Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues, April 26-30

NATIVE NUCLEAR FORUM

5-Day Speaker Series, April 26 to 30

The Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues focuses on the impacts that nuclear has on Native American communities across the country, including uranium mining and milling, nuclear weapons production and testing, atomic reactor operation, radioactive waste transport and dumping, etc. Join them from 5 to 7pm PT each day (8 to 10pm ET; 7 to 9pm CT; 6 to 8pm MT). Speakers include Winona LaDuke, Steve Newcomb, Carletta Tilousi, Dr. Tommy Rock, Manny Pino, Myron Dewey, Joe Kennedy, and Ian Zabarte. Featured artists and performers include Jack Malotte, Sarah Caligiuri, and Bryan Hudson. This virtual event is brought to you by Native Community Action Council in partnership with Native Americans for Restorative Stewardship. Pre-registration is required for each day's session.

REGISTER

This land is sacred to the Apache, and they are fighting to save it

Native Americans want to protect Oak Flat, a sacred site 60 miles east of Phoenix, from a mining operation

As reported by the Washington Post.

As the article reports:

Kevin Allis, former chief executive of the National Congress of American Indians, the largest lobbying group for tribes in the country, said lawmakers, federal agency officials and private businesses often overlook that tribes are land-based people and that where they’re from has a “spiritual significance” that is “not transferrable.”

“Our ancestral traditions and customs are tied to special places that are unique to that community,” said Allis, who is also a tribal member of the Forest County Potawatomi Community in Wisconsin and now runs Thunderbird Strategic, a consulting firm for tribes. “You can’t move that somewhere else. You can’t say move Oak Flat to Utah, Chicago or Kansas and it have the same significance.”

“When you want to mine for copper or uranium or poke holes for gas, you’re going to destroy that community,” Allis said. “Any alteration is a permanent scar on that spot that is so sensitive and sacred to that tribal community.

“You destroy it, and it’s forever gone.”

[Emphasis added]