Oglala work to protect drinking water against uranium contamination

I’m sharing a link to a document related to environmental justice. Here’s an excerpt from “Crying Earth Rise Up! Oglala Lakota People and Uranium Mining,” edited by Debra White Plume:

The drinking water on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was acknowledged as unfit for human consumption by the United States government when they funded the Rural Water Project in the late 1980’s. This project’s purpose is to provide drinking water to our people on the Pine Ridge, water from the Missouri River that will be delivered through a pipeline. So far, pipeline has been laid across hundreds of miles and millions of dollars have been spent, and still no one on Pine Ridge has received one drop of Missouri River water. Endangered water supplies do not need more contamination coming in from new uranium mines. Do the contaminants in the drinking water on Pine Ridge come from the old abandoned uranium mines and their waste piles in the Edgemont area? From the uranium mines in Wyoming and Nebraska? From minerals naturally occurring? From the Badlands bombing range? Maybe the answer is “yes” to all questions. All drinking water tests and studies conducted during the past 30 years reveal contaminants in the water. The most recent test results were received the day this paper went to print, showing illegal levels of radioactive elements in the drinking water, water from wells in the Arikaree Aquifer. From the Lakota spiritual point of view, water is our relative, we are obligated to protect our relative. All of Creation is our relative. Our future generations will be impacted by the effects of uranium mining, we are obligated to protect them, our coming generations, our relatives, from the impacts of uranium mining. Protection of our coming generations and of water includes stopping any new contaminants from entering our drinking water and our human bodies. That is the point where this work of “Crying Earth Rise Up” begins, to challenge the corporate uranium mines from renewing their existing mining permits, to challenge the corporations in the process they’ve begun to attain new permits. There are plans for new mines in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota. This publication also includes information about the corporations intent to start new uranium mines in the Heart of Everything That Is, the sacred He Sapa (Black Hills). This publication looks at the global view on water, and environmental justice, at what laws governmental entities on Pine Ridge are creating, at what other native ngo’s and individuals are doing to protect water, earth, air, land, people, all of Creation. This publication is developed to provide an overview of the impacts our peoples/nations are facing, what can be done in the “paper warpath”, what direct actions are being implemented. We have included links to provide the opportunity for further research. This publication is intended to provide the awareness also that there is solidarity among indigenous peoples everywhere. After all, we all share one Mother, our sacred Mother Earth.

Jodi Rave