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New Mexico Native Women Speak Out for Mining Law Reform

Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) and the Haaku Water Office of the Pueblo of Acoma joined state regulators and conservation organizations in a campaign to educate New Mexico’s congressional delegation and the public about the urgent need to reform federal mining law. Mining law reform is a growing focus for Native American organizations in New Mexico in response to a massive wave of uranium exploration projects hitting the Mount Taylor area. Mount Taylor is a 11,301 foot high stratovolcano in the center of 50-mile long volcanic plateau. It is also a large area of great traditional and cultural significance to area tribes. Federal land on the slopes of Mount Taylor have mining claims staked under provisions of the 1872 Federal Mining Law.

That mining law was passed to promote the development of and settlement on public lands more than 130 years ago. The law allows miners to take valuable hardrock minerals including gold, silver, and uranium, from public lands without royalty payment to the taxpayer, unlike coal mining, oil or natural gas that pay royalties. Miners can also acquire the mineral rights to public lands for $2.50 or $5.00 per acre -- 1872 prices that do not reflect the many millions of dollar value of the minerals.

On November 1, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 2262, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, which would substantially change the 1872 law. The House bill, among other things, could prevent mining that would cause “undue degradation of public lands and resources.” The bill also sets up a fund from increased royalty payments that would be used to reclaim mined lands and to provide funding to communities and tribes negatively impacted by hardrock mining on public lands.

Both of New Mexico’s senators are particularly important to the national debate about federal mining policy reform, as they are the top-ranked members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Republican Senator Pete Domenici is Ranking Minority Member and Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman is Chairman. National attention will be focused on this Committee as it attempts to address the long-standing need for reform of the mining law for federal lands before the urgency of the 2008 election cycle overshadows Congress’s legislative work.

Leona Morgan, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) Lead Organizer, and Laura Watchempino, Program Director at the Haaku Water Office (Pueblo of Acoma), spoke about the importance of mining law reform at a January 10 briefing at the All Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Also, speaking were representatives of New Mexico State government and area conservation organizations. Fellow participants in the briefing were Bill Brancard, Director of the Mining and Minerals Division of the New Mexico Energy, Mineral and Natural Resources Department; Gregory Green, New Mexico Representative of the Pew Campaign for Mining Law Reform; Nathan Newcomer of New Mexico Wilderness Alliance; Michael Jensen of Amigos Bravos; Oscar Simpson of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation; and Javier Benavidez of Conservation Voters New Mexico.

On behalf of ENDAUM, Leona Morgan asserted:

“Because the 1872 mining law opens up the federal land to favor companies, as opposed to protecting (traditional) cultural properties and the sovereignty of the tribes, we are very concerned. This law needs to be reformed.”

Morgan linked her community’s concern about new uranium activity in northwestern New Mexico, including the Eastern Agency of the Navajo Nation, to the painful 65-year history of uranium mining for Navajo people, land and culture:

“Navajo people have suffered for many years not only the physical dangers of uranium mining to our health and our people, but our cultural properties and our culture. (W)e use these cultural properties as native people. All of our beliefs and our philosophies are based in the land and in nature. To disturb the integrity of these cultural properties would damage and threaten our way of life as indigenous peoples to this land. As a Navajo person, I am here to speak on behalf of our brothers and sisters in nature – the plants and animals, the mountain. Our sacred mountain, Mount Taylor, is being threatened not only by uranium mining, but by development in general.”

Laura Watchempino emphasized the united voice of Pueblo and Navajo tribal leaders who have adopted resolutions seeking to protect Mount Taylor and Navajo areas of New Mexico from future uranium mining, and recognize the singular importance of the limited available water resources to their arid homeland. She said:

“Last year the Pueblo of Acoma went to the All Indian Pueblo Council, and along with the Navajo Nation, received broad support among all the tribes in New Mexico, including the nineteen pueblos, to protect the sacred area surrounding Mount Taylor, a place of cultural significance to all of the tribes in the southwest. The uranium industry has been a driving force in this movement because of its impacts not only to our cultures, but to the water resources in the area. We live in a dry, arid portion of the country where water resources should be protected. We’re probably reaching a point in the State’s development overall where new industry may not be sustainable in this region. The area around Mount Taylor provides a good example of reaching our sustainable limits.”

Watchempino added:

“Before mining companies come in, we need to look at the ground water and surface water resources. The connection between them (is) very fragile in this part of the country. That’s something that needs to be considered in mining [law] reform.”

Watchempino also stated that the federal land subject to uranium exploration in New Mexico includes “areas that form natural water sheds, in this case, the Mount Taylor region, forms the headwaters for the Rio San Jose, which is the life blood of the Pueblo of Acoma as well as (the Pueblo of) Laguna.”

ENDAUM was founded in December 1994 to protect the water sources used by the Navajo community of Crownpoint and surrounding Navajo Chapters in the San Juan Basin of Northwestern New Mexico. ENDAUM has been a party to regulatory and legal actions challenging an “in situ” uranium mine proposed near Crownpoint and Churchrock. The organization’s primary focus is the Eastern Agency and the current uranium development proposals in the Crownpoint and Churchrock areas.

Watchempino spoke as a representative of the Pueblo of Acoma’s Water Program, the Haaku Water Office. The office is responsible for implementation of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-authorized Water Quality Program to protect the waters of the Pueblo of Acoma, including protection of water quality in areas upstream of the Pueblo’s water supplies. The Pueblo’s primary water source is the Rio San Jose watershed, a 100-mile long tributary of the Rio Grande. The Rio San Jose watershed continues to suffer from decades of contamination and diversion of water for use by uranium mines and mills. Correcting that damage is a leading driver for the Pueblo’s long-standing programs to protect water quality and water supply in the Rio San Jose. Southwest Research is currently contracting with the Haaku Water Office to provide technical services to address new uranium projects and continuing contamination from the Homestake uranium mill tailings pile north of Grants, NM.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ENDAUM: (505) 786-5209 Pueblo of Acoma, Haaku Water Office: (505) 552-6604