Main entry:

Voyles, Traci Brynne. author.

Title & Author:

Wastelanding : legacies of uranium mining in Navajo country / Traci Brynne Voyles.

Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2015]

Description:

xv, 291 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-271) and index.
Preface: In search of treasure -- Introduction: Sacrificial land -- Empty except for Indians : early impressions of Navajo rangeland -- Prospecting for magic ore in America's new frontier -- Cowboys and Indians in Navajo country -- Hot spots: justice, power, and gender in the radioactive present -- Monsters and mountains: competing geographies of uranium -- The big hurt: boom and bust on contested ground -- Conclusion. Zombie mines.

Summary:

"Wastelanding tells the history of the uranium industry on Navajo land in the U.S. Southwest, asking why certain landscapes and the peoples who inhabit them come to be targeted for disproportionate exposure to environmental harm. Uranium mines and mills on the Navajo Nation land have long supplied U.S. nuclear weapons and energy programs. By 1942, mines on the reservation were the main source of uranium for the top-secret Manhattan Project. Today, the Navajo Nation is home to more than a thousand abandoned uranium sites. Radiation-related diseases are endemic, claiming the health and lives of former miners and nonminers alike. Traci Brynne Voyles argues that the presence of uranium mining on Diné (Navajo) land constitutes a clear case of environmental racism. Looking at discursive constructions of landscapes, she explores how environmental racism develops over time. For Voyles, the "wasteland," where toxic materials are excavated, exploited, and dumped, is both a racial and a spatial signifier that renders an environment and the bodies that inhabit it pollutable. Because environmental inequality is inherent in the way industrialism operates, the wasteland is the "other" through which modern industrialism is established. In examining the history of wastelanding in Navajo country, Voyles provides "an environmental justice history" of uranium mining, revealing how just as "civilization" has been defined on and through "savagery," environmental privilege is produced by portraying other landscapes as marginal, worthless, and pollutable"--The publisher.

ISBN:

9780816692644 (hc ; alk. paper)
0816692645 (hc ; alk. paper)
9780816692675 (pb ; alk. paper)
081669267X (pb ; alk. paper)
9781452944494 (ebook)

Subject:

Navajo Indians Government relations History 20th century.
Navajo Indians Health and hygiene History 20th century.
Uranium mines and mining Political aspects Southwest, New History 20th century.
Uranium mines and mining Social aspects Southwest, New History 20th century.
Radiation Health aspects Southwest, New History 20th century.
Indians of North America.
Medicine History 20th century.
Radioactive Waste adverse effects
Uranium adverse effects
Mining legislation & jurisprudence
Miners
Minority Health
Indians, North American
History, 20th Century
Navajo Relations avec l'État Histoire 20e siècle.
Navajo Santé et hygiène Histoire 20e siècle.
Uranium Mines et extraction Aspect politique États-Unis (Nouveau Sud-Ouest) Histoire 20e siècle.
Uranium Mines et extraction Aspect social États-Unis (Nouveau Sud-Ouest) Histoire 20e siècle.
Peuples autochtones Amérique du Nord.
Médecine Histoire 20e siècle.
Medicine
Navajo Indians Government relations
Navajo Indians Health and hygiene
Radiation Health aspects
Uranium mines and mining Political aspects
Uranium mines and mining Social aspects
Navajo Indian Reservation History 20th century.
Southwestern United States
Navajo Indian Reservation Histoire 20e siècle.
New Southwest
United States Navajo Indian Reservation

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 316634
Call No.: 316634
Copy: 1
Status: Available