Navajo Nation 'Back Peddling' Allowing Uranium Transport, Dumping on Utes

The Navajo Nation is 'Back Peddling' by Allowing Uranium Transport through Dine' Communities and More Dumping on Utes

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Feb. 10, 2025

TUBA CITY -- Leona Morgan, Dine' co-founder of Haul No!, said the Navajo Nation is now "back peddling" by allowing radioactive uranium waste to be transported through Dine' communities. This radioactive transport from the Grand Canyon means even more deadly waste for another Native community -- the White Mesa Ute community in Utah.

Speaking at a community forum in Tuba City on Saturday, Leona warned of the risks. Energy Transfer plans to begin hauling radioactive uranium ore through Navajo communities -- Cameron, Tuba City, Kayenta and Mexican Water on the Navajo Nation in Arizona -- on Feb. 12, with six to ten trucks a day passing by Dine' homes.

Now, with little or no information along the haul route, the Navajo government expects the Dine' Chapters along the route to each have an emergency preparedness plan. Leona asked if the Dine' communities are aware of this and whether the Navajo Chapters are certified to deal with radioactive emergencies.

"Who are their First Responders?"

"We were not included in that agreement," Leona said of the agreement between the Navajo Nation and Energy Fuels.

"There was no free, prior and informed consent," Leona said, quoting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"The people in the communities were not consulted."

"How can they start transporting on February 12th, when there aren't even any checkpoints? We don't even have an air monitoring system," Leona said of the lack of preparation for radioactive transport and radioactive emergencies on the Navajo Nation.

Leona urged communities to organize, and pointed out that Navajo Chapters can have their own checkpoints.

"We need to push our government to do what we want -- not what the federal government wants."

"It's going to get worse because they think nuclear is clean energy," Leona said of the push for so-called "alternative energy."

The Navajo Nation's agreement with Energy Fuels means more dangerous radioactive dumping in the White Mesa Ute community. In the agreement, Energy Fuels states it will transport 10,000 tons of uranium-bearing cleanup materials from abandoned uranium mines within the Navajo Nation to the mill site in the White Mesa Ute community in Utah.

The deadly transport from the Pinyon Plain uranium mine on Havasupai ancestral land in the Grand Canyon is already endangering Havasupais' aquifer and water supply and spewing radioactive dust on their medicine plants.

The deadly haul route and the threat of radioactive spills puts at risk Havasupai, Paiute, Hualapai, Dine', Hopi and Ute, all living on their ancestral lands in what is known as the Grand Canyon and Four Corners region.

Read more at Censored News:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/02/tuba-city-community-forum-and-walk-shut.html

Navajo Agreement for Uranium Transport Dishonors Legacy of Klee Benally

Klee Benally, co-founder of Haul No! will be honored with a Nuclear Free Award in New York in March, which will be accepted by his mother Berta Benally. The Navajo Nation dishonored Klee's legacy by agreeing to the radioactive transport through the Navajo Nation, which Klee fought against during the last years of his life.

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/02/navajo-nation-dishonors-legacy-of-klee.html