From: nlns@igc.apc.org (New Liberation News Service)
Subject: NLNS: DUMPING ON NATIVES
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 12:51:17 GMT

/* Written  6:21 pm  Oct 13, 1992 by nlns in cdp:nlns.news */
/* ---------- "NLNS Packet 3.3 *** 10/12/92" ---------- */

Waste Merchants Intentionally Poison Natives
Valerie Taliman, Groundwork

(NLNS)--There are thousands who have suffered the 
consequences of highly dangerous industries operating in and 
near Indian communities. Angry tribal leaders accuse industry 
and the military of economic and environmental racism for 
devestating their land and their people.
	They say that calculated decisions were made that 
resulted in the deaths of thousands of Native people--people 
that corporate and government officials deemed expendable.
	The intentional poisoning of Native people has been 
going on for a long time. It can be traced back to the small-pox 
infected blankets that the U.S. Cavalry distributed to Indian 
prisoners of war. It continued through the decades in the form 
of military and industrial development that polluted Indian 
lands and water supplies.
	Today the poisonous deals come in slick packages from 
friendly waste merchants or from David LeRoy, who heads the 
Bush Administration's Office of US Nuclear Waste Negotiations.
	LeRoy has been trying to sell tribal leaders a deal to set 
aside 450-acre parcels of Native lands for federal storage of 
radioactive waste from the nation's 110 nuclear plants.
	In return for poison, LeRoy holds out prospects of more 
federal money for health care, education and other economic 
benefits that financially strapped tribes critically need. It is a 
strategy that some tribal leaders call "economic blackmail."
	LeRoy mailed letters to more than 65 tribal leaders 
nationally and has lobbied at major Indian gatherings such as 
the National Congress of American Indians attended by 1500 
delegates.
	So far, only the Mascalero Apache tribe in New Mexico 
has received $100,000 of grant money to study the prospect of 
a nuclear waste facility on the reservation. It is a prospect that 
has caused much controversy among tribal members, many of 
whom oppose it. Waste deals disguised as "economic 
development."
	This recent round of waste proposals comes on the heels 
of scores of proposals from waste disposal operators who have 
deliberately targeted Indian lands for waste incinerators and 
landfills.
	In the last two years alone, more than 50 tribes from 
Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska, California, New York, Nevada, 
Utah, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming and Florida have 
been approached by waste merchants seeking deals on Native 
lands where state regulations do not apply and there is less red 
tape governing toxic waste incinerators and landfills.
	Toxic waste deals are often disguised as "economic 
development" projects. Waste companies promise million-dollar 
deals to people who often live in economically depressed 
communities that seldom attract offers of this magnitude.
	In exchange for millions, waste companies propose to 
build high-level waste incinerators and massive dumps to store 
tons of toxic waste shipped in from all over the nation.
	Waste merchants also recognize the political and 
economic vulnerability of Native nations. Becuase affluent 
communities have the money and political power to ban waste 
sites from their neighborhoods, most landfills, incinerators and 
toxic dumps are built near low-income communities of color, 
many near Indian lands.
	Unless a tribe has existing environmental regulations, 
toxic waste falls under the jurisdiction of federal 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) laws that are often less 
stringent than those of states.
	Native leaders say the lax and distant enforcement 
exercised by the EPA is not enough to protect tribes from 
companies that are trying to take advantage of the sovereign 
status of Native people.
	"Environmental laws do not protect our people," said Gail 
Small, a North Cheyenne attorney and activist. "With less than 
four percent of our original land base left, we refuse to accept 
the deliberate targeting of our land for white America's trash 
and poison's."

Encroaching on the Western Shoshone
	That feeling is shared by the Western Shoshone Nation 
whose land in Nevada was taken by the government to build 
the Nevada Test Site. The military has exploded more than 700 
nuclear bombs since 1951 including 100 above-ground blasts 
that were allowed until 1963. Although the Treaty of Ruby 
Valley never ceded lands to the U.S., providing only permission 
for settlers to pass through Shoshone land, the federal 
government ignored the treaty and took more than 800,000 
acres for weapons testing.
	The department of defense (DOD) now uses that land to 
conduct both underground nuclear tests and ariel bombing at 
adjacent Nellis Air Force Gunnery Range and the Tonopah Test 
Range. These tests expose millions of citizens in a five-state 
surrounding area to radiation.
	"We are the most bombed nation in the world." William 
Rosse, Sr. proclaims at the many environmental gatherings he 
attends. "We've had more than our share of radiation," says 
Rosse. "Now they want to put the Yucca Mountain repository on 
our lands."
	The proposed high-level nuclear waste repository would 
create cavities and tunnels spreading over 1500 acres inside 
the Yucca Mountain to store 70,000 metric tons of deadly 
nuclear waste. An additional 150 surface acres would be used 
to house administrative and warehouse facilities. The estimated 
price tag to taxpayers so far is $15 billion.
	The repository is intended to keep nuclear waste "safe" 
for 10,000 years by placing steel canisters filled with the most 
deadly substances on the planet in tunnels up to 115 miles 
long.
	If approved, the repository would operate from 2003 to 
2053, taking in nuclear waste from nuclear waste sites 
throughout the nation.
	Only five states would not be impacted by the 
transportation of high-level radioactive waste, causing many 
state and local emergency response teams to worry about the 
prospect of accidents.
	With up to 4000 shipments of radioactive waste crossing 
the nation annually, trucking industry statistics reveal that up 
to 50 accidents per year could occur during the 30-year period 
that nuclear waste would stream to Yucca Mountain.
	Fearing the dangers posed, some tribal leaders have 
called for a ban on the transportation of hazerdous waste 
through their reservations and a handful of tribes have 
outlawed hazerdous waste operations.

Groundwork (formerly Greenletter) can be reached at PO Box 
14141, San Francisco CA 94114.

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