San juan mountainsWhile it may seem like an easy subject to get across, it took time to get a suitable project together for the question that was originally posed. The original question was dropped altogether and the project became more of a passion project about the love of the San Juan Mountains and the awesome area we live in. There's always been this intense interest in the area and the history of the area but never a great way to pursue that through a school project. This was that opportunity to use school to an advantage.
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It was difficult to decide what to focus on for the video. I wanted to make a video because I wanted to challenge myself to make something different. But I wasn't sure what the narrative of the video was going to be. I had originally wanted to focus on the history of the area and show the mines and whatnot, but that was too specific. I got up into the mountains and decided I wanted to do some sort of tourist video to bring people to Southwest Colorado and enjoy it the way I do. The mountains will forever be a part of me and this project was me just trying to get that out to the world. I want other people to see it the way I do.
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TED TalkDiscussing the implications of mineral extraction in multiple forms and its affects on the various Native American tribes found in and around the Colorado Plateau in the Southwestern United States.
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Senior thesis paper
How Has mineral extraction on the colorado plateau affected the native american tribes who live there?
Lyric Hildner
Senior Project Advisor: Lori Fisher
Abstract
Mineral extraction is one of the biggest industries throughout the United States, with Native American reservations experiencing large concentrations of its activity. The procedures used to mine throughout the reservations in the past weren’t the best way to go about mining. It left hundreds of people sick and dying. This thesis aims to identify the effects that mineral extraction has had on the various Native American tribes living on the Colorado Plateau. Various academic journals, as well as other theses and articles, were drawn from to put forth the research shown in this paper. Most of the sources unanimously agreed that mineral extraction has very negative effects on health of humans as well as on the environment. Cancers and respiratory diseases become more prevalent when exposed to the waste that uranium and coal mines leave behind. Fracking can contaminate underground water sources as well as cause seismic events near these water sources. Water is already scarce on the Colorado Plateau and drilling endangers what is left. While initially mineral extraction throughout the Colorado Plateau promised jobs and economic benefits, it has ultimately caused environmental disasters and rises in deadly diseases such as lung cancer for Native American tribes in the region.
12th Grade Humanities
Animas High School
5 March 2018
Part 1: Introduction
During the Cold War, thousands of Native Americans in the Southwest United States went to work in the hundreds of uranium mines scattered across the Colorado Plateau. They wore no protection and were told nothing of the harmful effects that uranium has on the human body. Years later, those miners and workers are dying of diseases that never existed in their culture before the 20th century. “As reported by the 1991 Navajo Health and Nutrition Survey, 16% of Navajo males and 5% of Navajo females over 12 years of age reported being current smokers” (Yazzie, 3). For a tribe that has proven itself to be fairly healthy when it comes to smoking, there still seems to be a high rate of lung cancer. Human health is the most prominent issue mineral extraction poses, closely followed by the effects it has on the environment. In the coming years, however, the problems occurring in the environment will outweigh everything else. Both of these issues are becoming much more public as more information comes out, especially in the Western United States where mineral extraction has had a long influence.
The people living on or around the Colorado Plateau, whether they are Native American or not, are being affected by various forms of mineral extraction. Hard rock mining, coal, oil and gas, and uranium mining are the largest contributors to the hardships that these people face. Mineral extraction, mainly uranium, has been on a decline since the 1980s (Tabuchi) but drilling and fracking have been making a comeback. Mining has affected the entirety of the lives of all residents living in or around this area in one way or another and it’s important to see how it continues to affect their lives for better or worse through the eyes of people experiencing worse. While initially mineral extraction throughout the Colorado Plateau promised jobs and economic benefits, it has ultimately caused environmental disasters and rises in deadly diseases such as lung cancer for Native American tribes in the region.
Part 2: Context
The San Juan mountains lay on the northeastern edge of the Colorado Plateau, which is a large area made up of Western and Southwestern Colorado, a huge chunk of Eastern Utah, Northwestern New Mexico, and almost the majority of Northern Arizona. Most of the plateau watershed drains into the Colorado River, but the rest drains into the Rio Grande River. The majority of the plateau is high desert, making it arid and dry. Forests and mountains are also found on and around it, but being mostly desert means that there’s a lack of certain resources, mainly water.
The plateau has fostered human history dating back thousands of years. The Ancestral Puebloans inhabited the area up until the 13th century and then disappeared. These people were ancestors of the various Native American tribes that inhabit the Colorado Plateau now. Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Laguna, and various other puebloan tribes have common roots that connect back to those early people. These tribes have strong spiritual and physical ties to the plateau and the environment around them.
At the time that reservations for Native Americans were becoming mainstream, the land that the reservations were placed on, was considered useless. This was before uses for oil, gas, and uranium became so profitable. Gold and silver hadn’t been discovered yet. It wasn’t until later that companies and the U.S. government realized that there were important resources under the Native Americans lands. Thus began decades of the U.S. government making treaties with various tribes across the country to gain access to minerals and mineral extraction. Being put on land that doesn’t have much worth except for the minerals lying beneath, the Native Americans looked for anything that could bring jobs to their nations and improve their economy. About a quarter of the Navajo population’s yearly income is less than $10,000. 38% of the Navajo nation is living in poverty, with the percentage increasing for tribal members under the age of 18 (1). This is how the large mining corporations were allowed to set up shop on the various Native American reservations.
Colorado mining first began in 1859, ten years after the California gold rush. What’s known as the Colorado gold rush was the biggest gold rush in United States history and helped define the West as we know it today. Early pioneers on their way to California for work, along with help from local the Cherokee people, discovered gold through the process known as placer mining or panning. Once word got out of gold in the streams of what was at the time the Kansas Territory, thousands upon thousands of people flocked to the mountains around Pikes Peak and the Denver area to the north in hopes of striking it rich. This sudden rush of people to the Front Range was known as the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. They slowly expanded into the mountains, finding mining claims in the Clear Creek area near Idaho Springs and Georgetown, in South Park which is farther south, and around Cripple Creek which is located southwest of present day Colorado Springs. In 1860, Charles Baker (a member of the Pikes Peak gold rush) made his way into the San Juan mountains and established an area known as Bakers Park (present day Silverton). His party found gold in placer deposits (accumulation of valuable minerals caused by gravity, usually found in streams or bodies of water) and a year later brought 300 people in to help with the discovery. However, the Civil War ended all work in Bakers Park.
In 1868, the San Luis valley was opened up for settlers by the Utes. This brought a renewed interest in the mining in the San Juan mountains. As people poured back into Baker’s Park, the Utes, who still had the rights to the San Juan mountains, attacked and killed anyone who tried to mine in their territory. The acts of aggression did nothing to stop the pioneers and settlers. The Utes knew their efforts couldn’t stop the inevitable flood of people. After some convincing, the Utes sold the land they had in the San Juans to the United States. This unlocked the mountains to all sorts of mining, and the towns of Lake City, Creede, Silverton, Durango, Ouray, Telluride, and Rico appeared not long after. Constant mining in the San Juan mountains continued from the early 1870s to the late 1920s, with hiccups around the Great Depression and the second World War. Most mining died out after the end of World War II with the remaining valuable mineral mines (gold, silver, lead, zinc) closing in 1999 (Quillen). Uranium mining began in the 1940s when atomic bombs were being researched and lasted until the early 1980s. Oil and gas drilling started in the San Juan basin in the early 1900s and continues to this day.
Mining on the Colorado Plateau has long been a mixture above surface and subsurface (underground) mining, with most of it being subsurface. Hardrock mining is the broadest type of mining that is prevalent on the plateau, usually in the mountains and hills. Open pit mining and strip mining are also types of mining used on the plateau. Hardrock mining and underground mining is usually used for deeper ore pockets and usually involves extracting hard minerals such as gold and silver. Gold, silver, and coal mining were the first large production mining operations on the plateau, all of which are primarily subsurface hardrock mining, with other rare minerals, followed by gas and oil done by drilling and fracking, then uranium which started out as subsurface hardrock mining but is done by open pit mining in more recent decades. Coal, gas, and oil are all still being extracted throughout the region, with uranium trying to make a comeback. Uranium is a fairly common element which is 40 times more common than silver and almost 500 times more common than gold (What is Uranium?). In the U.S., around 60% of all known uranium deposits and 33% of the low-sulfur coal, are found under Native American reservations. In addition to that, a quarter of the oil and 15% of the natural gas the United States states as its own, are under reservations (Churchill). The major uranium deposits are along the Colorado-Utah border and down nears Grants, New Mexico. Both of these uranium deposits are either under or near Native American reservations. The Navajo and other tribes on the Colorado Plateau continue to be some of the most mining affected tribes in the United States.
Part 3: Research and Analysis
Mineral extraction on reservations isn’t wholly bad, as one might deduce. The benefits that come with allowing mining on Native American land are almost all economical and for the people who live on the reservation, it’s extremely difficult to get a solid, reliable job. In an article on The Guardian about the post-mining culture in Western Colorado and the rivalry between ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’, the author states,“Liberals fighting against the mining industry are good at telling them no, residents say, but don’t present them with any alternatives – not ones that come with real salaries” (Beckett). The whole article summarizes clearly what problems arise when a mining company or power plant is shut down or closes around small communities across the Native American reservations and the western U.S. One specific area the article writes about is Uravan, Colorado, which was at one time a main supplier of uranium for the Manhattan Project during World War II. Uravan was a company mining town built around a uranium mine, but once the area was declared a Superfund site in 1986, the town was torn down, trees and all, and buried in the hills behind the townsite. Nearby Uravan’s resting place, the town of Nucla is struggling to stay alive after recent news of the local power plant closing in 2022 after an environmental group filed a lawsuit against them. The closure will take away around 80 jobs, which is a huge blow to the population of the town which is at less than 800 people already (2). The situation is similar in communities all over the Navajo reservation with a perfect example being Page, Arizona. The town is supported by only two major economic contributors: Lake Powell and the Navajo Generating Station. There has been lots of controversy around the generating station with talks of shutting it down in the coming years. Without that power plant, the town of Page would be left with just Lake Powell and tourism to carry it; and the lake has been seeing lower water levels in recent years. Towns built on only one or two main resources that provide a life source are dangerous to begin with. It could be very easy for the town to waste away in the case that the main resources are taken away.
Economic Benefits
In contrast to the Navajo, the Southern Ute Tribe of Southwestern Colorado have been managing the economic prosperity of their tribe very well. The tribe has thrived for over a hundred years; starting with the creation of their reservation. In 1873, a Ute leader known as Chief Ouray negotiated a deal with the U.S. government that allowed early miners into Ute lands in what is now the San Juan mountains. Along with letting the U.S. have the land, the government was to pay the tribe $25,000 every year for the rest of time and allow them to still hunt in the mountains. Ouray was also given an extra $1,000 salary each year for the rest of his life. Since then, the Southern Ute have grown to become one of the richest Native American tribes in the country, with a economic company, the Southern Ute Growth Fund, that the tribe runs various businesses through. This growth fund manages operations and assets in energy, construction, real estate, and private equity, and is spread across 14 states and the Gulf of Mexico. One of the biggest pieces of their conglomerate is the Red Willow Production Company, which is an oil and natural gas company. Through this subsidiary company, they have over 1,600 wells throughout 4 states; and as Bloomberg News pointed out, “The tribe counts more oil and gas wells than it does members.”
Recently, the Southern Ute have been trying to expand their drilling practices. As the author of the aforementioned article on Bloomberg News pointed out, “Since 2012, the Southern Ute tribe has spent $1.6 million lobbying Washington to ease energy permits, ensure tribal sovereignty and lighten U.S. Interior Department rules on fracking and methane emissions, according to the Senate’s Lobbying Disclosure Act database” (Traywick). The tribe has the money to help itself, something most tribes do not. At the same time the Standing Rock Sioux are battling the government over building the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Southern Ute are trying to get the government to let them take full control of their land and start more drilling. The Southern Utes believe that they know what’s best for their land and are tired of jumping through hoops to get something done that they can just do themselves.
Mineral extraction has many economic benefits for the various communities it affects. It creates towns and supports families and in some cases helps entire Native American reservations become self sustaining. Nevertheless, the cons outweigh the pros by a long shot.
Health Risks
The health risks that mineral extraction poses to humans and animals alike is not something to take lightly. Various diseases, mainly respiratory and kidney, have become more prevalent in communities near mines, especially communities that have citizens that work or have worked in the mines at some point. An academic journal, Mining and Environmental Health Disparities in Native American Communities, did the math: “Today, more than 4.1 million Native Americans live in the Western USA, 478,000 on Reservation lands. Combining US Census information and a gridded population dataset, we estimated that more than 600,000 Native Americans live within 10 kilometers of an abandoned mine” (Lewis, Hoover, & MacKenzie, 2017). With the amount of abandoned mines, and still active mines, across Native American reservations, it’s a wonder that more people aren’t sick or haven’t developed symptoms.
Uranium mining is one of the major industries to blame when it comes to sickness on the reservations. Uranium affects the body mostly through inhalation - breathing in air that contains uranium dusts or eating something that contains uranium. The kidneys are most affected by uranium, causing kidney failure which can lead to death. Cancers can form from uranium exposure, but usually years later. In an essay published on Geosciences titled The Legacy of Uranium Development on or Near Indians Reservations and Health Implications Rekindling Public Awareness, the author states that “Over ninety percent of all milling done in the U.S. occurred on or just outside the boundaries of American Indian reservations” (Moore-Nall, 1.4). Multiple large uranium veins are found in the U.S. under the Colorado Plateau, much of which sits below the Navajo reservation.
Native Americans have had their health affected by the uranium. The topic has been researched many times before. In one case, The History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People, it was discovered that of the thousands of uranium miners who worked in the mines between the years of 1950 and 1960, 500 to 600 died of lung cancer and were almost all associated with radon exposure. Even after 1990, a similar number of deaths was to be expected. A study of Navajo miners done in 2000 reported that there were 94 documented deaths caused by lung cancer. 63 of the deaths were of people who were former uranium miners. Uranium miners reportedly had a relative risk of 28.6% when compared to controls (Brugge & Goble). The lack of protective measures taken to protect the mine workers resulted in high levels of exposure to radioactivity. Uranium miners are five times more likely to contract lung cancer than the general population. As stated earlier, Navajo nation members aren’t big on smoking, yet the male Navajo miners were found to have lung cancer in 75% of cases studied (Markstrom & Charley, 25). An academic journal article articulated that, “In summarizing several studies, Mulloy et al. (2001) concluded that, “exposure to dust, gases, exhaust, and fumes can result in nonmalignant or malignant respiratory disease in underground miners” (p.306). In addition to lung cancer, other respiratory diseases included silicosis, pulmonary fibrosis, emphysema, obstructive lung disease, silico-tuberculosis, and pneumoconiosis (Mulloy et al., 2001) (Markstrom & Charley, 25).” The evidence is there. Uranium mining has had lasting negative health effects on the miners and millers that worked in the industry throughout the Cold War. Without the proper precautions in place to avoid the health issues, there was no stopping the diseases from becoming worse.
Environmental Risks
Besides the health effects from basic mining techniques, things can happen that affect not only the health of people and livestock, but the environment as a whole as well. In the same journal published on Geosciences, Anita Moore-Nall brought up a uranium disaster:
“A disaster of huge consequences for the Navajo Nation occurred at the Church Rock uranium mill spill on 16 July 1979, in New Mexico when United Nuclear Corporation’s Church Rock uranium mill tailings disposal pond breached its dam. Over 1000 tons of solid radioactive mill waste and 93 million gallons of acidic, radioactive tailings solution flowed into the Puerco River, and contaminants traveled 130 kilometers downstream onto the Navajo Nation… Local residents, who were mostly Navajos, used the Puerco River for irrigation and livestock and were not immediately aware of the toxic danger… In terms of the amount of radiation released, the accident was larger in magnitude than the Three Mile Island accident of the same year” (Moore-Nall, 1.4).
When the journal piece was written in early 2015, various government and tribal organizations had been working on testing the grounds around the abandoned uranium mines throughout the reservation for at least five years. The conclusion was that all of the mines had contaminated the area around them and in most cases, the communities and homes that were situated around them. Tests done on wells near the mines also proved that there was indeed contamination in the water, leading to the need to drill new wells or else the people drinking from it could become even more poisoned then they already were. Land near the mines that hadn’t been used in decades was still extremely contaminated. Houses were found to be made from the remains of tailings piles, adding to the amount of contamination already in their bodies and in the areas around the houses.
The Colorado Plateau also has thousands of oil and gas wells spread across it. Fracking, which is the process of pushing liquid into crevasses at high velocities to gain access to oil and gas, has become increasingly popular and common. The process has become an easier way to access the fossil fuel deposits lying underground; and like uranium, it is found under Native American lands. The effects of fracking are most prevalent to the people living through the plateau because it is the most present and expanding type of minerals extraction at the moment.
Fracking affects the air, water, soil, and can cause problems in the Earth’s crust. Fracking releases methane gas into the atmosphere which is one of the major gases causing heat to become trapped in the atmosphere. Along with methane, many other air contaminants are released through fracking, disposal of waste, material and equipment transport, and construction and operation of the well site. An online information source, published on Teach the Earth, provided examples of other pollutants released by fracking and drilling: “benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene (BTEX), dust, ground level ozone, or smog, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and metals contained in diesel fuel combustion (Hoffman).” These pollutants can also affect humans health negatively.
Water is essential to the fracking process as it is the main liquid sent into the ground to break apart the crevasses that the oil and gas is stored in. The water is mixed with sand and other chemicals to split the the rock. During this process, however, it is easy for the water to break into underground water pockets and aquifers. The chemical and sand filled water then mixes with the clean underground water and contaminates it. The water is unusable at this point. This can also lead to the soil and ground around the water and oil pockets to become contaminated as well. Plants won’t grow and the ground becomes unhealthy. In addition to the contamination of the ground and water, fracking has also been known to trigger small earthquakes. The high pressure streams of water breaking apart rock can start these seismic events and while the earthquakes may be small, the fact that they happen near the pockets of now-contaminated water is a problem for contaminating the ground even further (7).
Part 4: Discussion and Conclusion
Overall, the effects that mineral extraction has had on Native American tribes throughout the Colorado Plateau have been negative. People have become increasingly sick as well as the land becoming impossible to live on due to the radiation and contamination caused by the ways that the different minerals are removed and how the wastes are disposed of. The mining industry has more than enough rules and restrictions presently, that it’s hard to believe that at one point there wasn’t any rule enforcement in the mines, thus leading to people developing problems and dying.
Although one Native American tribe has proven itself to understand how to work mineral extraction into its culture and provide for itself off of it, the health risks that come from said mineral extraction still outweigh whatever benefits it brings. The amount of money that would eventually be needed to take care of the slowly dying population as well as the contaminated environment would be enormous and would dwarf the amount of money that any drilling or mining would bring in. Not to mention that there would be hundreds of people dying of lung cancer and other respiratory issues to deal with. It doesn’t quite seem worth it to continue extracting minerals the way it is being done at the moment.
The environment needs time to replenish itself. If mining continues the way it does currently, and continues to use resources wastefully, the problems produced could result in extreme environmental issues across the Southwest as well as economic issues. Mining and fracking use millions of gallons of water to extract the minerals. Because water is scarce on the plateau, it is trucked and/or piped in to the mines and drill sites. Once there, it is used to get a job done and then it is contaminated and forgotten about, usually put into an evaporating pond of some sort. This isn’t smart because the water is being used and then wasted. This sort of wastefulness is what needs to change to make the future more liveable and more viable.
To get to a place where mineral extraction is safe for workers as well as civilians living near mines, and is safe for the environment, things need to change. Stricter regulations need to be put in place in the mining corporations for worker safety and proper management of waste. Resources need to be used more effectively instead of wasted.
Now that the majority of the problems brought forward by mineral extraction are known publicly, more oversight and rules will be used if mining companies want to continue running. The civilian population in this day and age won’t let any injustices slide by which means that no more humans will get sick and the environment will stay uncontaminated. Research will continue to be done on the effects of mineral extraction as the industry changes to fit with the times. It’s hard to imagine that mining and drilling industries will die off anytime soon. In the past, mineral extractions has endangered the lives of thousands of Native Americans. It has contaminated the environment and homes of these people. In the future, mineral extraction will be clean and safe.
Bibliography:
(1) Arizona Rural Policy Institute, Center for Business Outreach, W.A. Franke College of
Business, and Northern Arizona University. Demographic Analysis of the Navajo Nation
Using 2010 Census and 2010 American Community Survey Estimates. Office of Tribal
Relationships. Governors Office on Tribal Relations, n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2018.
(2) Beckett, Lois. “Inequality and Opportunity in America Under Siege by Liberals: the
Town Where Everyone Owns a Gun.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 July 2017
(3) Begay, Melorie. "Fracking Boom Leads to Tension in Navajo Communities." New Mexico In
Depth. New Mexico In Depth, Inc., 7 July 2017. Web. 02 Mar. 2018.
(4) Brugge, Doug and Rob Goble. "The History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People."
American Journal of Public Health, vol. 92, no. 9, Sept. 2002, pp. 1410-1419.
(5) Butler, Kristin. “Financial Powerhouse: How Colorado's Southern Utes Took Control of
Their Economic Destiny.” Indian Country Media Network, Indian Country Today Media
Network, 16 Feb. 2017,
(6) Churchill, Ward. "American Indian Lands: The Native Ethic Amid Resource Development.
(Cover Story)." Environment, vol. 28, no. 6, Jul/Aug 1986, pp. 12-34.
(7) Hoffman, Joe. "Potential Health and Environmental Effects of Hydrofracking in the Williston
Basin, Montana." Teach the Earth. The Geological Society of America, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2018.
(8) Lewis, David Rich. "Native Americans and the Environment: A Survey of Twentieth-Century
Issues." American Indian Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 3, Summer 1995, pp. 423-450.
(9) Markstrom, Carol A. and Perry H. Charley. "Psychological Effects of
Technological/Human-Caused Environmental Disasters: Examination of the Navajo and
Uranium." American Indian & Alaska Native Mental Health Research: The Journal of the
National Center, vol. 11, no. 1, Nov. 2003, pp. 19-45
(10) Moore-Nall, Anita. “MDPI.” Edited by Jose A. Centeno et al., MDPI, Geosciences, 3 Feb.
2015.
(11) Quillen, Ed. "The Last Mine Closes in Leadville." High Country News. High Country News,
15 Feb. 1999. Web. 28 Feb. 2018.
(12) Tabuchi, Hiroko. "Uranium Miners Pushed Hard for a Comeback. They Got Their Wish."
The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Jan. 2018. Web. 28 Feb. 2018.
(13) Traywick, Catherine. “Tale of Two Tribes: Utes Want to Drill as Sioux Battle Pipeline.
”Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 12 Oct. 2016
(14) "What Is Uranium?" Uranium Producers of America. Uranium Producers of America, n.d.
Web. 28 Feb. 2018.
(15) Yazzie, Sheldwin A. "Understanding Lung Cancer Risk Among Navajo Former Uranium
Miners." Thesis. University of Washington, 2013. Print.
Senior Project Advisor: Lori Fisher
Abstract
Mineral extraction is one of the biggest industries throughout the United States, with Native American reservations experiencing large concentrations of its activity. The procedures used to mine throughout the reservations in the past weren’t the best way to go about mining. It left hundreds of people sick and dying. This thesis aims to identify the effects that mineral extraction has had on the various Native American tribes living on the Colorado Plateau. Various academic journals, as well as other theses and articles, were drawn from to put forth the research shown in this paper. Most of the sources unanimously agreed that mineral extraction has very negative effects on health of humans as well as on the environment. Cancers and respiratory diseases become more prevalent when exposed to the waste that uranium and coal mines leave behind. Fracking can contaminate underground water sources as well as cause seismic events near these water sources. Water is already scarce on the Colorado Plateau and drilling endangers what is left. While initially mineral extraction throughout the Colorado Plateau promised jobs and economic benefits, it has ultimately caused environmental disasters and rises in deadly diseases such as lung cancer for Native American tribes in the region.
12th Grade Humanities
Animas High School
5 March 2018
Part 1: Introduction
During the Cold War, thousands of Native Americans in the Southwest United States went to work in the hundreds of uranium mines scattered across the Colorado Plateau. They wore no protection and were told nothing of the harmful effects that uranium has on the human body. Years later, those miners and workers are dying of diseases that never existed in their culture before the 20th century. “As reported by the 1991 Navajo Health and Nutrition Survey, 16% of Navajo males and 5% of Navajo females over 12 years of age reported being current smokers” (Yazzie, 3). For a tribe that has proven itself to be fairly healthy when it comes to smoking, there still seems to be a high rate of lung cancer. Human health is the most prominent issue mineral extraction poses, closely followed by the effects it has on the environment. In the coming years, however, the problems occurring in the environment will outweigh everything else. Both of these issues are becoming much more public as more information comes out, especially in the Western United States where mineral extraction has had a long influence.
The people living on or around the Colorado Plateau, whether they are Native American or not, are being affected by various forms of mineral extraction. Hard rock mining, coal, oil and gas, and uranium mining are the largest contributors to the hardships that these people face. Mineral extraction, mainly uranium, has been on a decline since the 1980s (Tabuchi) but drilling and fracking have been making a comeback. Mining has affected the entirety of the lives of all residents living in or around this area in one way or another and it’s important to see how it continues to affect their lives for better or worse through the eyes of people experiencing worse. While initially mineral extraction throughout the Colorado Plateau promised jobs and economic benefits, it has ultimately caused environmental disasters and rises in deadly diseases such as lung cancer for Native American tribes in the region.
Part 2: Context
The San Juan mountains lay on the northeastern edge of the Colorado Plateau, which is a large area made up of Western and Southwestern Colorado, a huge chunk of Eastern Utah, Northwestern New Mexico, and almost the majority of Northern Arizona. Most of the plateau watershed drains into the Colorado River, but the rest drains into the Rio Grande River. The majority of the plateau is high desert, making it arid and dry. Forests and mountains are also found on and around it, but being mostly desert means that there’s a lack of certain resources, mainly water.
The plateau has fostered human history dating back thousands of years. The Ancestral Puebloans inhabited the area up until the 13th century and then disappeared. These people were ancestors of the various Native American tribes that inhabit the Colorado Plateau now. Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Laguna, and various other puebloan tribes have common roots that connect back to those early people. These tribes have strong spiritual and physical ties to the plateau and the environment around them.
At the time that reservations for Native Americans were becoming mainstream, the land that the reservations were placed on, was considered useless. This was before uses for oil, gas, and uranium became so profitable. Gold and silver hadn’t been discovered yet. It wasn’t until later that companies and the U.S. government realized that there were important resources under the Native Americans lands. Thus began decades of the U.S. government making treaties with various tribes across the country to gain access to minerals and mineral extraction. Being put on land that doesn’t have much worth except for the minerals lying beneath, the Native Americans looked for anything that could bring jobs to their nations and improve their economy. About a quarter of the Navajo population’s yearly income is less than $10,000. 38% of the Navajo nation is living in poverty, with the percentage increasing for tribal members under the age of 18 (1). This is how the large mining corporations were allowed to set up shop on the various Native American reservations.
Colorado mining first began in 1859, ten years after the California gold rush. What’s known as the Colorado gold rush was the biggest gold rush in United States history and helped define the West as we know it today. Early pioneers on their way to California for work, along with help from local the Cherokee people, discovered gold through the process known as placer mining or panning. Once word got out of gold in the streams of what was at the time the Kansas Territory, thousands upon thousands of people flocked to the mountains around Pikes Peak and the Denver area to the north in hopes of striking it rich. This sudden rush of people to the Front Range was known as the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. They slowly expanded into the mountains, finding mining claims in the Clear Creek area near Idaho Springs and Georgetown, in South Park which is farther south, and around Cripple Creek which is located southwest of present day Colorado Springs. In 1860, Charles Baker (a member of the Pikes Peak gold rush) made his way into the San Juan mountains and established an area known as Bakers Park (present day Silverton). His party found gold in placer deposits (accumulation of valuable minerals caused by gravity, usually found in streams or bodies of water) and a year later brought 300 people in to help with the discovery. However, the Civil War ended all work in Bakers Park.
In 1868, the San Luis valley was opened up for settlers by the Utes. This brought a renewed interest in the mining in the San Juan mountains. As people poured back into Baker’s Park, the Utes, who still had the rights to the San Juan mountains, attacked and killed anyone who tried to mine in their territory. The acts of aggression did nothing to stop the pioneers and settlers. The Utes knew their efforts couldn’t stop the inevitable flood of people. After some convincing, the Utes sold the land they had in the San Juans to the United States. This unlocked the mountains to all sorts of mining, and the towns of Lake City, Creede, Silverton, Durango, Ouray, Telluride, and Rico appeared not long after. Constant mining in the San Juan mountains continued from the early 1870s to the late 1920s, with hiccups around the Great Depression and the second World War. Most mining died out after the end of World War II with the remaining valuable mineral mines (gold, silver, lead, zinc) closing in 1999 (Quillen). Uranium mining began in the 1940s when atomic bombs were being researched and lasted until the early 1980s. Oil and gas drilling started in the San Juan basin in the early 1900s and continues to this day.
Mining on the Colorado Plateau has long been a mixture above surface and subsurface (underground) mining, with most of it being subsurface. Hardrock mining is the broadest type of mining that is prevalent on the plateau, usually in the mountains and hills. Open pit mining and strip mining are also types of mining used on the plateau. Hardrock mining and underground mining is usually used for deeper ore pockets and usually involves extracting hard minerals such as gold and silver. Gold, silver, and coal mining were the first large production mining operations on the plateau, all of which are primarily subsurface hardrock mining, with other rare minerals, followed by gas and oil done by drilling and fracking, then uranium which started out as subsurface hardrock mining but is done by open pit mining in more recent decades. Coal, gas, and oil are all still being extracted throughout the region, with uranium trying to make a comeback. Uranium is a fairly common element which is 40 times more common than silver and almost 500 times more common than gold (What is Uranium?). In the U.S., around 60% of all known uranium deposits and 33% of the low-sulfur coal, are found under Native American reservations. In addition to that, a quarter of the oil and 15% of the natural gas the United States states as its own, are under reservations (Churchill). The major uranium deposits are along the Colorado-Utah border and down nears Grants, New Mexico. Both of these uranium deposits are either under or near Native American reservations. The Navajo and other tribes on the Colorado Plateau continue to be some of the most mining affected tribes in the United States.
Part 3: Research and Analysis
Mineral extraction on reservations isn’t wholly bad, as one might deduce. The benefits that come with allowing mining on Native American land are almost all economical and for the people who live on the reservation, it’s extremely difficult to get a solid, reliable job. In an article on The Guardian about the post-mining culture in Western Colorado and the rivalry between ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’, the author states,“Liberals fighting against the mining industry are good at telling them no, residents say, but don’t present them with any alternatives – not ones that come with real salaries” (Beckett). The whole article summarizes clearly what problems arise when a mining company or power plant is shut down or closes around small communities across the Native American reservations and the western U.S. One specific area the article writes about is Uravan, Colorado, which was at one time a main supplier of uranium for the Manhattan Project during World War II. Uravan was a company mining town built around a uranium mine, but once the area was declared a Superfund site in 1986, the town was torn down, trees and all, and buried in the hills behind the townsite. Nearby Uravan’s resting place, the town of Nucla is struggling to stay alive after recent news of the local power plant closing in 2022 after an environmental group filed a lawsuit against them. The closure will take away around 80 jobs, which is a huge blow to the population of the town which is at less than 800 people already (2). The situation is similar in communities all over the Navajo reservation with a perfect example being Page, Arizona. The town is supported by only two major economic contributors: Lake Powell and the Navajo Generating Station. There has been lots of controversy around the generating station with talks of shutting it down in the coming years. Without that power plant, the town of Page would be left with just Lake Powell and tourism to carry it; and the lake has been seeing lower water levels in recent years. Towns built on only one or two main resources that provide a life source are dangerous to begin with. It could be very easy for the town to waste away in the case that the main resources are taken away.
Economic Benefits
In contrast to the Navajo, the Southern Ute Tribe of Southwestern Colorado have been managing the economic prosperity of their tribe very well. The tribe has thrived for over a hundred years; starting with the creation of their reservation. In 1873, a Ute leader known as Chief Ouray negotiated a deal with the U.S. government that allowed early miners into Ute lands in what is now the San Juan mountains. Along with letting the U.S. have the land, the government was to pay the tribe $25,000 every year for the rest of time and allow them to still hunt in the mountains. Ouray was also given an extra $1,000 salary each year for the rest of his life. Since then, the Southern Ute have grown to become one of the richest Native American tribes in the country, with a economic company, the Southern Ute Growth Fund, that the tribe runs various businesses through. This growth fund manages operations and assets in energy, construction, real estate, and private equity, and is spread across 14 states and the Gulf of Mexico. One of the biggest pieces of their conglomerate is the Red Willow Production Company, which is an oil and natural gas company. Through this subsidiary company, they have over 1,600 wells throughout 4 states; and as Bloomberg News pointed out, “The tribe counts more oil and gas wells than it does members.”
Recently, the Southern Ute have been trying to expand their drilling practices. As the author of the aforementioned article on Bloomberg News pointed out, “Since 2012, the Southern Ute tribe has spent $1.6 million lobbying Washington to ease energy permits, ensure tribal sovereignty and lighten U.S. Interior Department rules on fracking and methane emissions, according to the Senate’s Lobbying Disclosure Act database” (Traywick). The tribe has the money to help itself, something most tribes do not. At the same time the Standing Rock Sioux are battling the government over building the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Southern Ute are trying to get the government to let them take full control of their land and start more drilling. The Southern Utes believe that they know what’s best for their land and are tired of jumping through hoops to get something done that they can just do themselves.
Mineral extraction has many economic benefits for the various communities it affects. It creates towns and supports families and in some cases helps entire Native American reservations become self sustaining. Nevertheless, the cons outweigh the pros by a long shot.
Health Risks
The health risks that mineral extraction poses to humans and animals alike is not something to take lightly. Various diseases, mainly respiratory and kidney, have become more prevalent in communities near mines, especially communities that have citizens that work or have worked in the mines at some point. An academic journal, Mining and Environmental Health Disparities in Native American Communities, did the math: “Today, more than 4.1 million Native Americans live in the Western USA, 478,000 on Reservation lands. Combining US Census information and a gridded population dataset, we estimated that more than 600,000 Native Americans live within 10 kilometers of an abandoned mine” (Lewis, Hoover, & MacKenzie, 2017). With the amount of abandoned mines, and still active mines, across Native American reservations, it’s a wonder that more people aren’t sick or haven’t developed symptoms.
Uranium mining is one of the major industries to blame when it comes to sickness on the reservations. Uranium affects the body mostly through inhalation - breathing in air that contains uranium dusts or eating something that contains uranium. The kidneys are most affected by uranium, causing kidney failure which can lead to death. Cancers can form from uranium exposure, but usually years later. In an essay published on Geosciences titled The Legacy of Uranium Development on or Near Indians Reservations and Health Implications Rekindling Public Awareness, the author states that “Over ninety percent of all milling done in the U.S. occurred on or just outside the boundaries of American Indian reservations” (Moore-Nall, 1.4). Multiple large uranium veins are found in the U.S. under the Colorado Plateau, much of which sits below the Navajo reservation.
Native Americans have had their health affected by the uranium. The topic has been researched many times before. In one case, The History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People, it was discovered that of the thousands of uranium miners who worked in the mines between the years of 1950 and 1960, 500 to 600 died of lung cancer and were almost all associated with radon exposure. Even after 1990, a similar number of deaths was to be expected. A study of Navajo miners done in 2000 reported that there were 94 documented deaths caused by lung cancer. 63 of the deaths were of people who were former uranium miners. Uranium miners reportedly had a relative risk of 28.6% when compared to controls (Brugge & Goble). The lack of protective measures taken to protect the mine workers resulted in high levels of exposure to radioactivity. Uranium miners are five times more likely to contract lung cancer than the general population. As stated earlier, Navajo nation members aren’t big on smoking, yet the male Navajo miners were found to have lung cancer in 75% of cases studied (Markstrom & Charley, 25). An academic journal article articulated that, “In summarizing several studies, Mulloy et al. (2001) concluded that, “exposure to dust, gases, exhaust, and fumes can result in nonmalignant or malignant respiratory disease in underground miners” (p.306). In addition to lung cancer, other respiratory diseases included silicosis, pulmonary fibrosis, emphysema, obstructive lung disease, silico-tuberculosis, and pneumoconiosis (Mulloy et al., 2001) (Markstrom & Charley, 25).” The evidence is there. Uranium mining has had lasting negative health effects on the miners and millers that worked in the industry throughout the Cold War. Without the proper precautions in place to avoid the health issues, there was no stopping the diseases from becoming worse.
Environmental Risks
Besides the health effects from basic mining techniques, things can happen that affect not only the health of people and livestock, but the environment as a whole as well. In the same journal published on Geosciences, Anita Moore-Nall brought up a uranium disaster:
“A disaster of huge consequences for the Navajo Nation occurred at the Church Rock uranium mill spill on 16 July 1979, in New Mexico when United Nuclear Corporation’s Church Rock uranium mill tailings disposal pond breached its dam. Over 1000 tons of solid radioactive mill waste and 93 million gallons of acidic, radioactive tailings solution flowed into the Puerco River, and contaminants traveled 130 kilometers downstream onto the Navajo Nation… Local residents, who were mostly Navajos, used the Puerco River for irrigation and livestock and were not immediately aware of the toxic danger… In terms of the amount of radiation released, the accident was larger in magnitude than the Three Mile Island accident of the same year” (Moore-Nall, 1.4).
When the journal piece was written in early 2015, various government and tribal organizations had been working on testing the grounds around the abandoned uranium mines throughout the reservation for at least five years. The conclusion was that all of the mines had contaminated the area around them and in most cases, the communities and homes that were situated around them. Tests done on wells near the mines also proved that there was indeed contamination in the water, leading to the need to drill new wells or else the people drinking from it could become even more poisoned then they already were. Land near the mines that hadn’t been used in decades was still extremely contaminated. Houses were found to be made from the remains of tailings piles, adding to the amount of contamination already in their bodies and in the areas around the houses.
The Colorado Plateau also has thousands of oil and gas wells spread across it. Fracking, which is the process of pushing liquid into crevasses at high velocities to gain access to oil and gas, has become increasingly popular and common. The process has become an easier way to access the fossil fuel deposits lying underground; and like uranium, it is found under Native American lands. The effects of fracking are most prevalent to the people living through the plateau because it is the most present and expanding type of minerals extraction at the moment.
Fracking affects the air, water, soil, and can cause problems in the Earth’s crust. Fracking releases methane gas into the atmosphere which is one of the major gases causing heat to become trapped in the atmosphere. Along with methane, many other air contaminants are released through fracking, disposal of waste, material and equipment transport, and construction and operation of the well site. An online information source, published on Teach the Earth, provided examples of other pollutants released by fracking and drilling: “benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene (BTEX), dust, ground level ozone, or smog, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and metals contained in diesel fuel combustion (Hoffman).” These pollutants can also affect humans health negatively.
Water is essential to the fracking process as it is the main liquid sent into the ground to break apart the crevasses that the oil and gas is stored in. The water is mixed with sand and other chemicals to split the the rock. During this process, however, it is easy for the water to break into underground water pockets and aquifers. The chemical and sand filled water then mixes with the clean underground water and contaminates it. The water is unusable at this point. This can also lead to the soil and ground around the water and oil pockets to become contaminated as well. Plants won’t grow and the ground becomes unhealthy. In addition to the contamination of the ground and water, fracking has also been known to trigger small earthquakes. The high pressure streams of water breaking apart rock can start these seismic events and while the earthquakes may be small, the fact that they happen near the pockets of now-contaminated water is a problem for contaminating the ground even further (7).
Part 4: Discussion and Conclusion
Overall, the effects that mineral extraction has had on Native American tribes throughout the Colorado Plateau have been negative. People have become increasingly sick as well as the land becoming impossible to live on due to the radiation and contamination caused by the ways that the different minerals are removed and how the wastes are disposed of. The mining industry has more than enough rules and restrictions presently, that it’s hard to believe that at one point there wasn’t any rule enforcement in the mines, thus leading to people developing problems and dying.
Although one Native American tribe has proven itself to understand how to work mineral extraction into its culture and provide for itself off of it, the health risks that come from said mineral extraction still outweigh whatever benefits it brings. The amount of money that would eventually be needed to take care of the slowly dying population as well as the contaminated environment would be enormous and would dwarf the amount of money that any drilling or mining would bring in. Not to mention that there would be hundreds of people dying of lung cancer and other respiratory issues to deal with. It doesn’t quite seem worth it to continue extracting minerals the way it is being done at the moment.
The environment needs time to replenish itself. If mining continues the way it does currently, and continues to use resources wastefully, the problems produced could result in extreme environmental issues across the Southwest as well as economic issues. Mining and fracking use millions of gallons of water to extract the minerals. Because water is scarce on the plateau, it is trucked and/or piped in to the mines and drill sites. Once there, it is used to get a job done and then it is contaminated and forgotten about, usually put into an evaporating pond of some sort. This isn’t smart because the water is being used and then wasted. This sort of wastefulness is what needs to change to make the future more liveable and more viable.
To get to a place where mineral extraction is safe for workers as well as civilians living near mines, and is safe for the environment, things need to change. Stricter regulations need to be put in place in the mining corporations for worker safety and proper management of waste. Resources need to be used more effectively instead of wasted.
Now that the majority of the problems brought forward by mineral extraction are known publicly, more oversight and rules will be used if mining companies want to continue running. The civilian population in this day and age won’t let any injustices slide by which means that no more humans will get sick and the environment will stay uncontaminated. Research will continue to be done on the effects of mineral extraction as the industry changes to fit with the times. It’s hard to imagine that mining and drilling industries will die off anytime soon. In the past, mineral extractions has endangered the lives of thousands of Native Americans. It has contaminated the environment and homes of these people. In the future, mineral extraction will be clean and safe.
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