I’ve acknowledged mines on the Navajo Nation and the effects they had on people, but I wanted to look more into the history as my community is facing problems with it now. My community faced the problem of uranium waste being transported and stored in the landfill which is also near homes. I also know family members would work in these mines, one that I know of, worked in a uranium mine. They had no safety equipment and even drank water from the mines. My SHP project is the bond on what was not heard. It is the bond of the effects and issues it caused in the communities of the Navajo Nation. 

In the article, “Sharing One Skin,” by Jeanette Armstrong, it tells me that we as people are tied to everything and that we all have our four selves; emotional, thinking, physical, and spiritual. The things we feel and do are what bond us together mentally, externally, emotionally, and spiritually to our world(s) and ourselves. The behaviors we do and what we feel are basically called “human”. Being “human" is what keeps us from causing disruptions to our world, ourselves, and others. Being “human” includes our four selves and those four selves are what keep us whole. 

Armstrong Jeanette. 1996 “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community.” Pp.460-470 in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds.), The Case Against the Global Economy, San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books. 

Memories and stories are connected to our land as described by, B. Toastie in the article, “How place names impact the way we see landscape,”. Stories and Memories are the history of our landscapes and are formed because of the connections and uniqueness within our environments. Additionally, the land can and does show us insights into history (tragic or not) and stories. The deep connections and events pertaining to land can have a deep and rich impact on Native Americans and how they identify with it. 

B.’Toastie’ Oaster 

Image credit: Tony Abeyta     May 1, 2022

From the print edition. “How Place Name Impact the Way We See Landscape.” High Country News-know-the West, 1 May, 2022, www.hen.org/issues/54.5/people-places-how-names-impact-the-way-we-see-landscape.

The article "Nuclear Power Won't Be Green Until There's a Plan for uranium mining", informs how green energy starts with cleaning up the past. So far, nuclear energy supplies 10% of electricity globally, soon predicted to increase in future decades. It is considered "green energy" most of the time, but sometimes it is not because of the history and relationship it shares with human health and the environment. Some current resolutions include funding to clean up environmental disasters made from mining. However, funding is limited, and has not cleaned half of the abandoned mines made.

Gould, Ariel. "Nuclear Power Won't Be Green Until There's a Plan for Uranium Mining." The Breakthrough Institute, 17 Nov. 2022. thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-18-fall-2022/nuclears-uranium-problem#:~:text=Water%20contamination%20is%20the%20main