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A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate aims to hold the federal government accountable for the cleanup of abandoned mines on tribal lands and elsewhere throughout the country.
As Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports, an estimated 140,000 such sites nationally threaten public health and the environment.
The Legacy Mine Cleanup Act would dedicate $100 million to assist tribes with the remediation of abandoned uranium, copper, gold and other hard-rock sites.
Many of the mines in Indian Country haven’t received Superfund dollars because they’re not on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priority List.
According to sponsors, including Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), the bill would better coordinate cleanup efforts between the EPA, federal agencies, and state, local, and tribal governments and create an emphasis list of abandoned sites across the country.
The legislation focuses on the cleanup of the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines on and near the Navajo Nation, which straddles 27,000 square miles in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
Officials and residents have long attributed increased cases of lung and bone cancer, impaired kidney function, and other debilitating health conditions to the sites.
Between 1944 and 1986, almost 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from Navajo lands for Cold War nuclear weapons production.
The cleanup is expected to take many years and billions more dollars to complete.
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. says he looks forward to working with a new Republican majority next month, as Congress ended the year without seating a Cherokee Nation delegate in the House of Representatives.
Hoskin has been calling on Congress to honor the treaty promise made by the U.S. government in the 1800s to seat a non-voting Cherokee delegate. The tribe was hopeful that would get done this year.
Hoskin says progress was made in 2022. The Cherokee Nation launched a nationwide campaign in September calling on Congress to act, and the House Rules Committee held its first hearing on the Cherokee Nation delegate in November.
Cherokee Nation citizen Kim Teehee, chosen by the tribe as its delegate, was also hopeful Congress would act before the end of the year.
Last month, Teehee told National Native News the tribe’s ultimate goal is to get her seated.
Teehee says she would represent the Cherokee Nation, but also recognizes the importance of increasing the representation in Congress for all tribal nations.
“Cherokee Nation is the direct recipient of being of my one constitute the Cherokee Nation government, but I’m mindful that the fact that Indian Country has too few advocates as it is.”
Her priorities for the Cherokee Nation include advocating for funding for services, and improving infrastructure, increasing broadband, and action on a language bill to help preserve Native languages.
House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern and Ranking Member Tom Cole recently committed to continuing to work on the Cherokee delegate issue next year.
The National Indian Health Board, the National Council on Urban Indian Health, and the National Congress of American Indians are celebrating the inclusion of advanced appropriations for the Indian Health Service.
The provision was included in the 2023 government spending bill signed last week.
According to the organizations, prior to this, IHS was the only federal healthcare provider without basic certainty of funding from one year to the next.
The IHS serves about 2.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Health advocates and tribal leaders have long raised concerns about Indian healthcare’s chronic underfunding, problems with funding disruptions, and the appropriations process.
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