Yucca Mountain today, nuclear dump ‘forever’
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) application for the proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dumpsite in Nevada has been accepted for review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
“After three decades of site studies, this action officially kicks off the Yucca Mountain repository licensing proceeding,” explains a September 8 bulletin from Beyond Nuclear. “The State of Nevada, and other dump opponents, will now have 60 days to intervene by submitting contentions to NRC citing legal or technical flaws with the proposal. Nevada is expected to submit hundreds of contentions. An NRC licensing board will decide which contentions will be granted a hearing. NRC’s licensing proceeding will last three to four years. It will then decide whether or not to approve the Yucca Mountain dump.”
Commenting on the decision, Kevin Kamps from Beyond Nuclear says: “The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) today showed its blatant bias in favor of the proposed high-level radioactive waste dump in Nevada by docketing the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) license application before the pro-nuclear Bush administration leaves office. In record time, NRC rubberstamped DOE’s half-baked submission, despite its lack of a final repository design, waste transport-storage-burial canister design, and national routing plan for shipping the deadly wastes by road, rail, and waterway through 45 states.
“Despite DOE being nearly six years late in filing its still incomplete license application, NRC recently denied the State of Nevada’s humble and reasonable request for a mere six months to prepare contentions against the dump.
“Why is NRC rushing into the Yucca proceeding at breakneck speed, especially when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not even finalized radiation release regulations for the dumpsite?
“Nevadans know the reason better than anyone, that politics have long trumped science at Yucca Mountain. Interestingly, Nevada’s contentions against the dump are now due right around Election Day. If elected, Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw the Yucca license application. Even John McCain, who has consistently voted in favor of the Yucca dump, has indicated that burying radioactive waste in Nevada may not be the best idea after all. Politics singled out Nevada in the first place, kept the Yucca Mountain Project alive for two decades despite glaring scientific unsuitability, and ironically may now kill the dump in the end.”
Don’t forget the Shoshone
A glaring issue not mentioned by Kevin Kamps, which is altogether ignored by the NRC, EPA, DOE, and both presidential candidates — is that Yucca Mountain falls within the 60 million acres of territory that the US government acknowledged when it signed the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley with the Western Shoshone.
Signed “in peace and friendship,” the treaty formed a relationship similar to the Six Nations Two Row Wampum, which affirmed the Indigenous Nation as culturally and politically distinct from the Nation State.
And so it follows that “even the mere study of the [Yucca Mountain] site is a violation of the treaty,” notes the late Corbin Harney, in a 2000 article, Yucca Mountain: No Place for Waste.
Violation of the treaty goes far beyond holding studies without the Shoshone’s consent, however. Denying their own legislation from time time, the government claims ownership of about 90 per cent of the territory, making it into the Most Atom-Bombed Place on Earth.
As a result, the Shoshone have been “exposed to many years of nuclear weapons testing, suffer from high rates of cancer, leukemia, and other diseases,” notes an in depth article about Yucca Mountain, by Amy Corbin.
The waste dump threatens to intensify this ongoing, near-irreversible health crisis.
It further threatens to harm the Shoshone’s culture, their livelihoods, and their spiritual practices. The Mountain range has been a site to gather medicines and hold Ceremonies for thousands of years. In the place of this, the government wants to store anywhere up to 77,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.
“Current Department of Energy plans call for the highly radioactive nuclear waste to be encased in steel containers and buried deep in the mountain. Since the canisters will last for 1,000 years at most, the dryness of the mountain will have to guarantee against leakage and migration — an idea that environmentalists and many scientists say is a flawed and dangerous assumption. Surface water percolates into the mountain, and will carry radioactive particles into the water table and render it toxic. This water table currently supplies water to local communities and farming regions which produce milk and other food products for the entire country,” Corbin explains.
In addition, “with several local fault lines and a volcano nearby, earthquakes make it likely that the mountain will fracture the repository and send even more water to the waste.”
“Beyond [these and other health and safety] issues lies the fact that the Shoshone should be able to determine what goes on at the mountain due to treaty rights and their historical and spiritual ties to the area. Government work has already disturbed burial remains and denied Native Americans access to the rock prayer rings. The Yucca Mountain controversy is rarely acknowledged as one that, at its heart, is about native sovereignty and the need to care for the land in a way that is spiritually responsible and environmentally sound.”
http://intercontinentalcry.org/yucca-mountain-today-nuclear-dump-forever/
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Saving Shiprock: Community hopes to make sacred monument a state or national park
Saving Shiprock: Community hopes to make sacred monument a state or national park
09/09/2008
SHIPROCK — Legends abound among Navajo people about their sacred Shiprock pinnacle.
Called Tse' Bit' Ai in the Diné language, the 1,800-foot peak is at the core of Navajo culture, and the rock soon may be the focus of a state park.
"It's no surprise to Navajo people that Shiprock is a tremendously significant resource," said David Simon, director of New Mexico State Parks, to state Indian Affairs Committee on Monday. The committee, an interim legislative council, met in Shiprock to hear an update of the proposed state park and tour the area surrounding the rock.
"It meets all the criteria to be designated as a state park," Simon said of the site. "The pinnacle is an extremely important cultural site. It is very much worthy of our respect and protection."
Monday's meeting came six months after the 2008 legislative session ended. During the session, Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, introduced a bill calling for a feasibility study on the proposed park. Begaye sits on the Indian Affairs Committee.
Simon presented the results of the $15,000 study Monday, along with recommendations for protecting and preserving the rock. The study will be released to the public this week, he said, and New Mexico State Parks will accept public comments for 60 days.
The state's recommendation is for the Navajo Nation to establish a park while partnering with the state for design, development and management assistance. The park would be listed alongside other state parks in tourism packets, Simon said. It would join the ranks of other Navajo-owned parks like Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley.
It also would be part of the Grand Circle of Parks, Simon said. Thirteen state, tribal and national parks are located within 150 miles of Shiprock and draw an annual visitation of more than 130,000 people.
Simon called the pinnacle "one of the most important features in the country," but said development may be complex.
"There are unique issues to be resolved because it's on tribal lands," he said. "All of them can be resolved, but they will have to be addressed through the legislature's direction and a joint agreement with the Navajo Nation."
A bill calling for a state and tribal agreement in the creation and maintenance of the park may appear on the legislative agenda as early as January, Begaye said.
"One of the sad things about the Shiprock pinnacle is that there's no real limits to what people can do," he said. "We have accidents out here and parties with alcohol. If we made this into a park, we would have a sense of belonging, of ownership, of business development. Without a strong plan, this area will deteriorate."
Ideally, the park would include a visitors center, picnic tables, restrooms and aerial view facilities, Begaye said. Funding also would go toward road improvements. Other attractions include maintained trails, guided tours and designated areas for bird watching or photography.
The estimated price tag for the park is $3 million, Simon said. The cost goes up $125,000 per year if the Nation opts for state employees to help staff the park.
The Navajo Parks and Recreation Department already is pushing for preservation and partnership, Manager Martin Begaye said.
"The community wants to see it as at least a state park because of the money it would bring to the community," he said.
Some residents are even calling for a national monument, Martin Begaye said. The feasibility study revealed that communities with national parks bring in between $1.6 and $40 million annually.
"When you say tribal park, that sounds like it's for tribal members," he said. "If you say national park, a lot more visitors would come to the area."
The proposed park is not without opposition.
Development of the area would encroach on grazing lands, Ray Begaye said. A park also would increase traffic to roads already in need of repair.
Further opposition comes from surrounding chapters who contend the pinnacle does not lie within the Shiprock Chapter's boundaries. The Sanostee, Red Valley and Gadii'ahi chapters all claim some ownership of the rock.
"What we're doing is grappling with the boundary lines," Ray Begaye said. "Legally, we still have some questions and we have a way to go."
The Indian Affairs Committee hopes to hear a full feasibility report by the end of November, leaving time to draft legislation before January.
http://www.daily-times.com/news/ci_10415328
09/09/2008
SHIPROCK — Legends abound among Navajo people about their sacred Shiprock pinnacle.
Called Tse' Bit' Ai in the Diné language, the 1,800-foot peak is at the core of Navajo culture, and the rock soon may be the focus of a state park.
"It's no surprise to Navajo people that Shiprock is a tremendously significant resource," said David Simon, director of New Mexico State Parks, to state Indian Affairs Committee on Monday. The committee, an interim legislative council, met in Shiprock to hear an update of the proposed state park and tour the area surrounding the rock.
"It meets all the criteria to be designated as a state park," Simon said of the site. "The pinnacle is an extremely important cultural site. It is very much worthy of our respect and protection."
Monday's meeting came six months after the 2008 legislative session ended. During the session, Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, introduced a bill calling for a feasibility study on the proposed park. Begaye sits on the Indian Affairs Committee.
Simon presented the results of the $15,000 study Monday, along with recommendations for protecting and preserving the rock. The study will be released to the public this week, he said, and New Mexico State Parks will accept public comments for 60 days.
The state's recommendation is for the Navajo Nation to establish a park while partnering with the state for design, development and management assistance. The park would be listed alongside other state parks in tourism packets, Simon said. It would join the ranks of other Navajo-owned parks like Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley.
It also would be part of the Grand Circle of Parks, Simon said. Thirteen state, tribal and national parks are located within 150 miles of Shiprock and draw an annual visitation of more than 130,000 people.
Simon called the pinnacle "one of the most important features in the country," but said development may be complex.
"There are unique issues to be resolved because it's on tribal lands," he said. "All of them can be resolved, but they will have to be addressed through the legislature's direction and a joint agreement with the Navajo Nation."
A bill calling for a state and tribal agreement in the creation and maintenance of the park may appear on the legislative agenda as early as January, Begaye said.
"One of the sad things about the Shiprock pinnacle is that there's no real limits to what people can do," he said. "We have accidents out here and parties with alcohol. If we made this into a park, we would have a sense of belonging, of ownership, of business development. Without a strong plan, this area will deteriorate."
Ideally, the park would include a visitors center, picnic tables, restrooms and aerial view facilities, Begaye said. Funding also would go toward road improvements. Other attractions include maintained trails, guided tours and designated areas for bird watching or photography.
The estimated price tag for the park is $3 million, Simon said. The cost goes up $125,000 per year if the Nation opts for state employees to help staff the park.
The Navajo Parks and Recreation Department already is pushing for preservation and partnership, Manager Martin Begaye said.
"The community wants to see it as at least a state park because of the money it would bring to the community," he said.
Some residents are even calling for a national monument, Martin Begaye said. The feasibility study revealed that communities with national parks bring in between $1.6 and $40 million annually.
"When you say tribal park, that sounds like it's for tribal members," he said. "If you say national park, a lot more visitors would come to the area."
The proposed park is not without opposition.
Development of the area would encroach on grazing lands, Ray Begaye said. A park also would increase traffic to roads already in need of repair.
Further opposition comes from surrounding chapters who contend the pinnacle does not lie within the Shiprock Chapter's boundaries. The Sanostee, Red Valley and Gadii'ahi chapters all claim some ownership of the rock.
"What we're doing is grappling with the boundary lines," Ray Begaye said. "Legally, we still have some questions and we have a way to go."
The Indian Affairs Committee hopes to hear a full feasibility report by the end of November, leaving time to draft legislation before January.
http://www.daily-times.com/news/ci_10415328
Monday, September 8, 2008
Native Americans ‘in a constant state of mourning’
For more info and details about the monthly protests of Bolsa Chica, contact their coordinator Paul Moreno at 949-228-7262 or email bigrockcreek@msn.com.
If you are in the area of Huntington Beach, Calif. PLEASE support these folks and attend their protest walks! These folks are working very hard to bring attention to this issue, it's important to support their efforts for the cause!
Develop Your Mind Not Sacred Sites!
In peace & solidarity,
Tamra Brennan
Founder/Director
Protect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nation
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com
"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"
Native Americans ‘in a constant state of mourning’
Brightwater protest on Brightwater Drive.
By MICHÈLE MARR
Updated: Tuesday, September 2, 2008 5:20 PM PDT
There are 3 comment(s)
On the first Saturday of this month Susana Salas walked out to what once was a large prehistoric village and its cemetery near Warner Avenue and Bolsa Chica Street. It was her first visit to the place since luxury homes with views of the Pacific coast and Huntington Beach wetlands were built atop it.
She felt anxious, she said, her voice beginning to catch. This had been the home, then the resting place, of her ancestors; three decades of trying hadn’t prevented them from being disturbed.
The story isn’t a new one or even exceptional except for the rare artifacts found at the site known as ORA-83. Ed Mountford, chief executive of Hearthside Homes, which is building the 356-home gated community known as Brightwater, has said that nearly all of Orange County’s most coveted coastal dwelling places were once home to indigenous California Indians.
Which together with the unique discoveries at this site might seem like the best reason of all to preserve rather than build on it. Few, if any, like it are left.
An 8,000-year-old village, it once encompassed 17 acres on the Bolsa Chica Mesa. Along with 174 human remains and tens of thousands of artifacts, more than 1,000 stone carvings known as cogged stones have been found there.
The site is thought to have been a manufacturing and distribution center for the stones, part of a complex, interactive ritual associated with a now unknown religion. Only a small number of other cogged stones, which resemble cogged wheels, have been found at a 9,000-year-old indigenous site on the northern coast of Chile.
The idea that the stones have an archaeoastronomical, ceremonial and ritual significance — along the lines of the much larger stones found at Stonehenge — became a crippling point of contention in attempts to win ORA-83 a place on the National Register of Historic Places. Several of the staff on the California Department of Parks and Recreation State Historical Resources Commission just wouldn’t have it.
Never mind that Tom Hoskinson, an aerospace engineer with expertise in Native American sky watching practices, calendars and mathematics, supported the notion. Never mind that Commissioner Carol L. Novey pointed out that as Westerners, commission staff might “simply not understand the ideas put forth in the nomination.”
Minutes from a 2004 meeting considering the matter reads more like a transcript from a wiretap of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. While the commission deemed preservation of the site “paramount,” it nit-picked the reasons why — especially the archaeoastronomical reasons.
Yet along with its being a sacred burial ground, this spiritual significance may have been one of the most important reasons to leave ORA-83 intact. For, aside from the loss of life in earlier generations, it’s the Native American spirituality, so tied to the land, that has suffered the greatest blow by urbanization.
“Native American religion [when it] comes up,” Cindi Alvitre wrote in an e-mail, “is perceived as a novelty or curiosity.” Which may explain why the SHRC found the spiritual aspects of the cogged stones at ORA-83 so disconcerting.
Alvitre is descended from the Gabrieleno and Tongva. She is moompetam, a salt-water clan. The land of her tribe was the same land that is now Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Channel Islands.
With a bachelor’s in anthropology and a master’s in history, she is a part-time lecturer in the department of American Indian Studies at Cal State Long Beach. She is completing her doctoral dissertation at UCLA.
Her thesis is concerned with recovery from cultural and historical trauma among Indian tribes in Southern California.
“We are in a constant state of mourning,” Alvitre says.
Susana Salas, a Yaqui, whom I met at a protest of the Brightwater development, reflects this point as well.
“We live our lives trying to protect the graves of our ancestors from destruction,” Alvitre says, adding that they rarely succeed. “We are constantly reburying our dead.”
She asked if readers of this column could imagine their loved ones pulled from their graves “with all the prayers, tears, offerings [and] annual commemorations” so a developer could put up a tract of multimillion dollar homes. It’s a question I can’t answer.
I wonder how many of us would say, in the name of profit or progress, “Sure. Fine. Bury them somewhere else.” After all, as a society, we are cremating more — often scattering ashes to the wind — to save money and to save ourselves the traditional funerary spectacle of death.
At Brightwater, in the face of accusations that ancestral remains have not been dealt with properly, California Indians are again protesting the assault on their culture and spirituality. They plan to gather at Bolsa Chica Street and Warner Avenue at 10 a.m. each first Saturday of the month.
When the California Coastal Commission convenes on Oct. 15, 16 and 17, they will ask it to revoke Hearthside Homes’ permit to build on ORA-83, based on the site’s cultural and sacred significance. Alvitre knows better than to hold her breath.
She says commemorative plaques to the tribes that once occupied the land are the developers’ idea of compromise. “Fixed obituaries … badges of contemporary conquest,” she calls them.
With the reburial of the dead and limited access to the land for sacred ceremonies, “our spiritual way of life has been impacted by this development in the most extreme way humanly possible,” Alvitre says.
She thinks the developer should share the land it now holds title to. It should give a portion of the land back to the tribes.
To view a slideshow of a recent protest, click here.
GET INVOLVED
Attend the California Coastal Commission revocation hearing, October 15-17, time and place TBA. For updates, go to www.bolsachicalandtrust.org. Voice your concerns to the following:
Native American Heritage Commission
Mr. Larry Myers, Executive Secretary, NAHC915, Capitol Mall, Room 364, Sacramento, CA 95814; E-mail lm_nahc@pacbell.net
California Coastal Commission
Mrs. Teresa Henry, C.C.C., 200 Oceangate, 10th floor, Long Beach, CA 90802-4416; E-mail thenry@coastal.ca.gov
If you are in the area of Huntington Beach, Calif. PLEASE support these folks and attend their protest walks! These folks are working very hard to bring attention to this issue, it's important to support their efforts for the cause!
Develop Your Mind Not Sacred Sites!
In peace & solidarity,
Tamra Brennan
Founder/Director
Protect Sacred Sites Indigenous People, One Nation
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com
"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"
Native Americans ‘in a constant state of mourning’
Brightwater protest on Brightwater Drive.
By MICHÈLE MARR
Updated: Tuesday, September 2, 2008 5:20 PM PDT
There are 3 comment(s)
On the first Saturday of this month Susana Salas walked out to what once was a large prehistoric village and its cemetery near Warner Avenue and Bolsa Chica Street. It was her first visit to the place since luxury homes with views of the Pacific coast and Huntington Beach wetlands were built atop it.
She felt anxious, she said, her voice beginning to catch. This had been the home, then the resting place, of her ancestors; three decades of trying hadn’t prevented them from being disturbed.
The story isn’t a new one or even exceptional except for the rare artifacts found at the site known as ORA-83. Ed Mountford, chief executive of Hearthside Homes, which is building the 356-home gated community known as Brightwater, has said that nearly all of Orange County’s most coveted coastal dwelling places were once home to indigenous California Indians.
Which together with the unique discoveries at this site might seem like the best reason of all to preserve rather than build on it. Few, if any, like it are left.
An 8,000-year-old village, it once encompassed 17 acres on the Bolsa Chica Mesa. Along with 174 human remains and tens of thousands of artifacts, more than 1,000 stone carvings known as cogged stones have been found there.
The site is thought to have been a manufacturing and distribution center for the stones, part of a complex, interactive ritual associated with a now unknown religion. Only a small number of other cogged stones, which resemble cogged wheels, have been found at a 9,000-year-old indigenous site on the northern coast of Chile.
The idea that the stones have an archaeoastronomical, ceremonial and ritual significance — along the lines of the much larger stones found at Stonehenge — became a crippling point of contention in attempts to win ORA-83 a place on the National Register of Historic Places. Several of the staff on the California Department of Parks and Recreation State Historical Resources Commission just wouldn’t have it.
Never mind that Tom Hoskinson, an aerospace engineer with expertise in Native American sky watching practices, calendars and mathematics, supported the notion. Never mind that Commissioner Carol L. Novey pointed out that as Westerners, commission staff might “simply not understand the ideas put forth in the nomination.”
Minutes from a 2004 meeting considering the matter reads more like a transcript from a wiretap of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. While the commission deemed preservation of the site “paramount,” it nit-picked the reasons why — especially the archaeoastronomical reasons.
Yet along with its being a sacred burial ground, this spiritual significance may have been one of the most important reasons to leave ORA-83 intact. For, aside from the loss of life in earlier generations, it’s the Native American spirituality, so tied to the land, that has suffered the greatest blow by urbanization.
“Native American religion [when it] comes up,” Cindi Alvitre wrote in an e-mail, “is perceived as a novelty or curiosity.” Which may explain why the SHRC found the spiritual aspects of the cogged stones at ORA-83 so disconcerting.
Alvitre is descended from the Gabrieleno and Tongva. She is moompetam, a salt-water clan. The land of her tribe was the same land that is now Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Channel Islands.
With a bachelor’s in anthropology and a master’s in history, she is a part-time lecturer in the department of American Indian Studies at Cal State Long Beach. She is completing her doctoral dissertation at UCLA.
Her thesis is concerned with recovery from cultural and historical trauma among Indian tribes in Southern California.
“We are in a constant state of mourning,” Alvitre says.
Susana Salas, a Yaqui, whom I met at a protest of the Brightwater development, reflects this point as well.
“We live our lives trying to protect the graves of our ancestors from destruction,” Alvitre says, adding that they rarely succeed. “We are constantly reburying our dead.”
She asked if readers of this column could imagine their loved ones pulled from their graves “with all the prayers, tears, offerings [and] annual commemorations” so a developer could put up a tract of multimillion dollar homes. It’s a question I can’t answer.
I wonder how many of us would say, in the name of profit or progress, “Sure. Fine. Bury them somewhere else.” After all, as a society, we are cremating more — often scattering ashes to the wind — to save money and to save ourselves the traditional funerary spectacle of death.
At Brightwater, in the face of accusations that ancestral remains have not been dealt with properly, California Indians are again protesting the assault on their culture and spirituality. They plan to gather at Bolsa Chica Street and Warner Avenue at 10 a.m. each first Saturday of the month.
When the California Coastal Commission convenes on Oct. 15, 16 and 17, they will ask it to revoke Hearthside Homes’ permit to build on ORA-83, based on the site’s cultural and sacred significance. Alvitre knows better than to hold her breath.
She says commemorative plaques to the tribes that once occupied the land are the developers’ idea of compromise. “Fixed obituaries … badges of contemporary conquest,” she calls them.
With the reburial of the dead and limited access to the land for sacred ceremonies, “our spiritual way of life has been impacted by this development in the most extreme way humanly possible,” Alvitre says.
She thinks the developer should share the land it now holds title to. It should give a portion of the land back to the tribes.
To view a slideshow of a recent protest, click here.
GET INVOLVED
Attend the California Coastal Commission revocation hearing, October 15-17, time and place TBA. For updates, go to www.bolsachicalandtrust.org. Voice your concerns to the following:
Native American Heritage Commission
Mr. Larry Myers, Executive Secretary, NAHC915, Capitol Mall, Room 364, Sacramento, CA 95814; E-mail lm_nahc@pacbell.net
California Coastal Commission
Mrs. Teresa Henry, C.C.C., 200 Oceangate, 10th floor, Long Beach, CA 90802-4416; E-mail thenry@coastal.ca.gov
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