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Diné CARE

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Map of United States Southwest with Navajo Nation colored in red.
Map of the Navajo Nation.

Diné CARE is a Diné (Navajo) activist organization that works on environmental, cultural and social justice campaigns, primarily within the Navajo Nation and the immediately surrounding areas, its main office being in Dilkon, AZ.[1] Diné CARE stands for Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment and helped build the early environmental justice movement in the United States. Their work has included opposing the creation of toxic waste infrastructure, polluting energy infrastructure, industrial-scale logging, advocating for compensation for people impacted by uranium mining and weapons development as well as against business practices that facilitate abuse of alcohol in nearby Gallup.[2][3][4][5][6][7] The organization held a campaign to facilitate Native voter turnout during the presidential election of 2020.[8]

Pine trees with mountainous background
Pine forests in the Chuska Mountains on the Navajo Nation.

History

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Originally called CARE, the group was founded in 1988 to prevent the construction of a hazardous waste incinerator in the community of Dilkon on the Navajo Nation.[2][3] CARE's activism also led to the creation of the annual Protecting Mother Earth conferences. The first was held in Dilkon in 1990, funded by Greenpeace and Seventh Generation Fund. The creation of Indigenous Environmental Network came out of the Protecting Mother Earth gatherings in Dilkon, and in 1991, in South Dakota.[3][9]

Three men sitting and four men standing while one of them signs a document.
Diné CARE co-founder Earl Tulley, at left, in 2012.

CARE became Diné CARE at a 1991 meeting in Gallup that brought together activists from the Dilkon anti-incinerator activism with other activism taking place across the Navajo nation including alcohol use in Gallup, oil and gas exploration, uranium mining, logging, and asbestos dumping.[2] Co-founders included Lori Goodman, Leroy Jackson, Adella Begaye, Earl Tulley and others. Leroy Jackson, who received death threats in response to his work to reform the logging industry's operations on the Chuska Mountains, died in 1994. Friends, family and colleagues believe he may have been murdered for his activism.[10][11][12][13]

Projects

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Shaded-relief map of the Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation, marking where abandoned uranium mines are located in yellow. Marked in orange are the six regions where mines were clustered: North Central, Northern, Central, Eastern, Southern, and Western.

Nuclear Waste & Uranium

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Diné CARE has put increased efforts into mitigation and reparations for damage caused by radiation poisoning since 1998, their goals centering around extending relief to victims of uranium mining and Cold War bomb testing, to instigate further clean up efforts on mines that have been abandoned, and prevent any further attempts to mine uranium in the Navajo region.[1][14]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Perez, Scott, Uranium, Navajos and National Sacrifice Zones, retrieved 2024-11-05
  2. ^ a b c "Land, Wind, and Hard Words". University of New Mexico Press. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  3. ^ a b c "From the Ground Up". NYU Press. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  4. ^ Cabrera, Yvette (2022-11-30). "Nuclear buildup sickened his community. Then it caught up with him". Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved 2024-02-25.
  5. ^ Powell, Dana E. (2018). Landscapes of Power: Politics of Energy in the Navajo Nation. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-6994-3.
  6. ^ "Power Lines | Princeton University Press". press.princeton.edu. 2014-10-26. Retrieved 2024-02-26.
  7. ^ "Navajo Sacred Places". Indiana University Press. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  8. ^ "Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment praises Native turnout". Indianz.com. November 7, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  9. ^ "About | Indigenous Environmental Network". www.ienearth.org. 2012-12-30. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  10. ^ Kaufman, Leslie (1994-02-13). "Loggers, Witches, and the Death of a Navajo Eco-Warrior : Angered by the Rape of His Beloved Forest, Leroy Jackson Began Asking Questions About the Management of a Navajo Sawmill". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  11. ^ Selcraig, Bruce (October 26, 1994). "After Navajo Activist's Death, Mystery and Mission Among the Pines". Washington Post. pp. A-03.
  12. ^ Gabriel, Trip (May 1994). "A Death in Navajo Country". Outside Magazine. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  13. ^ "Legends of the American Desert by Alex Shoumatoff". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
  14. ^ 1998 Year End Report from Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment and the Navajo Nation RECA reform working group (Report). Retrieved 2024-09-21.

Further reading

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