In January, Council considered legislation (No. 0232-21) to approve three helium development projects for Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Company.
In January, Council considered legislation (No. 0232-21) to approve three helium development projects for Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Company. This legislation was tabled until the spring Council session. The projects are advanced as an important economic development opportunity for the Navajo Nation.
Yet, we, as a Nation, have tried extractive development as a source of economic development for a century, and it has never brought us wealth. Instead, extractive development has poisoned our land, water, animals, and people. In the face of COVID-19, many of our loved ones have paid for this with their lives.
Most notably, we allowed over 1,000 uranium mine sites to be developed on our homelands to protect the national security interests of the United States during the Cold War. This development made our Nation the site of the largest nuclear waste release in the United States when the Church Rock mill dam burst into the Rio Puerco.
Most of these sites remain unremediated and are estimated to take over a century to clean up. This is not to mention the damaging contaminant legacy of the extensive coal, oil and gas development that has also occurred on our lands.
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