America's Secret Chernobyl

posted by Patty James @ 8:14pm, Monday 28 June 2010.

I am here  in Lakota Country in South Dakota interviewing kids about their health and gathering health surveys from the parents of the kids, most of who would be considered morbidly obese. In order to entice the parents to sign the permission slips allowing me to speak with their children about their health, they are offered hamburgers and French fries and snow cones.  Fundraisers for kids offer the same foods, here in the area with some of the highest diabetes rates in the country.  At the school where I was today and will be tomorrow, the lunch was corn and pasta and canned fruit. The taste for these foods has been graciously supplied by our government. It’s the least we could do….

 

You’ve seen the bumper sticker, ‘If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.’  Well, never has that meant as much to me. We all know the history of Native American’s and how we stole their lands, their culture, their languages and their lives. Did you also know we have bombed their lands, mined their lands, and buried nuclear waste on their lands?

 

Right here in the Pine Ridge Reservation, originally known as Prisoner of War Camp #344, radiation-warning signs were posted in 2007 warning locals about the high radiation levels in the Cheyenne River.  This same river basin drains about 16,500 square miles within the boundaries of South Dakota.  One article I read stated that, “At a meeting for the Defenders of the Black Hills on Feb 26th 2005, discussions centered on the radiation levels in some areas reported at a staggering 1,400 times higher than the ordinary background radiation on the Grand River in the Cave Hills and the adverse affects to the villages on the Standing Rock Indian Reservations. Also discussed was the high proportion of cancer related illnesses and birth defects especially in the small community of Rock Creek.”

 

Many refer to this area as America’s Secret Chernobyl.

 

According to another report, “in 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a secret Executive Order declaring this four State region to be a 'National Sacrifice Area’ for the mining and production of uranium and nuclear energy. This is the same area of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty territory, the final home of the Great Sioux Nation.” Perhaps that is why street names such as “Bombing Area Road” exist.  Seriously.

 

Outraged yet? I know I am. 

 

So here is the ultimate sacrifice. Children. There is hopelessness in their eyes masked behind anger.  You can see it, you can feel it. Hope is something every child deserves and something that is our duty to provide.

 

And to think I had the audacity to feel a little sorry for myself this afternoon.