Cheyenne River Radioactive: Poisoned Water Used on Lakota Sioux Reservation

The town folks who live in Red Shirt Village , South Dakota , which is located on the northwest corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation, have recently discovered that the alpha radiation level in the Cheyenne River is above the Environmental Protection Agency’s Maximum Contaminant Level.

 

The town of Red Shirt , which is located on the south side of the Cheyenne River , is a village site that is thousands of years old to the Oglala Sioux people. The recent discovery of the radiation pollution of the Cheyenne River is particularly alarming as many have lived here all of their lives, growing gardens with water taken from the Cheyenne River and fishing for catfish, bass, and turtles.  In the summer months, the river is used for swimming and other recreational pursuits. 

 

A local environmental group called Defenders of the Black Hills has been working for years to get the State of South Dakota to clean up the old uranium mines in the area without much success.  It was Defenders Coordinator Charmaine White Face who was approached by Red Shirt Village regarding the river, because the town was interested in using the river water to irrigate a community garden.  A local well that had been used in the past for this purpose was found to be radioactive.

 

White Face conducted the water sampling survey of the river. In addition to the high alpha radiation level, the testing also indicated a serious lack of aquatic life in the river. Hmmm, I guess fish don’t do well in radioactive water.

 

As a result of the findings, Red Shirt Village placed these signs along the river warning of the radiation present in the waters. 

The Defenders are also conducting a letter writing campaign to stop any further uranium mining in the Black Hills until the old mines are cleaned up and sealed over.  They are asking interested people to write two state representatives, Bernie Hunhoff and Gerald Lange, asking for a moratorium on new mines and for the cleaning up of the old ones.  They have had no luck in the past with the Governor of SD, Mike Rounds, who apparently doesn’t care about the high cancer rate in his state or the poisoning of a river.

 

Since we are now living in the Age of Hope and Change, I sincerely hope that the people of South Dakota start taking some action on the radioactive nature of the land and waterways in their state.  It may seem oh, so unimportant, because the people most directly affected live on an Indian Reservation, but guess what, the river doesn’t sit still, it flows.  And the radiation in the old mines doesn’t sit still, it spreads through the earth.  And the radiation doesn’t know the difference between an Indian Reservation and a white man’s village.  Hope that scares a few people.  Maybe Governor Rounds should put that in his not-very-peaceful pipe and smoke it.

 

If you would like to help out with the letter writing campaign, you can get copies of the letters on the Defenders of the Black Hills website:

 

http://www.defendblackhills.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

 

Or, at the Republic of Lakotah website: http://www.republicoflakotah.com/?p=943

 

You can read the report on the Cheyenne River here: http://www.defendblackhills.org/document/uraniumcheyenneriver.pdf