Radioactive Communities!

Energy, Empire and the Indigenous.

Allow me to tell you a story about ‘Radioactive Communities’ and ‘Detonator Landscapes’. The figure of the Indigenous situated within empire, capital and forever acceleration. What is a Detonator Landscape? A “coming into being” or the ecological and environmental consequences of human projects, the term was coined by Anna Tsing for the Feral Atlas in 2016. Human decisions, actions and events which managed to alter not just the landscape but also fundamental life giving capacities of the Earth, in irreversible ways. “Landscape-transformation projects” of the 19th and 20th century that symbolized scientific progress, greater industrial power and energy always involved devastating costs, consequently creating Detonator Landscapes and vast sacrifice zones in the quest for greater acquisition, experimentation and domination.

What do the Navajo Nation have in common with the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What connects 17th century bio-invasions to 20th century atomic energy. What material history and conflicts do the urbanized and the Indigenous share? What makes a community radioactive and disintegrating, just so that another community can thrive, radiating with energy and productivity? The questions or trail of thoughts, expose the entanglement between people, environment, energy and the shared future. The conflicting nature of “greater good” versus “manifest destiny”.

Piece by piece, the land on which the Indigenous had thrived for millennia was eaten up and colonized, until they were confined to reservations comprising something “less than 8% of their original holdings” (The American Holocaust by David Stannard). This wipe out of planetary proportions, happened not just in North and South America, but also across Africa, Asia, Australia and Polynesia. From the time Christopher Columbus landed in the so called ‘New World’ (August 1492) to the moment when the world's first nuclear explosion occurred (July 1945) marked an epoch lasting 450 years, made of several detonations which are beyond objective comprehension or part of “an irreducible whole”. Yet the consequences of both events symbolize a triumph above all else. Of racial suprema­cism, conquest, genocide and technological domination. Alas, certain academics insist otherwise by saying “Christopher Columbus was a genuine titan, a hero of history and of the human spirit...To denigrate Columbus is to denigrate what is worthy in human history and in us all.” (Jeffrey Hart, National Review, 1990). But for now, such bogus old Euro-American pride can be entirely junked, in favor of revised history that points to the “portending entanglements” of current civilization.

We contextualize better with facts. The U.S. has detonated no less than 650 atomic explosions within Indigenous lands since 1944, which makes certain regions like ‘Newe Segobia’ and ‘Nye County’ (Nevada) as the “most bombed countries in the world.” (Ward Churchill). Ask the Shoshone Indigenous community about what makes an entire community radioactive. The ‘Atomic Age’ which was inaugurated with the mass extermination of innocent children, women and men of Hiroshima and Nagasaki also prophesied decades of contamination, radioactive exposure, disease and misery that the Navajo, Shoshane, Hopi, Cahitan, Waitikka and Numic peoples have suffered. The loss also points to widespread death of cattle, wild animals and birds within the ‘Four Corners’ region. Pointing deeper into the ground, is the most disturbing aspect of nuclear waste and the looming possibility of accidental radiation. Almost 40 years on, the effects of radioactive contamination prevails not only in the famous Chernobyl region but also in Nevada, Goiania, Tokaimura, Westmore Land and Fukushima to name a few. Nuclear power and its corresponding technology by construct necessitates the sacrifice of not just people from time to time, but entire aspects of Nature and its regenerative capacities. Piece by Piece. No less than 100 nuclear disasters have occurred during the last 65 years, dotted across the world, within military and civilian projects.

Estimates suggest that roughly two-thirds of all U.S. Uranium deposits, 40% of readily accessible low sulfur coal, 25% of the oil and natural gas, and substantial deposits of copper and zinc lie underneath Indigenous reservations lands. Hundreds of energy, mining and transport corporations are invading these reservations, akin to the ‘Gold Rush’ of 1820s and ‘Oil Rush’ of 1860s. But the scale and power of extraction has multiplied a hundred times over! Even as the Indigenous join forces with broad new coalitions, made of small environmental groups, front-line activists, anti-war, anti-invasion and anti-nuclear juntas, rising up against very powerful interests and their mega-projects, the war to capture and sequester the last remaining resources locked within the earth and the oceans is on. The 20th century “reign of terror” actualized by U.S. govt, the FBI and police is well documented in the history of A.I.M and by resolute Indigenous folks like Leonard Peltier and Ward Churchill. “The question which inevitably arises with regard to indigenous land and sovereignty, especially in the United States, is whether they are "realistic." The answer is ‘No, they aren't’. Further, no form of decolonization has ever been realistic when viewed within the construct of a colonialist paradigm.” (Ward Churchill, From A Native Son).

To understand the making of Radioactive Communities, one has to first get the relationship between colonization and energy. Become aware of the “shared objectives of capitalism and extraction” (Empire, by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri). As a maxim, the former cannot thrive without the latter. Generation and distribution of energy, that is fundamental for an ever expanding global “bio-power” a.k.a modern civilization. Between the late 1940s till the 70s, a wave of corporations, big and small, such as the Arizona Public Service Company, CAP Arizona, El Paso (TX) Electric, El Paso Natural Gas, S.C. Edison, Tucson (AZ) Gas and Electric, the Salt River (AZ) Project, Texas Eastern, Transmission Company, Los Angeles (CA) Water and Power, Nevada Power Company, Utah Power and Light, Public Service Company of Colorado and Pacific Gas & Electric “invaded” Navajo land as well as surrounding regions of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, extending into parts of California and Texas. While most of the above corporations were eventually absorbed into bigger mega-corporations like Exxon, Chevron, Marathon, Anaconda and Conoco Phillips to name a few, the specter of mining, fracking, transportation and grid expansion escalated over time. One can trace a similar history of extraction and expansionism in regions across Africa, Asia, Russia, China and Australia.

Called “power grids” that are dotted over hundreds of squares kilometers, involve wholesale coal stripping, Uranium and Copper mining, dozens of big coal-fired generating plants, a complex of new dams for hydroelectricity generation. Add several nuclear reactors adjoining the Uranium mines , milling sites and a fabric of high-voltage transmission lines girdling the entire region. However, all that does not actuate to empower or assure a better life for the Indigenous but to energize the techno-industrial civilization, the megacities and the ways of the ultra-modernized. What unravels for the Indigenous in most cases, are a set of ecological disasters, portending health hazards and “forever chemicals” found in the water, land, air, animals and even food.

On contact, of European colonizers and the Indigenous much has been documented about the the outbreak of tuberculosis, bubonic plague, measles, whooping cough, typhus, cholera, typhoid, diphtheria, scarlet fever, venereal disease etc. The legacy of those earlier detonations, the microbes of bio-colonial invasion, were replaced by an entire new set of threats and diseases during the mid 20th century, with the advent of Atomic power, increased mining and extraction based industries. A majority of which were destined to be inside Indigenous reservations. A range of diseases associated with “Ionizing Radiation Exposure” such as cancer, cirrhosis or hepatitis, cataracts, tumors of the brain and central nervous system etc have plagued the Indigenous people who live next to or share the same habitats which host mines, reactors and the processing industries. Yet, Atomic society’s need for ever more energy and material prosperity, has also managed to inject avarice, greed, in the form of land disputes and betrayal amongst Indigenous leaders and communities. Ironic then, the same community suffers, by decisive margins, incidences of not just malnutrition and diabetes, but also death by exposure, cases of infant mortality, rising alcohol and drug abuse. These abject conditions created over time, a multiplicity of factors, such as federal treaties, policies and projects, reckless unchecked capitalism and acceleration of technology, can be equated to a “genocide in slow motion” in the name of modern civilization and eternal vertical progress.

Given the extent of resources within Indigenous land base, they should logically comprise of the wealthiest ethnic group in North American society. Instead, according to the federal statistics (American and Canadian) they are the poorest, with the lowest annual and lifetime incomes. “The highest rate of unemployment, lowest rate of pay when employed, and lowest level of educational attainment of any North American population aggregate” The Earth is Our Mother"(Littleton & Aigis Press, 1995). If we see the dark side of “Manifest Destiny” as a devious logic perpetuated by settler colonial societies, the vanishing prospects of Indigenous survival become sufficiently clear. Join the worlds of empire, capital, and acceleration, as they collude, be it in the name of energy or the sustained prosperity of modern human beings, can only do so by hollowing out entire regions of the Earth. Earlier what was done to acquire gold, silver, fossil-fuels, coal and gas, is now justified by the renewed vigor to extract Lithium, Copper, Cobalt, Chromium, Molybdenum, Zinc, rare earths etc. Situated within ivory towers and green institutions, they call it a “just transition” yet those living inside the sacrifice zones, sentenced to disease, destitution or outright elimination, have known very well that the path is a “Highway To Hell”.

“North American Indian populations suffer virtually the full range of condi­tions observable in the most depressed of Third World areas.” (Ward Churchill). There is no doubt in the analogy, in terms of living conditions, ecological security and the fading resilience of ecosystems. Life of miners and entire communities based around mining projects, be it the Navajo in the U.S. or Yaqui in Canada or the Kayapo of the Amazonia or the Luba, Baka and Moru of Congo or the Aborigines in Australia or the Bastar in Bihar and Odisha (India), all are fraught with disease, contamination, abandonment and continued impoverishment and not any real development. Regardless of which nation or tribe, the transformation or say "industrialism" as a "solution" most often wields a “cascade of catastrophes”. Not just about the loss of habitat and livelihood that communities face upfront, but also a range of threats, that are existential and social. Of eventual abandonment, as the forsaken and the landless.

A recent study based in India, shows how rapidly the state and private corporations have sanctioned projects that effectively forced the displacement of more than 17 million tribal people, out of their rightful habitat only to flood the cities as undocumented labor, during a period (1990-2010) touted as “remarkable economic and urban growth” (Indian Express, National Survey 2012). Remarkable growth however failed to absorb the “surplus labor” and feed an ever growing number of hungry children. Even as a nation with insignificant nuclear power capacity, India is the 2nd largest producer and consumer of coal after China whereby operating hundreds of big and small mines. More than 70% of which are based on erstwhile Indigenous lands or those belonging to dozens of poor ethnic minorities. Setting a record extraction of 1 billion tons in 2023, makes an idiotic semi-literate figure like Pralhad Joshi very happy. To declare such infinite extraction as a “historical high” which will ensure “ the lights are on in citizens’ houses.” Fact is, that more than 40% of the mining labor-force of India, is made of women and their children, numbering about 550,000, mostly as “undocumented migrant labor” living under miserable conditions, while toiling for less than $3 a day. In short, the above “transition” is a short term victory of neoliberal policies, upon the bodies of the poor and the expendable.

Similar to their American counterparts, many urban Indians look down on tribal communities as savage, backward and hence not worth the same rights as everyone else. The element of mass sacrifice for the “greater good” plays out yet again. Contextually speaking, be it India or America, the Indigenous and Tribal decisions, to allow institutions of industrial control and consolidation to take over land, itself seems a “self-defeating strategy”. Be it for infrastructure, fossil-fuels, precious minerals, metals, natural gas or for green colored energy, the verdict upon these small communities, however resilient is clearly negative or better as a “Native Son” is how Ward Churchill explicates the outcome as “…figuratively, locked up in a room with the socio-cultural equivalent of Hannibal Lecter.”.

A prescient case of the “Hannibal Lector” mindset being the Thacker Pass Lithium project in Nevada. Regardless of the ongoing protests, scientific evidence and lawsuits against the project, the institutions and corporations invested in the proposed devastation claim that “…the potential for tribes to benefit from mining is significant. This mine, which is expected to produce enough lithium to supply batteries to roughly one million electric vehicles per year, will at its peak provide 1,100 jobs.” (A Pathway to Responsible Mining). The affirmation and corresponding policies are premised on a set of bogus economic maxims and wicked short-term objectives. Records from the 1980s show thousands of Navajo peoples had contracted respiratory ailments, due to open-pit Uranium, Coal and Copper mining. Women and men diagnosed with different types of cancer, the newborn with birth defects such as cleft palate, leukemia, and other diseases commonly linked to “increased radiation exposure”.

A special mention to the disasters hosted by the San Juan river, itself turning bright orange and yellow, thanks to nearly 6 million gallons of toxic acid released into the riverway by the GKMS (EPA Investigation). Mining, energy and the incalculable costs, is something very well known by the Navajo / Diné. Specifically within the region called “Shiprock” and the downstream communities of the river, that truly symbolizes a Detonator Landscape. Proof of the biggest health concerns of the Navajo Nation for over 50 years regardless of the economic benefits generated by energy and mining corporations for the share holders. To understand better, check out “The Political Economy of Radioactive Colonialism” by Winona LaDuke.

Colonialism, decolonization, formation of nations, questions of growth, extraction, capitalism and ecological disasters, become successive conjunctures, building upon the previous ones. We cannot separate one from the other, without giving up on the prospects of “a civilization of infinite growth”. One that has a ravenous destructive energy addiction and all the corresponding attributes of planetary crisis and upcoming sacrifice. The Radioactive Community or the “Landless Tribal” both appear unified into a forsaken figure of life, at a confluence of outcomes. Make absolutely no mistake about how many of us can be destined for sacrifice or destitution if we pledge our faith to the current trajectory (and scale) of civilization. One that has to scale down in every aspect, or entirely collapse, for life to be able to regenerate again. I am reminded of the French student revolt of 1968: "Be realistic, demand the impossible!

The prophecies by which the Indigenous believe that a new age is in the making, is being felt and expressed by many. The long and utterly brutal attack on the Indigenous and their decimation in terms of population, has now come to confront modern civilization and its catastrophic modernity. Maybe all the questions of expulsion from their lands, erasure of culture and practices, dehumanization, has now detonated within the conscience of the modern? Try as much, but the sovereignty of the Indigenous cannot be wiped out just like the impact of each Detonator Landscape.

One day perhaps the entire world would account for a big Detonator Landscape. But one thing we ultra-modernized human beings should learn from our Indigenous cousins. That the long and intoxicating “high” that has beset the species is a grand hallucination. It will end, no questions and so will the current escalation of everything. The Anthropocentric hubris that we alone can redeem Nature, while consuming gigawatts of energy and populating forever as the utmost species of value and importance on Earth. But there can be nothing more stupid! There can be nothing more sacred than life and the land upon which it survives. Indigenous Chief ‘Seattle’ said it best, in 1854 : Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the white man whose god walked with him and talked with him as friend, with friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers or not, but together we will see…

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