 1800’s created new tensions among already strained relations with current Native American inhabitants. Their lands, which were guaranteed to them via treaty with the United States, were now beginning to be intruded upon by the massive influx of people migrating from the east. This intrusion was not taken too kindly, as Native American lands had already been significantly reduced due to previous westward conquest. Growing resentment for the federal government’s Reservation movement could be felt among the native population. One Kiowa chief’s thoughts on this matter summarize the general feeling of the native populace. “All the land south of the Arkansas belongs to the Kiowas and Comanches, and I don’t want to give away any of it” (Edwards, 203). His words, “I don’t want to give away any of it”, seemed to a mantra among the Native Americans, and this thought would resound among them as the mounting tensions reached breaking point.
Irwin, Lee, ed. Native American Spirituality. Nebraska: The University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Kehoe, Alice Beck.
So we can harness the energy that is produced through the process of fission and generate electricity. All this is done in nuclear reactors. A core of Uranium is at the center of the reactor. Uranium, Uranium-235 is the preferred isotope, is used because it under goes fission naturally and at a slow rate. The energy that is emitted from the Uranium is then used to heat up water. The water then turns into steam and the steam pushes a turbine that spins a generator to produce electricity. That is the basics on how a nuclear reactor works. This method is better than traditional coal power plants because it emits minimal levels of carbon dioxide into the air. This process is also more reliable than other forms of alternative energy like solar panels or wind turbines. Because we can’t control the weather it won’t all always be sunny for a solar panel and it won’t always be windy for wind turbines. Nuclear reactors can lat from 40 to 60 years.
Uranium, a radioactive element, was first mined in the western United States in 1871 by Dr. Richard Pierce, who shipped 200 pounds of pitchblende to London from the Central City Mining District. This element is sorta boring but I found something interesting, they used it to make an an atomic bomb in the Cold War. In 1898 Pierre and Marie Curie and G. Bemont isolated the "miracle element" radium from pitchblende. That same year, uranium, vanadium and radium were found to exist in carnotite, a mineral containing colorful red and yellow ores that had been used as body paint by early Navajo and Ute Indians on the Colorado Plateau. The discovery triggered a small prospecting boom in southeastern Utah, and radium mines in Grand and San Juan counties became a major source of ore for the Curies. It was not the Curies but a British team working in Canada which was the first to understand that the presence of polonium and radium in pitchblende was not due to simple geological and mineral reasons, but that these elements were directly linked to uranium by a process of natural radioactive transmutation. The theory of radioactive transformation of elements was brilliantly enlarge in1901 by the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford and the English chemist Frederick Soddy at McGill University in Montreal. At dusk on the evening of November 8, 1895, Wilhelm Rontgen, professor of physics at the University of Wurzburg in Germany, noticed a cathode tube that a sheet of paper come distance away. He put his hand between the tube and the paper, he saw the image of the bones in his hand on the paper.