Impact of Nuclear Weapons on US First Nations   RUHS
Channel: Erin Jensen
Date: 2022-04-27

Many know of the atrocities committed against First Nation groups in the United States but know little about how nuclear weapons exasperated an already fraught relationship. Uranium has often been found on sacred First Nation lands. Two-thirds of the United States' known uranium reserves are located on reservations or treaty lands of the Navajo, Hopi, and Western Shoshoni nations. Over the years, uranium mining has scarred and poisoned the people and their land. The weapons devised with uranium were eventually used against the populations that aided in mining it as nuclear tests destroyed First Nation lands. To this day, the Western Shoshoni is the most bombed nation on earth. Rock Univesity High School researched this undertold history and took on the challenge of sharing this history through accessible, student-made explainers and videos easily shareable via social media. With each post, viewers not only learn about the past but are challenged to accept that present reparations and security given back to the first nation people of the United States cannot be sincere without the dismantlement of the United States’ Nuclear arsenal.