The Legacy of Uranium Development on or Near Indian Reservations and Health Implications Rekindling Public Awareness

Abstract

Uranium occurrence and development has left a legacy of long-lived health effects for many Native Americans and Alaska Natives in the United States. Some Native American communities have been impacted by processing and development while others are living with naturally occurring sources of uranium. The uranium production peak spanned from approximately 1948 to the 1980s. Thousands of mines, mainly on the Colorado Plateau, were developed in the western U.S. during the uranium boom. Many of these mines were abandoned and have not been reclaimed. Native Americans in the Colorado Plateau area including the Navajo, Southern Ute, Ute Mountain, Hopi, Zuni, Laguna, Acoma, and several other Pueblo nations, with their intimate knowledge of the land, often led miners to uranium resources during this exploration boom. As a result of the mining activity many Indian Nations residing near areas of mining or milling have had and continue to have their health compromised. This short review aims to rekindle the public awareness of the plight of Native American communities living with the legacy of uranium procurement, including mining, milling, down winders, nuclear weapon development and long term nuclear waste storage.

Community Engaged Cumulative Risk Assessment of Exposure to Inorganic Well Water Contaminants, Crow Reservation, Montana

“…Uranium, As and other metals occur naturally in local geological formations in the headwaters of the Bighorn River, a former mining district. Natural processes, perhaps exacerbated by past mining, could result in these elements contaminating groundwater in the Bighorn River valley below [ 123 , 124 , 165 ].…”

Disproportionality and Resource‐Based Environmental Inequality: An Analysis of Neighborhood Proximity to Coal Impoundments in Appalachia

“…For example, scholars have examined the environmental and social impacts of hog waste in rural North Carolina (Driscoll and Edwards ; Edwards and Ladd ). Other studies find that both unexploded military ordnance (Hooks and Smith ) and abandoned uranium mines (Moore‐Nall ) are disproportionately located near rural Native American reservations. Locke () finds that potentially hazardous frac sand mines are more likely to be located in rural counties with fewer zoning regulations.…”

Community-Based Research as a Mechanism to Reduce Environmental Health Disparities in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities

“…The impacts of environmental problems add to health disparities in ways both obvious and subtle; these health effects are often difficult to tease out among the numerous other causes. For instance, AIAN communities and many communities of color live in areas that are disproportionately co-located with environmental hazards such as nuclear test sites, uranium mines, power plants, toxic waste dumps and other sources of pollution [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. While the issue with geographic proximity is clear, and linking proximity to health impacts is intuitive, often it is difficult to establish cause–effect relationships due to the presence of many other health inequities and the often chronic nature of exposures.…”