Uranium in America
Even though the employment of mining creates an income, the American Government is taking advantage of the Navajo people because uranium mining is creating health problems and has a negative impact on environmental resources. Before mining, many Navajo men transit by horse to far place for work. Yet, many natives mined even though they knew so little about uranium. If they had known the consequences of mining uranium, the Navajos would not have done so. Even to this day, the downwind of uranium mining is affecting the Navajo Nation.
Poverty had come to the Navajo people by the American government through burning down the agrarian society, removable from the land, and reduction in livestock. "This pressure came to a head in 1864, when the United States government sent Col. Kit Carson to round up and force the Navajo from their traditional lands" (Kenney, 2012 ). Later, a treaty was given to return back to our land in exchange for territory.
English: A Navajo Police Chevrolet Tahoe.
English: Navajo Nation Council Chambers, Window Ro...
Navajo National MonumentThe land became to known to "contained much of the mineral wealth of the country" (Kenney, 2012). In the 1950s, "The nuclear industry dug the world's largest underground or deep uranium mine, sited by Mount Taylor" (Brugge, Benally, & Lewis, 2006); which is also known as a south secreted mountain to the Navajos. This leading "Mining throughout the U.S. Employed over 10,000 miners, of which approximately 3,000 were Navajos" (Panikkar & Brugge, 2007). "Work became available right near home, and young Navajo men grabbed the jobs in the uranium mines" (Brugge, Benally, & Lewis, 2006)
The Navajo People did not have much knowledge about the mineral uranium. Although the Navajo culture is to live in harmony, "The people that operated these mines didn't tell the Navajo people of the danger that was associated with uranium mining" (Brugge,