Joe Shirley Jr.

• Author: Pascarella, Matthew
• Position: Q&A - Brief Article - Interview

In April, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. signed legislation that banned uranium mining and processing on any sites within Navajo Indian Country. For forty years, companies mined for the radioactive element on Navajo lands, leaving behind contaminated sites and abandoned mines.

Q: What led you to ban uranium mining on Navajo land?

Joe Shirley Jr: It has killed so many of our people. We mined uranium for the U.S. government, but it didn't warn us about the dangers. Only after it created the atom bomb did officials tell us there were some dangers with mining uranium. My people started catching cancer and started dying off. There's no cure for the cancer that it causes, so I vowed when I was campaigning that if I were elected I would work on the banning of further mining of uranium on Navajo land.

Q: Hydro Resources, Inc., has been working with the Nuclear

Regulatory Commission to get approval for mining near the Navajo communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock, New Mexico. What are you planning on doing if Hydro...