Red Butte photo Dawn Dyer/Censored News
Cross Posted from Censored News
Grassroots protesters will take action at 7 am near the junction of Forest Road 305 and AZ Highway 64, independently from but in conjunction with Idle No More’s International Indigenous Solidarity Day, the presence of Havasupai elders, and the Sierra Club’s national executive director at the Canyon Uranium Mine. Grassroots protesters will also be available for interviews.
Energy Fuels Inc., the Toronto-based company digging the mine, have already dug 120 feet down what they hope will be a 1600 foot shaft. If the mine starts extracting uranium, it will expose residents and visitors to “low-level” radiation along Hwy 64. So called “low-level” radiation poisons air, waters, and soils for billions of years, causing cancers, birth defects, and other health problems. Even worse, Arizona’s environmental and haulage regulations fail to protect the public from these dangers.
In addition to these health impacts and contamination of the Grand Canyon ecosystem and aquifer, the mine will directly harm the integrity of nearby Red Butte, sacred to the Havasupai and other indigenous people.
For the past thirty years indigenous people of northern Arizona and their allies have been resisting uranium mining at the Grand Canyon. This struggle continues as protesters gather to express their opposition to the Canyon Uranium Mine 15 miles south of the south rim.
The mine, owned by Canada-based Energy Fuels Inc., is located in the Kaibab National Forest –15 miles south of the Grand Canyon. Before approving the mine, both the company and the US Forest Service failed to consult with local tribes as required by law. Instead, the USFS rushed approval by using an outdated Environmental Impact Statement, silencing community input and recent scientific research.
The Mama Bears Brigade have organized an encampment June 1-July ? in opposition to the Canyon Uranium Mine at the south rim. The camp is a space to speak out and inspire action towards a nuclear free world. We invite everyone who wants to protect the Grand Canyon to join us.
The Mama Bears Brigade is a volunteer, grassroots, feminist collective committed to exposing the dangers of the entire nuclear cycle.
CONTACT:
Mama Bears Brigade
