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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2002
Activists support Shoshone at Yucca Mountain
Las Vegas--About 5,000 activists camped out near Yucca
Mountain between Oct. 5 and 15 for the Action for Nuclear Abolition Nonviolent
Direct Action Camp, including anti-war, anti-nuke and environmental justice
activists. Participants included Shoshone and other Native Americans, Chicanos,
African-Americans and Asians. They oppose plans to store nuclear waste at Yucca
Mountain. The campsite was the Nevada Test Site Peace Camp. Yucca
Mountain used to be part of the Western Shoshone Native Americans' land and was
taken from them for nuclear waste disposal. We want someone to listen to this
community and understand that the mountain can't hold this kind of waste while
sitting on an earthquake fault. Shoshone tribes are dying out. About 90 people live in the
area and the government claims no one lives where they test the bombs. That is
an insignificant number of people to the U.S. government. They have destroyed
the native plants that the people use. The transportation route for the nuclear fuel rods will
mean that all of us will be affected. They will come on trains and highways
throughout the U.S. Environmental activists representing the four colors of
humanity traveled from the four directions of the continent to stand together
against the nuclear policies that have terrorized our communities and threatened
the lives of our children and families. We made the point that nuclear
facilities in South Carolina, Washington, New Mexico and Nevada, a chemical
plant in Mississippi, and the Defense Depot in Memphis, Tenn., have caused
cancer, birth defects, reproductive illnesses, and skin disorders in the
surrounding communities. From Aug. 9 to Oct. 11, a group of 25 took part in the
Family Spirit Walk. They walked over 800 miles from near Los Alamos, N.M.,
through dozens of indigenous communities affected by the nuclear chain, to the
Nevada nuclear test site. As they were walking, people joined in each day, so
hundreds participated. On Oct. 12, thousands of people walked through the gate
of the Test Site, ground belonging to the Shoshone people, where 828 full-scale
nuclear bombs have been exploded. We were walking on highly contaminated ground.
It's not chained off because they want us to think it's OK. Ninety people were arrested for going up on Yucca Mountain.
The jail only holds 30 people, so they couldn't hold them for too long. As
people continued to demonstrate, they put them in open pens. If you didn't tell
them your name and where you live, they held you even though it is against the
law to do so. There was constant harassment at the camp from the
Sheriff's Department, and the Health Department kept coming to check the kitchen
and the food. One night there was a concert with different groups from
San Francisco. Youth came from all over for the concert and to support the
Shoshone people. It reminded me of the 1960s, when civil rights movement people
joined hands. Here we were about health, from all over the country, showing we
all had the same problems if we don't do something about the nuclear chain. It was the first time I was involved in a demonstration
that large since the 1960s and I was so pleased to see the youth involved. Some
were college students, and some had worked on nuclear issues for years. --Doris Bradshaw |
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