Tali Trillo, NEC Co-Director
At the end of February 2025, I had a conversation with a Diné person, whose identity will remain anonymous, about the swarm of toxic impacts uranium extraction has had on their community’s lands, airs, waters, and inhabitants. Their hope of sharing the following account is to bring more awareness for – and the permanent end of – the decades-long struggle against uranium mining, transportation, and contamination.
Where would you like to start?
The way I see it, looking at three different secretions can help to understand this.
We can begin with mining
Energy Fuels Resources, Inc. (Energy Fuels) is a company that is mining uranium about six miles away from the Grand Canyon, from the south rim of the Grand Canyon, and is now actively transporting uranium ore from the mine.
The mine is located just a few miles from Red Butte, which is a sacred site for several regional Indigenous Nations, and in particular the Havasupai . That is their place of emergence. That’s their origin. That’s their home.
The mine sits on top of an aquifer that feeds the only water source for the Havasupai. The only way that you get down to their village is to hike down there or by helicopter. So they’re impacted as we speak. Their water source is being impacted.
The company has been operating off of an environmental impact statement (EIS) from 1986. It’s incredibly outdated. There have been repeated calls for a supplemental EIS to reflect growing Western scientific data and knowledge about the interconnectedness of aquifers and how water works. The Western scientific understanding of that is very different now than it was in 1986 when this mine was permitted.
The forest service oversees the mine,because the mine is on public land, and it has refused to pressure the mine to conduct a supplemental EIS. [They] issued a statement to the state of Arizona, back in October, stating that unless the state revokes the permits for the mine, they see no reason to have the company update their EIS.
Also impacted by this water is the Hualapai, who are directly downstream from the Havasupai, as well as millions of users downstream of the Colorado River. This is water that then goes to not only the state of Arizona, but Los Angeles, Las Vegas, agriculture throughout California.
This mine has been operational for a year now. Around May is when they started to reach, what they consider, high grade uranium ore. There are vast quantities of the ore now sitting on the ore pad outside the mine, which is why the company was pressuring transport because they know that people are actively being exposed anytime the wind blows.
This vast amount of uranium ore is like dust, essentially, that’s sitting outside the mine. That road in proximity to the mine is the road that tourists use to go to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. So you have a scenario where thousands of people daily are being exposed to uranium ore in the air. There is no public warning or public information about this. The only marker on the road just says that there are trucks turning into that road.
Another way we see the impact of this issue is in transportation:
Last week on [February] 14th, the Havasupai released a statement about not just the mine, but the commencement of the transportation.
The mine began transport of uranium in late July of 2024. This violated Navajo Nation law at the time. Back in 2012, the Navajo Nation passed a law stating that the transportation of uranium across Navajo Nation’s lands was prohibited.
This law came out of a legacy of devastating impacts of uranium extraction in Diné communities. The Navajo Nation has been inundated with many uranium mines. These mines were roughly abandoned in the 1970s. When the price of uranium bottomed out, a lot of these mines went under. However, due to the 1872 Mining Law, these companies are totally exempt from any legal recourse to clean up or any kind of financial accountability to clean up these mines.
The Navajo Nation was left with roughly 200 [abandoned uranium mines]. That number just speaks to the claims themselves. At some mines there are multiple sites, so the number of abandoned uranium sites is much higher.
Many of our people were employed in these mines. They were never informed of the hazards of radiation and exposure to uranium. They were not offered PPE. They went into the Earth, handled raw uranium, and went home to their families. Sometimes they even brought materials from the mines home.
Generations of people were exposed. There’s the first direct contact of [uranium] exposure, but also birth defects occur and can happen over multiple generations. We have communities where we have really high rates of birth defects on the Navajo Nation as a direct result of radiation. We have astronomically high rates of cancer in our communities. Uranium exposure is an issue that people on the Navajo Nation know a lot about.
And it’s not just the abandoned uranium sites, it’s also the water contamination. In some communities on the Navajo Nation, there’s very high levels of uranium in public drinking sources and public water access sources. This is not just people – this is livestock that have been accessing this water for a very long time.
There’s been a lot of outcry over several days. People definitively say no. No uranium. We don’t want uranium extraction. We don’t want uranium transportation. This has impacted our people. This has hurt our people so profoundly. And we know it. We live with it every day. Everyone I know has had someone with cancer in their families.
Even though my family doesn’t live in very close proximity to a uranium extraction site, we have high rates of incidents of cancer in our community because we’re downwinders from the Nevada test sites and all of the nuclear bombs that were exploded in the desert.
Back in July [2024], the Navajo Nation president went through a lot of pomp and circumstance to publicly decry the transport of uranium across Navajo Nation. He said [Energy Fuels] was violating sovereignty; that he dispatched two Navajo Nation police units to escort the trucks off of the Navajo Nation.
The last perspective is through milling:
The haul route is several hundred miles across the Navajo Nation. The destination that they’re going is White Mesa in Utah, which isn’t too far off of the Navajo Nation. It also crosses another Indigenous community, the White Mesa Reservation, on its way to the White Mesa Uranium Mill.
This mill is also owned by Energy Fuels. It’s the only mill in the country that is permitted and capable of processing raw uranium ore. It’s the only one.
So that’s kind of the third stage of understanding this issue: you have the mining, you have the transport, and you have the milling. The mill is four miles away from the White Mesa Ute community. They’re directly downwind of it. It also spreads contamination to their water source. They report that they’re unable to drink their water in their community and are also facing astronomically high rates of cancer within their community.
Back in July [2024], the tribal President of the Navajo Nation, as I mentioned, made a lot of pomp and circumstance. The First Lady of the Navajo Nation, his wife Jasmine Blackwater, called for this march saying, “We’re not going to allow uranium transport through the Navajo Nation. This violates our sovereignty. We have been so heavily impacted by this. We’re not going to allow it.” And then [the tribal President signed a tribal Executive Order saying that he was declaring a six-month moratorium on uranium transport.
What happened as of several weeks ago was that the moratorium was up. The company and the [Navajo Nation] announced that they had reached an agreement.
[from Energy Fuels’ press release on January 29, 2025: “The Navajo Nation has suffered longstanding impacts from uranium mining conducted during the cold war era, resulting in numerous abandoned mine and mill sites on their lands. This has understandably caused mistrust toward the U.S. government and energy companies,” said Energy Fuels’ President and CEO Mark Chalmers. “I am personally honored that the Navajo Nation was willing to work with us in good faith to address their concerns and ensure that uranium ore transportation through the Navajo Nation will be done safely and respectfully.” (energyfuels.com)]
This was a shock to many, many, many people because this agreement was agreed on by four tribal bureaucrats. The four officials that were in on this agreement were the Navajo Nation President, the Attorney General (at the time) of the Navajo Nation, the head of the Navajo Nation EPA, and the head of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice. None of the impacted communities along the haul route were consulted or informed of this agreement. Our tribal council was not informed of this agreement. We are in a state of crisis realizing that uranium ore is being transported through our community.
They said they’re receiving about $1.2 million for the tribe in exchange for the uranium transport. They’ve also made an agreement with the company that the company will haul 10,000 tons of waste from these mines on the Navajo Nation to the mill. They’re presenting this like it’s a really good thing. But upon pressing and asking questions, it’s pretty clear that this waste is not a benevolent thing at all. They’re actually going in and opening up old mines to take material that they’re going to use for rare mineral processing.
People are pissed. They’re very upset that this deal was done in secret, that nobody was notified and that essentially our tribal President and his executive staff folded.
The other tribes are pissed that the Navajo Nation let this go through because the Navajo Nation isn’t the only one that’s impacted by this issue. In addition to the Havasupai and the Ute, the route goes directly through lands that the Navajo Nation shares with the Hopi tribe and also the San Juan Paiute tribe. You have a lot of Indigenous people who are being impacted by this issue.
It’s coming to light that Energy Fuels received, in late 2024, a lot of money in investments. A lot of shares were purchased by multinational corporations and multinational international actors at this time because there is a huge impetus to push uranium extraction in the so-called United States. It’s being labeled and sold as “clean energy development” but is also essential in the tech industry. So you have this web of geopolitical actors who are pressuring for this.
Then of course there’s weapons development that’s happening, although official entities are not talking about that. They’re talking about things in terms of energy. But we know that a lot of what’s been contracted and equipment that has been installed is definitely for weapons development.
Energy Fuels is not only located here. They’re a Canadian company. Prior to the acquisition of so many shares by so many multinational actors, they were a very small company. This is something that’s rapidly changing. They have an operational uranium mine in the state of Utah, and I believe they have holdings in Wyoming and Montana. They plan to start construction soon. Everything would be transported to the White Mesa mill because that is the only permitted uranium processing mill in the country.
Is there any way that people out here in Humboldt could come support this struggle?
Right now, there is a lot of organizing that’s happening. . We are definitely reeling from the news and figuring out how we fight this monster.
Because uranium is not like a pipeline. It’s not like other kinds of mines. Any kind of involvement in this, with so-called direct action, you threaten exposure.
We need people to care and get informed.
What I would encourage people to do is research. We need help with research. This mine is going here, but there’s also other sites that I mentioned that the company has holdings where there isn’t uranium ore on the ground yet. I would encourage people to focus on the sites and figure out strategies and techniques of how to keep [Energy Fuels] from progressing any further, because this is happening on multiple fronts.
Culturally, we have stories about why it’s there. We’re not supposed to take it out. It was foretold that if this was to happen, it would cause sickness and disease and death. And we know this. We know this firsthand from exposure to weapons development. This stuff is bad. It’s supposed to be in the earth for a reason.
We have to be really mindful of right now with this current administration. This is not speaking out of fear. Indigenous nations across this so-called country are facing vast amounts of cuts in tribal operating budgets. It very much appears that this administration is moving towards termination style policies. Our communities are really kind of in crisis mode. .
We definitely need people to be aware of what’s going on because there’s a million different things right now that people are having to process with how this administration is moving. There’s a lot of struggles. We know these struggles are all interconnected.
Wherever people are, uplift Indigenous sovereignty. I’m not talking about colonial notions of sovereignty. This goes back to what we call our foundational laws. This is the law of Mother Earth, the law of Father Sky. We know that as children of Mother Earth and Father Sky, we have a commitment and an obligation, a sacred duty to protect our Mother Earth. Respect her. To respect water. Water is living. Water is breathing. Water hears, thinks and feels.
Right now, I feel like not a lot of people understand what’s happening. I want people to understand and be aware that uranium contamination is not something that goes away in ten, 20, 50, 30, 40, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years. Uranium contamination lasts for a really long time.
Collectively, if people can use whatever skill sets and whatever points of knowledge that they have to think creatively about how to address this issue – because we’re talking about it on multiple levels: on an international level, in different people’s territories, federal level, and very much tied to like Elon Musk and the oligarchy and the tech industry.
Can you speak more on your personal connections to this issue?
I have family that lives on this haul route. I have an uncle, brothers, nieces that live on this haul route. And there’s no plan in place. Like if one of these trucks gets in an accident, there’s nothing in place right now. The Navajo Nation has not developed its emergency response plan.
They’re saying it might be ready by summer. These trucks are moving NOW. Nobody can answer the question of what happens if this truck turns over? What is the radius of exposure to this?
Our people have to hitchhike out here all the time. Not everybody has a vehicle. People are riding in the backs of trucks next to these uranium haul trucks. They say you can smell [the uranium]. You can taste it. We know from measurements just driving by it, it’ll make radiation detectors jump significantly from quite a distance away. It’s scary. Are we just doomed to live in a nuclear wasteland?
I think about what’s happening worldwide and how we have to stop this thing because we can’t have more people suffer from it, with their weapons development. That’s so ugly. . Our Mother Earth is not intended to create harm to people like this.
We respond in tactics and strategies. We know beyond a doubt that the state isn’t going to save us. We know that there are agreements between the Navajo Nation police department and the surrounding state and county. We know that on day one of the haul route, on day one of the hauling, there was significant police presence, and it wasn’t to protect our People. It was to protect this company.
There is one person currently that is in custody right now as a result of activity around this [fight]. They’re going to be detained for 30 more days before release is possible. It’s now in federal court. It’s no longer in state court because the language around the case that’s being used is around “critical infrastructure.” We really have to be wise in how we approach this. Nobody’s goal is to see more Indigenous people incarcerated or brutalized. That’s not what we want.
Was there anything else you’d like to add?
We are not a sacrifice zone. Leave it in the ground. I think if everyone figures out how this connects to them, that’ll get us somewhere. You look at Palestine, you know. People began to map this and understand the funding and financing. The geopolitical web of this. It’s all interconnected. This is an attack on the people of the earth, on all the earth’s children.
Whatever solutions come forward are not going to be rooted in this colonial system. We’re in a war for the future. Even though we are seeing it intensify in all these different ways, we have to collectively maintain a hope and prayer for peace. I think about that in terms of our ancestors, my ancestors, our people. The holocaust was engineered off what the federal government did to us. Our people were forced on a death march and held in internment camps, prison camps for years. A lot of people did not make it. There was a lot of starvation. It was a really, really dark and devastating time.
I think about our ancestors and somehow in the midst of all that, they still found it in them to pray and hope for the future. That’s why we’re here. Now we’re the largest Indigenous nation in the so-called United States. They could not kill us! They could not eradicate us! The strength and perseverance of the human spirit is so remarkable. We have to trust in that also, even though we are going through some really dark times. We have to literally fight for the future. There will be a future. There is a future.
I think the birds around me are agreeing with you. I don’t know if you can hear them, but they’re going off.
I love that. I needed to know that.