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Show AROUND THE BEND AGAIN... THE DESECRATION OF WHITE MESA The history of the White Mesa uranium mill in San Juan County has been a tragic and turbulent one. It all started when unreasonable, through excavation by professionally qualified archeologists. Through the years, Congress has passed a number of legislative Acts to assure the protection of places of antiquity such as White Mesa. The Historic Sites Act was enacted in 1935, to preserve historic and prehistoric ~ properties of national significance. It gave the Interior Department authority to make historic surveys and to protect historic properties. It established the National Historic Landmarks Program. In 1966 Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). This Act established a Federal policy of agency in cooperation with Tribes, States, and local governments to protect historic sites and values. It authorized the National Register of Historic Places and created the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. It also -lay down the criteria for evaluation of properties to be nominated. In 1969, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that applies to all proposed major Federal actions that may significantly affect the quality of the human. environment. : Of major importance was the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA). This Act seeks to protect and preserve traditional Native American spiritual beliefs and practices by providing access to ancient sites for Native peoples. The agencies are directed to confer with with Native traditional religious leaders in a joint effort when their archeological resources are affected or where procedures are offensive to them and their religious practices. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) was passed in 1979 with its subsequent amendments in 1988. It states that archeological resources, including graves, found on public and Indian lands were part of America's heritage and were protected from unauthorized taking. So with all of these laws in place, one wonders how the uranium company was ever able to build their mill. It's a complicated mess and a tragedy. It was anticipated that the NRC would enter into a Memorandum of Agreement under the law to ensure adequate mitigation of the impacts to the cultural resources on White Mesa. J. Phillip Keene III, Utah's Historical Preservation Officer wrote that the agreement would satisfy the necessary mitigation under the review procedures. one corporation, Energy Fuels Nuclear, Inc., back before 1979, set its eyes on White Mesa with the intent to build a uranium mill. The backdrop of this is the history of injustices to the Indian people. Decisions were being made without their involvement, and their constitutional rights were continually trampled upon. In this, the federal agencies have not lived up to their legal responsibilities. Energy Fuels quietly, it seems, began manipulating their way toward locating and building a uranium mill on the aboriginal lands. of White Mesa. They finagled a land exchange with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The transfer was consummated even though there was an immense concentration of archeological sites with standing masonry architecture in the area. Why? Since Energy Fuels depended upon federal licensing, federal regulations became immediately applicable to them. A cultural resource inventory had to be conducted, and the Department of the Interior and the Utah State Antiquities Section of the State Division of History quickly obliged them. : ' Archeological surveys of portions of the entire project site were conducted between the fall of 1977 and the spring of 1979. 121 sites were recorded and all had an affiliation with the San Juan Anasazi. All but 22 of the sites lay within the mill project boundaries. : In the spring of 1978 twenty sites were located in the area to be occupied by the tailings cells 2, 3 and 4. Of these sites, twelve were deemed by the State Archeologist to have significant National Register potential and four with possible significance. An additional 45 archeological sites were found in the fall of 1978 after another surface study. Laurel A. Casjens and Gregory L. Seward prepared an archeological report in February 1980. They reported finding two hundred and sixteen prehistoric and only two historic sites. ‘Prehistoric human habitation on White Mesa was. almost exclusively Anasazi. The historic site included a Navajo sweat lodge and an earthen and masonry dam that would be negatively affected by the mill project. It was apparent that additional fieldwork needed to be done. zs The Secretary of the Interior determined the area-eligible for inclusion in the The NRC, the Utah State Historic Preservation Officer and representation from the National Register as the “White Mesa Archeological District.” (But in searching the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation then reviewed the undertaking to consider National Register there is no mention of the District being included.) alternatives. In addition, in respect to the preservation of the cultural resources, the Energy Fuels by now owned or controlled the surface area of the project site. The company was expected to cooperate in the setting up and implementation of a company on Feb 6, 1978 applied to the NRC for an “NRC Source Material License” monitoring program. to construct and operate the mill. The mill was to occupy about 50 acres of the site. With all of these supposed safeguards, the system failed. Another 333 acres would serve as the tailings disposal site during the coming years. - The company's total surface area of the project site was to cover 1480 acres. To understand the seemingly uncaring and sometimes belligerent attitude of the In May 1979, the NRC approved the final EIS and a license was awarded Energy ~ “regulators and International Uranium, we need to look at past situations. Regardless Fuels. Construction of the mill started the following month. The company made of the number and array of laws passed, the amount of wanton desecration in San ambitious plans to mine uranium near the Havasupai reservation near the Grand Juan County of irreplaceable archeological resources ‘continued to increase. Canyon in Arizona. Tribal leaders rebelled and fought hard as it threatened their Many ancient ruins and antiquities have been desecrated. Tourists by the sacred Red Butte, and an international protest erupted. Even so, the federal thousands rake through our lands for projectile points and chippings. People deface _ government approved the mine. ancient rock art panels such as the Kachina Panel. Our own local people dig into Energy Fuels had a tough time of it financially. In 1984, the company formed a graves. Corporations exploit spiritual sites. BLM chains down standing ruins on Cedar limited partnership with Union Carbide Corporation. Ten years later the partnership Mesa. Rising waters behind Glen Canyon dam destroys thousands of ruins. And the dissolved and Energy Fuels re-acquired 100 % of the White Mesa mill. The state of desecration continues financial affairs in early 1995 forced Energy Fuels into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Questions arise. These uranium companies, with the approval and protection of So that set the stage for the advent of International Uranium who bought the the government, have destroyed and damaged many archeological resources just as bankrupt company. The new company was expected to abide by all past federal and individual pothunters have done. Is it right or is it justice to prosecute individual state regulations that had been placed on Energy Fuels. However, thumbing its nose citizens, but yet allow corporations and government agencies free rein to destroy and at the laws and the people, it proceeded to build a full-scale nuclear waste dump far take away those things belonging to us? removed from the original purposes of a uranium-refining mill. It prepared no EIS. White Mesa is aboriginal land--Indian land before the whites came. And on this The EIS of 1979 was woefully and shamefully inadequate as an environmental land are Native American burials. My good friend Norman Begay, before he was document and once prepared, it was as quickly ignored. Federal statutes and killed, attested to this and the sacredness of the White Mesa area at the Utah directives require that mitigating measures be taken to protect historic and prehistoric Radiation Control Board meetings in Salt Lake City several years ago. I was there. cultural resources, either through programmed avoidance of sites or, where that is |