‘Uranium hogan’
Congressman Kennedy tours Monument Valley

By Nathan J. Tohtsoni, The Navajo Times

OLJATO, Utah (Jan. 25, 2001) - As yet another group of onlookers - including a Rhode Island congressman - examined a hogan that had been built with uranium ore, Elsie Mae Begay of Oljato wanted the hogan demolished because she was tired of showing it to visitors.

Begay lives along a red mesa in the picturesque Monument Valley. In addition to pointing out the green ore in the hogan's bricks, Begay pointed to a "waste uranium" water runoff on top of the mesa not more than a quarter mile away. Before her family was aware of the dangers of uranium, they had used the water.

Begay has shown the hogan to representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Navajo Nation officials. On Thursday (Jan. 18), U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., was added to the list.
Kennedy is the youngest of three sons of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and nephew to the late president John F. Kennedy and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
The 33-year-old congressman, who is in his fourth term, made the trip to the Navajo Nation because he wanted to understand the problems facing Navajo people. He will share that information with his colleagues in Washington, D.C.
"It makes it more persuasive to see it with your own eyes and not just words on a piece of paper," he said. "My concern is making the voice of the native peoples heard. Whether it's health care, education, environment, essentially that's what needs to happen and provide more of a voice to the issues that the people here are facing. If my uncles were alive, this is the way they would want me to carry their names on.
"My role is to just walk around," he said. "It's the beginning of that relationship."
An ally in Washington
Kennedy made the visit to Navajoland after reading a page one article in the Boston Globe that exposed the "uranium homes" located across the Navajo Nation and the fact that the Navajo EPA does not have the funds to clean them.
The article, which ran Dec. 27, stated that there were two homes that the U.S. EPA identified as having dangerous radiation levels. One is located in Teec Nos Pos and the other is Begay's uranium hogan, which is located about 50 yards from her present hogan.
Many more homes were described as being built with uranium ore rocks that were piled outside the mine entryways. The article said, "the Navajos found that with a little chipping around the edges, these tan, relatively flat rocks made excellent building blocks. Miners often took rocks home after work, stockpiling them to use in building new homes."
Navajo EPA Director Derrith Watchman-Moore said the U.S. EPA has been monitoring the radiation and radon levels of homes that were constructed around the estimated 1,300 abandoned uranium mines in the Cameron, Cove, Red Valley, Oljato, Tuba City and Eastern areas. Moore would not even try to estimate how many uranium homes were built in those areas.
"I couldn't say," she said. "It's a real delicate process, real delicate, but we'll do something. We are believing it to be a big issue." 
Currently the Navajo EPA's Superfund or Radon programs have neither the funding nor expertise to tackle the uranium homes' issue. Moore has hopes that the agency will receive money either this fiscal year or the next.
That's where she has hopes Kennedy's trip will bear fruit.

Kennedy visited the Navajo Nation in his capacity as co-founder and vice chairman of the bipartisan Native American Caucus, a committee that deals with Native American issues in the House. He was also recently named to the influential Appropriations Committee, which means he will deal with budget proposals from the many federal programs.
"We don't think (Native American issues) are partisan issues," Kennedy said. "The U.S. government has a trust responsibility with its hundreds of treaties. This is a responsibility all congressmen have whether they represent native peoples or not.
"Now if people believe that what has been needed to be done has been done, if that somehow we can rest now, native peoples know that better than anyone else that's not true," he added. "To this day, this country continues to do wrongs to the native peoples.
"We can't blame someone 100 years ago, we have to take responsibility for today," he said. "Unfortunately when we talk of native programs, people say that's the whiteman giving a handout to Native Americans. That's the mindset of many of my colleagues. Our government took a mortgage out when they took your land, now it's time to pay back that mortgage."
Before the 26-mile drive to the uranium home in Monument Valley, Kennedy visited the Kayenta senior citizen center, Head Start, community school and Indian Health Service clinic.
"We're hoping Kennedy's visit will bear some fruit," Moore said. "I think he saw enough of the Navajo Nation issues like health, education and social."
Kayenta Council Delegate Daniel Peaches said it would take billions of dollars to clean all the uranium mines and homes. However, he was glad that a high-ranking congressman saw the problems firsthand that are facing the Navajo people.
"It's going to take people like Congressman Kennedy and others to really bring the congressional attention that something should be done on a more accelerated process than what's been done," Peaches said. "He'll be able to keep in mind the needs that exist out here not only on Navajo, but all Indian communities. In that aspect, he'll be a benefit to the Indian communities."
Sister of 'Navajo Boy'
Begay welcomed all those who crammed into her hogan, which had the red mitten rocks of Monument Valley serving as her front yard.
She talked of a simple life raising her family in the area, never knowing that the uranium mines carried sickness and death. Her husband and grandfather worked the mines and died as a result. Her aunt and herself have been diagnosed with health problems, which she relates to the uranium exposure.
If her life was not difficult enough, Begay is an older sister of John Wayne Cly, whose story was featured in the film "The Return of Navajo Boy." In the film, Cly told how missionaries raised him from childhood and he lost all contact with his family. It wasn't until Cly was a grown man that he was reunited with his family.
A newspaper article and a cardboard message declaring Cly as a parade grand marshal are proudly displayed on Begay's west wall.
"We were not told that uranium would cause health problems," she said. "We weren't told the effects of uranium mining, but now we're feeling it. When we lived close to the mine, we utilized the water from the pit. There was no water around here, we were never told it would do damage."


Find out more at www.thenavajotimes.com