Manual Pino reprinted with permission from
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 146-148

I ask you, people of Salzburg, how would you feel if we came here and stuck a jack hammer into the Salzburg Cathedral? That's the way we feel about what is being done to our sacred mountain. It is our life, it is our existence, it is our future, it is our present and it is our past. We come to you here in your western culture which exemplifies the characteristics of western culture, and that is the idea that humans are superior to the world they inhabit. . . .
Well, us Indian people contradict that argument. We live the opposite. We believe that Mother Earth is not to mess with. And all those species and living things from the smallest insects that crawl to the elk, to the buffalo, they are all our brothers and sisters. . . .
. . . This is the San Juan Basin Mineral Belt in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah, the Four Corners. In this area, over 30 years uranium was developed from the 1950's to the closing of the last mine, the Chevron mine, which had the world's deepest uranium mining shaft into our sacred mountain. The Grants Mineral Belt extends from about 15 miles West of Albuquerque to the Arizona border. It's approximately 60 miles wide and 100 miles long. . . . Along with the world's deepest mineshaft was also the world's largest uranium mill at Ambrosia Lake. Within the Pueblo of Laguna lay the world's largest open pit strip mine, in operation from 1953 to 1982. You know, these are "world bests" we don't want on our land anymore, we don't want to be known for all the world's deepest and worst uranium atrocities on our land, never again!
As Jackpile opened in 1953, 24 million tons of ore were mined over a 30 year period. This was a 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year operation for 30 years until it shut down on March 31, 1982. . . . Right now, Jackpile Mine lies like a sore in the middle of the New Mexico desert. And within 1,000 feet from the world's largest open pit uranium mine lies the village of Paguate. When the wind blows from an easterly to westerly direction, these people are directly in line with the waste overburden and tailings that laid unreclaimed from when the mine closed in 1982 till the reclamation project began in 1989. Seven years these people had to endure radioactivity in their backyard. This is what we had to deal with, this is what we have to live with, and this is what my people will reiterate to you here, today. . . .
We went from being agriculturalists and livestock raisers to wage earners, and that impacted our traditional culture, our traditional language, participation in our ceremonies. During the height of uranium mining, people prioritized their eight-to-five-job, their eight-hour-a-day-job over participating in the ceremonies. This is what lies undocumented among our people. Our Elders cry today that the generation below us cannot speak our language. Some of them don't have any idea of how to participate in the ceremonies. These are the issues that go unaccounted for, that we bring to you here, that we bring to the world.



Manuel Pino

Manuel Pino, Acoma Nation, New Mexico, USA. Currently working on a Ph.D. about the effects of uranium mining on the identity of the Indian people, i.e. loss of traditional values and an increase in suicide and alcoholism.

(Greetings in Keres)

Greetings to all the Indigenous people and European people! We are here representing our Elders from Acoma and the Laguna Pueblo. We bring our Elders' message because flying across the great Atlantic Ocean is something they cannot conceive. We are still a very traditional people. Us, like the Hopis and Acoma, claim to be the oldest continuous village in North America. As you can see by the transparency upon the screen here, we come from the southwestern part of the United States and like numerous of the groups that have preceded here today, we have been impacted by uranium development for over 40 years, and we bring the message of our Elders because they are our wisdom. They are our future and they are our past.

We brought some of our children with us to give you an idea of how they feel about this development and how it impacts them and their children and their children's children. As we speak to you here today we are very humble people. That is the traditional way of the Acoma and the Laguna. We come here to address the issues that have confronted our people. One of the hardest things for us to deal with as human beings, is to watch and sit throughout this 30 year period of development as our sacred mountain, Mount Taylor, was desecrated. They stuck the world's deepest uranium mine shaft into our sacred mountain.

I ask you, people of Salzburg, how would you feel if we came here and stuck a jack hammer into the Salzburg Cathedral? That's the way we feel about what is being done to our sacred mountain. It is our life, it is our existence, it is our future, it is our present and it is our past. We come to you here in your western culture which exemplifies the characteristics of western culture, and that is the idea that humans are superior to the world they inhabit. According to your book of Genesis, humans were made in the image of God who told them: "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and every living thing that moves upon this earth." This is the way western culture tends to view nature as a wilderness to be conquered and tamed by human effort. The art, the literature and the folk tales of the West repeatedly show people in heroic struggles against the forces of nature.

Well, us Indian people contradict that argument. We live the opposite. We believe that Mother Earth is not to mess with. And all those species and living things from the smallest insects that crawl to the elk, to the buffalo, they are all our brothers and sisters. So, when we come to your land that has shoved these types of ideologies down the throats of our people, our youth, in school curriculums, through the BIA boarding school assimilation process that our grandfathers, grandmothers and parents had to endure. Part of this struggle is tied to uranium development. It is that generation that had to live through the assimilative policies of this country that made the decision to mine uranium on our land. They had been to World War II, they had been through World War I, and they were told that they were heroes and that in order to continue to protect our land, uranium would have to be mined. This is the generation that has affected us for the future, that made those decisions.

In the bureaucracy of our federal government in the United States is the Bureau of Indian Affairs who helped negotiate these leases on behalf of the tribe in the 1950's. As our trustee, the Bureau of Indian Affairs misled our people -- granted, uranium was still a new industry in the United States, but they didn't tell our people the truth. The economic benefits that the corporations received compared to my people is outrageous, and they leave us with the contaminants that my brothers and sisters will address here today. I showed you the map of the region where we come from. This is the San Juan Basin Mineral Belt in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah, the Four Corners. In this area, over 30 years uranium was developed from the 1950's to the closing of the last mine, the Chevron mine, which had the world's deepest uranium mining shaft into our sacred mountain. The Grants Mineral Belt extends from about 15 miles West of Albuquerque to the Arizona border. It's approximately 60 miles wide and 100 miles long.

At the height of uranium development within a 30 miles radius of our reservation are Laguna Pueblo, Acomita, McCartys -- all communities within the Acoma Reservation -- and Paraje and Paguate on the Laguna Reservation. You can see by the numbers of all the mines that existed were downwinders from the Grants Mineral Belt and the Ambrosia Lake Area to the West and the uranium that was developed on the Navajo Land. You know, this area produced great amounts of uranium during the height of development.

In this area, Indians owned or controlled about 50 percent of the nation's uranium supply and mostly concentrated on Navajo and Laguna reservations. Within the Grants Mineral Belt, 25 percent of the United States' uranium in the 1970's and eleven percent of the world's uranium were mined in this area within a 30 mile radius of our people's native lands. Along with the world's deepest mineshaft was also the world's largest uranium mill at Ambrosia Lake. Within the Pueblo of Laguna lay the world's largest open pit strip mine, in operation from 1953 to 1982. You know, these are "world bests" we don't want on our land anymore, we don't want to be known for all the world's deepest and worst uranium atrocities on our land, never again!

As Jackpile opened in 1953, 24 million tons of ore were mined over a 30 year period. This was a 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year operation for 30 years until it shut down on March 31, 1982. The Atomic Energy Commission was the primary buyer of uranium from Jackpile, so we know this uranium went directly to build the nuclear arsenal of the United States of America, which has the capacity to blow the world, I don't know how many times, over. But this was coming from our land, our sacred mountain, at the disgust of our traditional Elders and our traditional leaders.

Right now, Jackpile Mine lies like a sore in the middle of the New Mexico desert. And within 1,000 feet from the world's largest open pit uranium mine lies the village of Paguate. When the wind blows from an easterly to westerly direction, these people are directly in line with the waste overburden and tailings that laid unreclaimed from when the mine closed in 1982 till the reclamation project began in 1989. Seven years these people had to endure radioactivity in their backyard. This is what we had to deal with, this is what we have to live with, and this is what my people will reiterate to you here, today.

Granted, uranium development improved the quality of life on the reservation when you look at it from a monetary perspective. Over 800 Laguna Pueblo Indians were employed at the mine at the height of development, the unemployment rate dropped to less than 20 percent. Prior to uranium mining it was in the 70 percentiles. But after the bust it has returned to that percentage. With an improved quality of life came increased wages. For Indian people, that is not always a positive outcome. Increased wages meant increased access to alcohol. Increased alcohol meant greater crime rate, more domestic violence among our people, spouse abuse, child abuse, an increased suicide rate and drug-use. All these issues that the technological culture does not consider that we have to live with in their environmental impact statements: destruction to our traditional life styles.

We went from being agriculturalists and livestock raisers to wage earners, and that impacted our traditional culture, our traditional language, participation in our ceremonies. During the height of uranium mining, people prioritized their eight-to-five-job, their eight-hour-a-day-job over participating in the ceremonies. This is what lies undocumented among our people. Our Elders cry today that the generation below us cannot speak our language. Some of them don't have any idea of how to participate in the ceremonies. These are the issues that go unaccounted for, that we bring to you here, that we bring to the world.

If uranium mining would have continued in the Grants Mineral Belt, this is what we would be looking at today. These many mines within the San Juan Basin area and the aboriginal homelands of the Diné and the Acoma and Laguna people. So I ask you today here at this World Uranium Hearing: Put yourself in our place! Think about with what we have to live, what we have to endure, what we have to continue to endure, and I will leave you with the words and wisdom of my grandfather who entered the spirit world four years ago. I've been in this struggle a long time, when it was unpopular to speak out about the mine. When those 800 people were employed, I was a very unpopular person because I was speaking the issues that I speak here today. No one wanted their job threatened, no one wanted the tribal budget threatened, no one wanted to take a stand about these issues that we're talking about here today. But my grandfather gave me a basic philosophy that I continue to live by today and that is: "To destroy the land is to destroy the people."

My brothers and sisters, my fellow panel members will show you how this destruction has taken place. As a humble Acoma man I thank you for giving me this opportunity to come half way around the world to address you here today.



Father John (Moderator)

Thank you very much. That was a touching speech and we have been challenged. Thank you very much. So we have the next speaker. Please mention your name in full, some names are very difficult.

The next guest speaker is from Laguna, Colorado Plateau, USA.