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Indigenous leaders and activists in Arizona held protests this weekend over what they say are illegal shipments of uranium across the Navajo Nation. The tribe has outlawed uranium transport through its lands because of decades of disease and contamination. The company doing the shipping says it has done nothing wrong. Member station KNAU's Ryan Heinsius reports.
RYAN HEINSIUS, BYLINE: Dozens of demonstrators gathered in nearly triple-digit heat in the reservation town of Cameron, just east of Grand Canyon National Park.
CORA MAXX-PHILLIPS: Haul no - because our people have suffered from a poisonous and painful legacy.
HEINSIUS: That's Cora Maxx-Phillips, a commissioner with the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission.
MAXX-PHILLIPS: We are in the sacrifice zone, my dear brothers and sisters, and that is the reason why we are here today. We will not be silenced.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Singing in non-English language).
HEINSIUS: The protesters walked onto Highway 89 and blocked traffic. Trucks used that road days earlier to haul uranium ore from a mine near the Grand Canyon to a mill in southern Utah.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRUCK HONKING)
HEINSIUS: Navajo President Buu Nygren said that violates a law the tribe passed in 2012 banning ore shipments.
BUU NYGREN: We just want people to respect us, honor our laws.
HEINSIUS: Cold War-era uranium mining has been blamed for cancers and myriad other public health effects on the Navajo Nation and left more than 500 abandoned mines, many of which are right around Cameron.
NYGREN: When it comes to uranium, people need to understand it's a humanitarian issue that we face here on Navajo because it's killed thousands of our people. And they need to recognize that.
HEINSIUS: Nygren says the company that owns the mine, Energy Fuels, sent the uranium shipments without notifying the tribe. But in a statement, the company said it's within its legal rights to haul the ore on U.S. highways and state routes, which are not under Navajo jurisdiction, and it's taken steps to protect public health.
JASMINE BLACKWATER-NYGREN: I think it's touched almost every Navajo family - the legacy of uranium.
HEINSIUS: Navajo first lady and former Arizona legislator Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren helped organize the protest in Cameron. She said two of her grandparents have died from uranium exposure, including her grandfather, a former uranium miner.
BLACKWATER-NYGREN: It's very traumatic for me, for my family. And I just think that our Navajo people as a whole, we feel that hurt. Because it's not just individuals, it's collectively we feel this.
HEINSIUS: Energy Fuels says the ore it mines has low levels of radioactivity and isn't dangerous to haul, and that it's gone above and beyond what's legally required to make these runs safe. For now, though, it's paused the shipments after Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs intervened to allow for further talks with the tribe.
For NPR News, I'm Ryan Heinsius in Cameron, Ariz.
(SOUNDBITE OF RAY LAMONTAGNE'S "PART TWO - A MURMURATION OF STARLINGS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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