Alveno Waconda reprinted with permission from
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 148-150

I was invited here today to express my personal concerns of our people who have lived next to the mine and the people who have worked in the Jackpile uranium mine. I was employed at the Anaconda Mine from 1971 to 1982. For seven years I was employed as a heavy equipment operator.
. . . The uranium ore was always around us, whether the wind blew it on us, from dusty conditions. There were times when we were having our lunch sitting on the high-grade ore stock pile. We had lunch sitting in loader buckets to get out of the hot sun. No one warned us that the buckets were contaminated from the ore. . . . Although we had leadmen and formen come to our areas to check on us, we always knew they were coming because of the mine lamps headed towards our area. As soon as they would leave we would go back to our dangerous ways. Why did we do all those dangerous things? Money is the answer. The more work we produced the more we got paid, whether it was safe or not. . . .
. . . When the mine terminated we were given physical examinations. But I do not know where those records are. No one has given us miners any other physicals to check on the effects of radiation or cillicosis. I and members of the tribe do not know what the long-term effects are from working in the mines. I feel strongly that we need to educate our people about the effects and destruction of our land, lives and culture.



Alveno Waconda

Alveno Waconda, Laguna Nation, New Mexico, USA. Former uranium miner.

Good morning! My name is Alveno Waconda and I come from the village of Paguate. Paguate is one of six villages on the Laguna Pueblo. I live less than one mile from the Paguate Jackpile Mine. My parents, brothers and sisters lived in Paguate for most of their lives. My father and mother raised their family by making a living from farming and raising livestock. My early childhood days were spent helping my father in the raising of livestock and farming. As a child I never had the luxury or technology of fancy new clothes that children have today. Thinking back I can't say I wished for all the material things of today. We were more family-oriented back then, and managed to make a living from what we did all together.

When the uranium mine became part of our lives I feel that, as a family, we lost a lot. The family values, culture and tribal traditions changed. My father became employed at the mine and we never farmed on a large scale basis again. My father sold his livestock because he could no longer tend to his livestock and all the work involved at the mine. As I look back on my early teenage years, it angers me now to see how quickly money can change your whole life. By this, I mean that during the time my siblings and I began to have a different attitude about money and what it could provide. Those things which were a vital part of our childhood no longer seemed important.

I was invited here today to express my personal concerns of our people who have lived next to the mine and the people who have worked in the Jackpile uranium mine. I was employed at the Anaconda Mine from 1971 to 1982. For seven years I was employed as a heavy equipment operator. I drove haulage trucks, operated dozers and loaders. Some of our haulage trucks were very old. The steering was hard whenever you took your foot off the accelerator pedal. In winter time the heaters never worked well. I recall times when fellow employees would rap their legs with rags, so they could keep warm.

Most dozers did not have caps to protect from dust and the weather. There was a time when the loader would just shake your body when you tried to steer it. And it took the company many days to fix the problem. The uranium ore was always around us, whether the wind blew it on us, from dusty conditions. There were times when we were having our lunch sitting on the high-grade ore stock pile. We had lunch sitting in loader buckets to get out of the hot sun. No one warned us that the buckets were contaminated from the ore.

Nearly every day the company would blast two times a day or more to get to the ore. There were times when the dust blew in our direction at work and many times toward the village of Paguate. Dust was in the air, settled on the soil, crops, clothes and home. For a period of four years I worked in underground mining. The main reason I moved from open pit to underground mining was because of the money that miners were making. I can truly say the underground mining was good at pay-day. If you ask anyone of us, anyone of the workers if they were there because they like the job, then they were crazy just like us for working there. But what can you do when the money is so good and provides for your family.

Underground mining is very dangerous, and there were many things that you could get hurt from or even killed, not including the effects of radiation. Underground I was employed as a loader operator and miners' helper, and my personal experiences with the dangers of mining included a time when the miner and myself were blasted from loaded rams of dynamite. We had just come for the evening shift and headed to our working area. The blasting lines were still hooked up, so we disconnected them and went back to our main area of work. We began to wonder why the blast did not go off when suddenly they started going off. The four men had reconnected the blasting lines and blasted our area without further checking if anyone was in there. I was farther away from the two areas of blasting, but the miner was not as fortunate. He was caught in the middle of both blasts. Luckily we survived, but my partner has not worked [further] because of damage to his hearing and to his eyes.

My other experiences with the dangers of mining included poor ventilation when operating loaders, dusty conditions, mud on our clothing and body, taking chances and shortcuts. In the mornings, after waking up from a shift, I always remember coughing up the phlegm and seeing it black as the result of all I breathed in the night before. Although we had leadmen and formen come to our areas to check on us, we always knew they were coming because of the mine lamps headed towards our area. As soon as they would leave we would go back to our dangerous ways. Why did we do all those dangerous things? Money is the answer. The more work we produced the more we got paid, whether it was safe or not. When we had safety inspections, somehow we always knew in advance when the inspectors were coming on a certain day, giving us enough time to straighten up our area. A lot of times we were just put out, "keep out" signs for the inspectors to see. Then we would remove when they left and work in that section again. When we had safety meetings we were never given information on the dangers of radiation, there was only concern of equipment hazards. The dangers and effects of mining were always with us, even at payday.

Most of us workers would go to the bars and cash our checks there and spend the money on alcohol. After drinking all night we would get in our cars and drive home, sometimes getting into accidents and causing all kinds of family problems. When the mine terminated we were given physical examinations. But I do not know where those records are. No one has given us miners any other physicals to check on the effects of radiation or cillicosis. I and members of the tribe do not know what the long-term effects are from working in the mines. I feel strongly that we need to educate our people about the effects and destruction of our land, lives and culture.

When I was first invited to join my colleagues, I was sceptical because I felt that I should not voice the conditions and effects of uranium mining. After reading and learning about the impact from uranium mining I could no longer keep silent. If my testimony can educate one other person, then I can say I have succeeded in voicing my concern. I am primarily working at the Laguna Middle School and I hope to present my experiences to the children, because I feel it is the children that need to be educated toward a nuclear-free world.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who is here today to listen to our concerns. With your help we can educate our people that radioactivity and contamination of the earth must end now. To the men and women fighting for our cause, I say to the men: "Hutrah", to the women I say: "Kuyahwatrah". Be strong!

Thank you.



Father John (Moderator)

When you come to hear some of the testimonies you feel like asking, what kind of men are we that we are destroying ourselves? Let's hear the next speaker from Laguna. Please, introduce yourself.