On July 30, 2024, mining company Energy Fuel Resources smuggled two trucks carrying uranium ore across the Navajo border and through Navajo land. Navajo President Buu Nygren attempted to stop these trucks with the Navajo Police Force, but the fugitives ultimately escaped. Tribal members in the area are protesting and demanding the mine be shut down.
The Navajo, Havasupai, and Ute Nations are being poisoned. Toxic uranium saturates their land, drinking water, and homes. Southwestern indigenous tribes lived on top of uranium deposits for centuries without issue. They called it leetso, or “yellow dirt.” Cancer rates in this area were so low that some believed the Navajo were immune. This changed in the 1940s, when the federal government pledged to commit a nuclear holocaust against Japanese civilians. Since then, over 40,000 tons of uranium ore have been extracted from their land with no concern for the Indigenous miners or their families. The Navajo language had no word for “radiation” or “cancer” at the time. They didn’t know what the mines would do to their people, and they were desperate for a source of income. The federal government and mining companies knew.
The trucks traveled from Pinyon Plain Mine (formerly Canyon Mine), which is controversially located on Havasupai territory. The mine sits in the foreground of the Havasupai’s sacred mountain, Red Butte, and over several important aquifers. These were the first trucks sent from the mine since it began operation in December 2023. They were set to follow a 300 mile route to the White Mesa uranium mill in southern Utah. The Navajo outlawed uranium transport in 2012 due to its horrifying legacy of radiation sickness and cancer in the Navajo nation.
Alas, the federal government does not recognize Indigenous sovereignty in any meaningful sense. Indigenous nations are technically allowed to write laws concerning their internal affairs, but exceptions are made when a law could interfere with pillaging tribal lands. In the case of uranium transport, the statute exempts state and federal highways on Navajo lands which Energy Fuels Resources, the company contracted to mine and transport the radioactive material, has designated as hauling routes between their mine and processing mill. While the company is allowed to travel in the eyes of the American government, President Nygren has promised to set up roadblocks against any additional trucks. He demands an agreement that requires Energy Fuels to provide ten days notice before shipping uranium so that the Navajo nation can take safety precautions and inform the community. The Navajo nation is generally opposed to any movement of uranium through its land, but they are willing to let the ore through if given proper notice, which was not the case here. The Navajo nation only learned of the trucks because the Forest Service relayed the message that same morning.
On August 2, First Lady Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren led a rally and march with Navajo, Havasupai, Hopi, and Fort Mojave nation members. They marched up the hauling route as Grand Canyon tourists drove by in the opposite direction. Many honked in support. Energy Fuels Resources has since agreed to pause uranium hauling until an agreement can be reached with the Navajo nation. It is in Energy Fuel’s best interest to cooperate, given new research that suggests the mine will contaminate the Havasupai’s drinking water. A temporary pause in shipments would be a small price for Energy Fuels to pay if they can continue exploiting the sacred Ancestral Footprints Monument. Genocide Joe Biden and Killer Kamala Harris ironically designated this area as a national monument in August, 2023, but since the Pinyon Plain mine was approved in 1986, it escapes regulation. Thanks for nothing, Joe and Kamala!
The Navajo nation’s promise to block uranium shipments is a test of Indigenous sovereignty over its borders. The federal government has their dirty fingerprints all over Indigenous statutes. Indigenous nations are often referred to as semi- sovereign, but “semi- sovereign” will always remain a shallow and disingenuous concept under the settler colonial relation. So-called limited sovereignty is reduced or annihilated at any moment the settler government chooses. Congress can terminate the existence of Indigenous nations at any time, like it did in 1953 when hundreds of thousands of indigenous were relocated to American cities for cheap labor. The Supreme Court will continue to affirm Congressional fiat over Indigenous nations. Limited sovereignty has a clearly defined ceiling, but no floor. These are the scars of oppressed nations entitled to full control over their peoples, resources, and destinies.
Protests against Energy Fuels Resources are set to continue. Another 100 indigenous people marched along the haul route on Saturday, August 24th. The next march is scheduled for October 12th against the company’s processing mill. Energy Fuels Resources must face consequences after poisoning Havasupai and Ute Tribal members. Organized Indigenous nations pose an inherent threat to the status quo of settler domination. The settler regime will only pretend to recognize sovereignty for so long. Force Congress to exert its veto power so that all may see the zombified corpse that is limited sovereignty.
