Yellow dirt
Subtitle: an American story of a poisoned land and a people betrayed
By: Judy Pasternak
Edition: 1st Free Press hardcover ed.
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 317
ISBN-13: 9781416594826; 9781439100462
Subjects: Health and hygiene; Government relations; Radiation; Uranium; Congenital Abnormalities; Etiology; Government Regulation; North American Indians; Mining; History; Navajo Indians; Ethnic relations; Adverse effects; Uranium mines and mining; Radioactive Soil Pollutants; History, 20th Century; Biography
Description: "Yellow Dirt offers readers a window into a dark chapter of modern history that still reverberates today. From the 1940s into the early twenty-first century, the United States knowingly used and discarded an entire tribe for the sake of atomic bombs. Secretly, during the days of the Manhattan Project and then in a frenzy during the Cold War, the government bought up all the uranium that could be mined from the hundreds of rich deposits entombed under the sagebrush plains and sandstone cliffs. Despite warnings from physicians and scientists that long-term exposure could be harmful, even fatal, thousands of miners would work there unprotected. A second set of warnings emerged about the environmental impact. Yet even now, long after the uranium boom ended, and long after national security could be cited as a consideration, many residents are still surrounded by contaminated air, water, and soil. The radioactive 'yellow dirt' has ended up in their playgrounds, in their bread ovens, in their churches, and even in their garbage dumps. And they are still dying"--Cover, p. 2.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-304) and index.
Table of contents: title: S-37, SOM, and SOQ; title: The uranium rush. The patriarch : discovery. The special rocks ; The secret quest ; Jumping on the king; title: The son : fear and frenzy; title: The power of Łeetso ; Cold War ; The obstacle ; A hundred tons a day ; Endings ; Toxic legacy. The grandchildren : aftermath. Fallout ; Avalanche of suspicion ; A blind eye and a deaf ear; title: The great-grandchildren : death and awakening. "Hear our voices" ; Under scrutiny from every angle ; Resistance ; Ghosts ; Beginnings; title: The steeple.