Negotiations continue this morning between leaders of the Navajo Nation and Energy Fuels Resources, the company that has restarted uranium mining operations at the Pinyon Plain Mine near the Grand Canyon. But, the Navajo Nation is taking steps to strengthen their position on their own.
After calling a special session last month, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed legislation strengthening tribal law that bans the transportation of uranium ore across the reservation without giving the tribe advance notice.
The move comes after exactly that happened earlier this summer, when Energy Fuels only gave Navajo leaders hours notice before hauling radioactive uranium across it.
Shondiin Silversmith, journalist at The Arizona Mirror, joined The Show to talk more about it.
Full conversation
SHONDIIN SILVERSMITH: So the reason why it was so controversial is because the Navajo Nation has had a law, a tribal law, set in place since 2012 that restricts the transportation of any uranium or radioactive materials across tribal land that includes the Navajo Nation. So what that law entails is that companies who intend to do that on either state roads or federal roads going through the Navajo Nation, they are required to give advance notice to the Navajo Nation.
And what happened at the end of July is the Navajo Nation got a notice but hours before the transportation happened. So that was a really big issue with tribal leaders across the Navajo Nation. But also a huge concern for just citizens of the Navajo Nation, people in the communities that this uranium was going to be hauled through. So in response, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued an executive order requesting the cease of any type of transportation across the Navajo Nation. And the response from the state of Arizona, as well as the mining company, kind of supported that.
They did it out of good faith because technically they are legally allowed to transport the uranium ore on those public roads and through that area without any restrictions because they got permission to do it from the state and the federal agencies involved.
But out of good faith and through Arizona, governmental leadership negotiations have started between the mining company and the Navajo Nation to secure some type of agreement that would support the Navajo nation's concerns in terms of transporting this uranium war safely through the Navajo Nation.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. Right. So you have these interesting jurisdictional issues here. And the governor stepped forward, like you said, sort of said, no, we're going to stop this, that they, the company agreed and they've been in negotiations since. Do we know where those stand at this point, Shondiin?
SILVERSMITH: At this point in time, at least according to the Navajo Nation President's office, they're still ongoing. They haven't been able to reach an agreement yet. So they're still talking about what that type of transportation would entail, especially because they are transporting through so many communities on the Navajo Nation with so many Navajo people.
And the response to what happened in July was huge. You had environmental activists and local tribal advocates really pushing against just the complete halt of having this uranium or transported through the Navajo Nation.
GILGER: So they're in negotiations, they have not come to an agreement yet. But the tribe also wanted to do more to make sure that this didn't happen essentially. And they called a special session just like you would see here at the state Legislature and strengthened the legislation that you mentioned at the beginning. Tell us exactly what the, what the changes are, what the significance of this is.
SILVERSMITH: So they wanted to be able to strengthen their own tribal law in terms of what it would mean to transport uranium and other radioactive materials across their tribal lands. One of the biggest amendments that they made, it requires that any regulation, any person or entity seeking to transport uranium or yellow cake radioactive material or any other radioactive product across the Navajo Nation or any tribal land must first enter into an agreement with the Navajo Nation.
And that agreement must outline the terms and conditions of the transport, which includes the routes, the emergency plans, the travel restrictions, containment fees, etc. And they have to notify the Navajo nation seven days before they make this transportation. Before companies were only required to give the Navajo Nation four days’ notice. But when Energy Fuels resources started transporting across the Navajo Nation in July, they didn't even give them 24 hours’ notice.
GILGER: So I want to ask you about the tribal sovereignty aspect of this which the Navajo president and lots of people in the council talked about when they signed this legislation you wrote about in your piece, like I wonder what the reaches are of that because like you said, at the beginning, there are some jurisdictional kind of complications here. Like technically under state and federal law, the uranium ore could very well be transported across those public roads. But where does tribal law come into play? Like what supersedes the other?
SILVERSMITH: By the Navajo Nation amending these laws, they want the state of Arizona, but also this mining company to respect the fact that they are their own governing body. They want them to respect tribal sovereignty and work with the Navajo Nation to be able to find solutions to safely transport this uranium or across the Navajo Nation without them only finding out a few hours before it happens.
Especially when this legislation was passed, a lot of the concerns that came up within the emergency session is just like, the Navajo Nation has had a legacy of uranium mining for decades. They have some of the most abandoned mines within the country. And between 1944 and 1986, nearly 30 million tons of uranium ore was extracted from the Navajo Nation. And hundreds of Navajo people worked in the mines and often lived within distance of the mines. And all of that has had such a drastic impact on the Navajo Nation.
So when you have this type of historical concern and impact tribal leaders responded because they knew that with this renewed interest in uranium mining because of this push for clean energy, they figured, well, transportation is unavoidable. So what way can we try to find the best solution for all of us involved? And the way they decided to do that was by strengthening their own tribal law.
Many delegates voiced their concerns about this and like it's just imminent transportation of uranium more across the Navajo Nation is imminent, and this was one of their responses to be able to do something about it.
GILGER: Yeah. And a long and fraught history there that you mentioned.