Yellow dirt An American story of a poisoned land and a people betrayed

Journalist Pasternak provides a coherent, sometimes wrenching explanation of why the Navajo Nation has banned the mining of uranium on its land. Beginning during WW II and continuing through most of the Cold War, the Navajo Nation was a major source of fuel for an arsenal of nuclear weapons. The uranium often was mined as if it were coal, with little protective gear or ventilation in the mines, despite studies that clearly linked exposure to lung cancer and many other maladies. Miners ate in the mines, slaked their thirst with radioactive water, and carried yellowcake home on their clothes. Waste piles (tailings) blew in the wind over Navajo communities, producing a distinctive and deadly yellow haze. Children dug play tunnels in the tailings piles, and many home foundations were built of tailings. After a latency period of about 25-30 years, many Navajos died of cancers that had been all but unknown before the plague that they called "the monster" was unearthed. Pasternak's work is intimate and horrifying with many graphic accounts of families sickened and lives ruined. Read it with Doug Brugge et al.'s The Navajo People and Uranium Mining (CH, Oct'07, 45-1067) and Peter H. Eichstaedt's If You Poison Us (CH, Mar'95, 32-4105). Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. B. E. Johansen University of Nebraska at Omaha

In the 1940s, when the U.S. government was embarking on developing atomic weapons, it discovered huge uranium deposits in Navajo territory covering parts of Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. Mines constructed there yielded uranium that would be used in the Manhattan Project and eventually in the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Navajo themselves saw little of the huge profits from uranium but as workers and land dwellers would suffer radiation exposure four times that of the Japanese targeted by the A-bomb. Award-winning environmental journalist Pasternak follows four generations of Navajo families, from the patriarch who warned against violating the land to those tempted by the prospects of jobs and money. She chronicles the cultural stoicism that prohibited them from complaining for so long about the alarming rates of cancer deaths, the betrayal of trust by corporate and government interests, the growing awareness of the tragedy visited on them in the name of national security, and the efforts to fight for restoration. A stunning look at a shameful chapter in American history with long-lasting implications for all Americans concerned with environmental justice.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist

Journalist Pasternak details the history of American uranium mining and its horrific consequences for the Navajo people in this stunning tale of deception, betrayal, and bitter consequences. Situated atop some of the richest uranium deposits in the country, the reservation covers parts of Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona and the area was instrumental in the building of the atomic bomb and, later, the cold war arms race. From 1930 to 1960, Navajo miners worked long days without ventilation or protective gear, while mining companies and government officials withheld from them information about the hazards of radiation. As birth defects and cancers became more prevalent than in the general population (residents of the reservation were 15-200 times more likely to contract stomach cancer), government agencies actively prevented the Navajos from connecting their illnesses to the uranium saturating their water, homes, livestock, and topsoil. The author brings half a century of deception to light and details the halting efforts to secure compensation for the victims. With nuclear power once more being discussed as a solution to America's energy problems, Pasternak's portrait of a devastated community and callous governmental indifference is crucial reading. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

FormerLos Angeles Timesreporter Pasternak debuts with an explosive account of U.S. neglect of the Navajo Indians during the rush to find the uranium required to create the first atomic bomb.In the 1940s, private companies began mining operations on the Navajo Nation reservation, which covers 27,000 square miles of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Hiring tribal people as miners, the firms unearthed the "yellow dirt," or uranium, needed for the Manhattan Project. For years, until the federal government finally had a surfeit of uranium in 1957, Navajos, many impoverished, continued working the mines, extracting four million tons of uranium ore and never knowing that their exposure to radiation could cause cancers and birth defects. The "slow environmental catastrophe" harmed several generations and continues to contaminate air and water for many of the 180,000 people on the reservation. Pasternak's complex book, winner of a J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award, details this largely unknown story in a narrative that will leave readers outraged over the largely uncaring and callous behavior of U.S. and corporate officials who were well aware of the mining's toll on the Navajo. In 1948, the Atomic Energy Commission disregarded its Colorado health chief's call for safeguards at uranium mines and mills, claiming it was the responsibility of state safety inspectors (who had no training in radiation). In 1952, Colorado and federal health officials were ignored when they urged improved ventilation and other mining safeguards. Two years later, federal research teams began monitoring the health of miners, producing data for the U.S. military on the effects of radiation. Pasternak writes that the pressure to produce uranium for the U.S. weapons program, conflicting agency priorities and the anticipated high costs of addressing health issues at hundreds of mines, all helped prevent action. Her own 2006Times investigative series spurred congressional hearings and steps by federal agencies, including an ongoing clean-up of Navajo homes built of contaminated rocks.Disturbing and well-documentedand hopefully effective. Though tribal leaders have banned yellow-dirt extraction, mining companies hope to resume operations.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.