CHARMAINE WHITE FACE

 

Feb. 4th 2006

John LeKay: Can you please tell me about this National Sacrifice Area, where and what this is, and where this label came from?

Charmaine White Face: The idea that our 1868 Treaty Territory is a National Sacrifice Area, sacrificed to uranium and nuclear radiation, came from an essay that was written by Winona LaDuke and Ward Churchill.  The essay can be found in a book titled, The State of Native America,  Genocide, Colonization, and Resistance  edited by M. Annette Jaimes, Race and Resistance Series, South End Press, Boston Massachusetts, 1992.  The essay appears as Chapter VIII, Native North America, The Political Economy of Radioactive Colonialism.

 

My cousin, Garvard Good Plume, was given this book by a friend, and had it laying around for a while.  Finally he started reading it and told me about this chapter.  We were just beginning to work on the abandoned uranium mines in the northwestern corner of South Dakota, so we were looking for any information we could get our hands on about uranium mining in our Treaty territory.

 

This is how it has always happened with our work in Defenders of the Black Hills.  I guess because we do everything with prayers and spirituality.  The information we need just seems to pop up.  Another example was a young man who was visiting and I was late getting back to the office from lunch.  He went around the corner and there was a bookstore.  He went in and was browsing and found a book about the minerals in the southern Black Hills.  What was most interesting were the maps showing the uranium and the abandoned uranium mines in that area.  He bought the book very cheaply and brought it back.  It is a treasure of information. 

 

The National Sacrifice Area just happens to be the entire 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Territory.  Coincidence, or planned genocide?  This is the last piece of land that my great-great grandparents knew could sustain us as the nation the Creator made us to be.  We are the buffalo people, we live with the buffalo on the grasslands surrounding the sacred Black Hills.  This last land area, if we were left alone like the treaty promised, would have sustained us and the buffalo, and all the other natural environment of this area to today.  This area includes all of western South Dakota and parts of Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota.  The actual land boundaries are listed in the 1868 Treaty.

 

When you compare our aboriginal territory which covered 14 states and parts of 3 Canadian provinces, then you know that by the time our great-great grandparents negotiated this final piece of area, we were on the brink of extinction.  We almost were totally extinct by 1900. The buffalo had all been decimated, and starvation and illnesses caused almost our complete extinction.  This is genocide.

 

Again, by declaring our last territory to be sacrificed to the ravages of nuclear radiation, then the American government, including it's people ("of the people, for the people, by the people") are committing genocide on us again.  This might be a little slower genocide, but when the water, air, land, animals, birds, and aquifers are all polluted with radiation, and we have no where else we can go, then we will surely become extinct from nuclear radiation.  Unfortunately, so will they.  Nuclear radiation knows no bounds...nor racial affiliation.

 

They have already drilled 7,000 exploratory wells in the Black Hills for In Situ Leach mining of uranium, and are planning more.  There are already over 1,000 abandoned open-pit uranium mines in this region, and hundreds of abandoned Intercontinental Ballistic Missile silos and radar stations that were powered by small nuclear power plants.  What happened to the waste they generated starting 50 years ago?  Above ground, the abandoned open-pit mines pollute the surface water every time it rains or snows.  The missile silos and radar stations pollute the shallower aquifers that are usually used by ranchers and farmers.  The radioactive dust from all of these disturbances blows on grasses and crops, and also gets into surface water in lakes and ponds, and is ingested by domestic and wild animals.  Yet this region sells its cattle and crops to the general public.  Coal laced with uranium from this region is also shipped to East Coast power plants.

 

Unless the Congress really takes a closer look at the situation here, in the middle of the United States, the ramifications from this "sacrifice area" are going to spread to the rest of the country.  Dust and water do not stay in one place.  Already we are picking up readings of increased uranium and radionuclides in the Missouri River.  The states down stream should be checking their water from the Missouri River for uranium and radionulcides.  In many places, such as eastern South Dakota, the water is piped away from the Missouri River for drinking and watering crops.  Without testing all the water, how will anyone know if the water is contaminated with nuclear radiation? 

JL:You mentioned they have already drilled 7,000 exploratory wells in the Black Hills for In Situ Leach mining of uranium. What is going on today as far as mining for uranium is concerned?

CWF: There is a difference in the way uranium is mined.  In this upper midwest region, in the past starting in the late 1950s, large open pit mines were dug all over in South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.  When the price of uranium dropped in the early 1970s, these open pit mines were abandoned leaving radioactive dust and radioactive runoff water.  From what I understand, only North Dakota cleaned up their open pit mines, but we would still like to check to make sure.  Our skepticism arises from the lack of public awareness about all of these and all of the state and federal agencies responsible for these and the public welfare did nothing.  We would like to make sure the open pit mines in North Dakota were truly reclaimed including taking a detector to these places and if they are still radioactive, checking to see if warning signs are in place.

 

We still don't know about the abandoned mines in Montana and Wyoming since there are many and we are just a few volunteers.  The distances these cover is also very large so it would take many days of driving to monitor these.  However, we do know the almost 100 open pit uranium mines in South Dakota have not been reclaimed, and only one has been looked at for reclamation. We found only one warning sign on one mine and none on the others telling the general public these areas were radioactive.

 

As In Situ Leach mining appears not to harm the environment as much as open pit mines do, they are the new kinds of mines that are coming into Wyoming and South Dakota.  There is no process in South Dakota for granting exploration permits for In Situ Leach mines.  So the state uses the general exploratory mine permit procedure which is lacking many safeguards for the aquifers as it only requires the Board of Minerals and the Environment to approve a  permit, not the Board of Water Quality.  Powertech (USA) Inc. bought the leases from another mining company which had previously drilled 7,000 exploratory holes for uranium in the Black Hills.  They were recently awarded a permit to drill 155 more exploratory wells. 

 We are very concerned as the process itself could begin pollution of the aquifers. A long pipe is inserted into the ground and a solution is put in to dissolve the uranium.  It also dissolves many other minerals.  Then it is put back down into the aquifer.  Common sense shows that the aquifers will be polluted even if it is a few exploratory holes, but more than 7,000 is devastation.

 

 We are also very upset as there are no safeguards for burial sites, sacred places, or archeological sites. In the exploratory process, large equipment is brought in driving over the land if there are no roads available.  In most of these places, there are no roads other than a few tracks in the dirt. Many Indigenous nations from the North American continent for thousands and thousands of years came to the sacred Black Hills to pray, bury their special loved ones, gather medicines, and get healing in the springs. How many of these places were destroyed in drilling the initial 7,000 exploratory holes?  But the state will do nothing to protect these unique and irreplaceable sites, nor do they require the mining companies to take any precautions against harming burial, sacred, or archeological sites.  How many more will be harmed with the drilling of 155 more holes? 

 

There is a big push on in Wyoming to do In Situ Leach uranium mining also.  We have looked at the numbers from the press releases by the mining companies and they are outrageous.  There is so much that we don't have time to check out every one or attend hearings, if there are any, or submit comments.  The state governments are also in favor of the uranium mining companies so it is very difficult for the ordinary person to say or do anything. Other than the money that comes in, and it's not that much to state coffers, we keep wondering what is influencing the state employees and legislators to help the mining companies since it is at the long term health of human beings and the environment.

JL: Do you know who these corporations are and who is connected to these mining corporations?  Politically or other wise? 

 

CWF: If you use a search engine on the internet and go to uranium South Dakota, or uranium Wyoming, there are many sites to find out which mining compnaies and who is working in them. In South Dakota and Wyomining, three of the current ones are Energy Metals, Tournigan, and Powertech. www.powertechuranium.com/s/Home.asp

Since Powertech is the one that we were up against at a state hearing, we researched them and know that of their top management personnel one person formerly worked for George Bush, another for the EPA, and some others worked for other large uranium corporations that caused major devastation to the aquifers in the Southwest and then left.  There is big money behind these, and evidently big government too.  The other interesting thing about mining companies that come into this area is that they are usually a Canadian company with American employees and an American address as well.  Then when things go wrong, they slip easily across the border back to Canada.
 

JL. How has this affected the people that live near there in terms of cancer, death, birth deformities etc?
 

CWF: There are a number of health effects primarily in western South Dakota where these mines are located. However, the only health study that was done by the state Health Department said that they were not caused by uranium.  It was an unfortunate statement for the state since they had nothing to back up their statement.  There needs to be more in-depth, independent studies completed as we have information that says that low-levels of radiation also cause health risks.  We know this is especially true for the unborn.  There need to be studies of the numbers of miscarriages, still births, birth defects, and what kinds of birth defects.  As four large reservations are also in western South Dakota, a comprehensive health study asking for these specific kinds of data needs to be completed.  Since the Indian Health Service was aware of the hazards of radiation in western South Dakota for the past forty years, and also did nothing to remedy the situation, we do not trust any information they might provide. 

JL;. Do you have statistics of cancer rates, mortality rates of people that live on Pine ridge etc?

CWF: As we are all volunteers operating primarily on donations, we do not have the personnel to gather this specific information.  It would need to cover all the reservations in western South Dakota:  Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Lower Brule, Crow Creek, Rosebud, Pine Ridge, and include also the Yankton Sioux Tribe.  We are very concerned as the water sources are polluted with uranium and radionuclides. We don't know for how long?  We only have a few tests showing the pollution and we need to gather more, but the tests we have show us the need for more.
 
JL:. Have you seen an increase in birth deformities and spontaneous abortions?

CW:  Yes, on all the reservations.  I can't speak for the rest of western South Dakota, but on the reservations, there has been increasing concern due to the need for special institutions to handle the needs of birth deformities. 

JL; . When you said that the radioactive dust from all of these disturbances blows on grasses and crops, and also gets into surface water in lakes and ponds, and is ingested by domestic and wild animals.  Yet this region sells its cattle and crops to the general public.  Coal laced with uranium from this region is also shipped to East Coast power plants.
 
Do you know how much of the beef gets sold to other states beside South Dakota?

CWF: The wind blows into South Dakota from the North, Northwest, and West.  In all of those directions are either coal fired power plants or abandoned open pit uranium mines. This part of the continent is dry.  The wind blows almost daily picking up dust, and microscopic particles of dust.  These all blow over the state which is primarily agricultural: ranching for beef and buffalo, or farming for wheat, corn, sunflowers, and other grains primarily.

 

The radioactive dust settles on the grasses and crops and is eaten by animals, birds, and insects: domestic and wild.  The radiation is soaked in by the plants and settles in the organs and muscles of the animals and birds. 

radiation landing on food sources has already been proven by the radioactive fallout from the above ground testing that was done in the 1950s and 60s in Nevada.  That fallout spread across many parts of the country including Wyoming and South Dakota. The National Cancer Institute has information about that situation and warns people about the signs of thyroid cancer. 

 

So this idea of radioactive dust is not new.  What is new is that we are trying to increase the public's awareness of this situation.  In South Dakota, particularly western South Dakota, we have been hit twice: once by the above ground detonations, and for the past forty years by the dust from all of these abandoned uranium mines and prospects.  We are estimating that there are probably more than one thousand abandoned uranium mines and prospects in this region.  Our estimates come from a map provided by the US Forest Service.  Since some of these mines were built on 'private property' then there is no accurate count of how many there really are. 

 

This entire region geologically contains uranium.  I mentioned coal fired power plants because North Dakota is loaded with these and the smoke and pollution is blown down into South Dakota and then points south and east.  No one tests the coal for uranium, although the northwest corner of South Dakota was famous for the uranium being in the coal.  In the processing, the coal was just burned off and left the uranium.  How much of the coal that is being burned in North Dakota contains uranium and other radioactive elements?

 

But the more important coal, that should be of importance to the people in the eastern part of the US is the coal that comes out of Wyoming and is shipped to power plants in Ohio and New York.  That coal is laced with uranium and how much radioactive pollution is coming out of those smoke stacks?  How many power companies test their smoke, or their coal, for radiation?

 

We haven't checked to see how much beef gets sold out of South Dakota, or Wyoming, but it is the majority of what is produced since both of these states are sparsely populated.  It should not be too hard to find the information, we just don't have the staff to do it at this time.

JL:. Do you know if this mining of uranium is for the military to use in depleted weapons in Iraq, or for nuclear power plants?

 

CWF: Anytime anyone says they only use plutonium for nuclear weapons, we must remember that plutonium comes from uranium first.

JL: . What have the local politicians done about this? 

CWF: The local politicians are in favor of the uranium companies.
 
JL: . Has the corporate media gone near this story and if not, why do you think that is? 

 

CWF: Out here in South Dakota and Wyoming, the outback of the US, the corporate media only covers something if it involves Mount Rushmore, or violence with Indians. This story about uranium mining in the outback is not important to the rest of the world since the population being immediately exposed is less than 1 million people.  Unfortunately, not covering this story is causing the rest of the country to be in the dark about this silent, deadly danger which is continuing to spread.  We call it "America's Secret Chernobyl". I'm sure if only the people living in Chernobyl had been affected by the nuclear accident, then the rest of the world probably would not have known.  However, the cloud dramatically spread all across Europe and it was impossible for the media not to cover it.  This cloud that is spreading from the Upper Midwest, from "America's Secret Chernobyl" has not been as dramatic, but has been slowly, steadily spreading across the country and the world through the foodstuffs that are sent from here.
 
JL: . Do you believe this is a form of slow genocide?

 

CWF: For the Tetuwan* people, yes.  We had many treaties with the United States, Great Britain, and France.  The last treaty we had was the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 with the United States.  The territory delineated in that treaty for our "absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" is the same territory that is currently being inundated with coal and uranium mines.  Our treaty was initially violated by the USA to mine for gold in the sacred Black Hills. An essay written by Winona LaDuke and Professor Ward Churchill states that in 1972, President Richard Nixon declared this part of the country to be a National Sacrifice Area to uranium development.  Is it ironic that this includes all of our 1868 Treaty Territory, or was it planned that way as we have been approaching the international arena for the past 25 years for resolution of the Treaty violations?  Is this planned genocide so the USA will no longer have to remember they signed and ratified a treaty with us?  Is this planned genocide so the USA will no longer feel guilty for violating their own Constitution? 

 

The Great Sioux Nation once covered 14 states and parts of 3 Canadian provinces. If this genocide is allowed to continue, we will disappear as a unique nation, a unique population of human beings with a unique culture and language.  We can't move anyplace else.  We cannot be displaced any where else.  This is the last remnant of our homeland.  

 
*Tetuwan refers to the people of the Great Sioux Nation who speak the Lakota language.  It is a common mistake to call the Tetuwan by the language they speak which is Lakota.  The Great Sioux Nation included six other sub-nations besides the Tetuwan, most of which almost   disappeared.