Wastelanding

Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Native American Studies, History, Americas, Native American, Science & Nature, Science, Biological Sciences, Environmental Science
Cover of the book Wastelanding by Traci Brynne Voyles, University of Minnesota Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Traci Brynne Voyles ISBN: 9781452944494
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication: May 15, 2015
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press Language: English
Author: Traci Brynne Voyles
ISBN: 9781452944494
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication: May 15, 2015
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Language: English

Wastelanding tells the history of the uranium industry on Navajo land in the U.S. Southwest, asking why certain landscapes and the peoples who inhabit them come to be targeted for disproportionate exposure to environmental harm. Uranium mines and mills on the Navajo Nation land have long supplied U.S. nuclear weapons and energy programs. By 1942, mines on the reservation were the main source of uranium for the top-secret Manhattan Project. Today, the Navajo Nation is home to more than a thousand abandoned uranium sites. Radiation-related diseases are endemic, claiming the health and lives of former miners and nonminers alike.

Traci Brynne Voyles argues that the presence of uranium mining on Diné (Navajo) land constitutes a clear case of environmental racism. Looking at discursive constructions of landscapes, she explores how environmental racism develops over time. For Voyles, the “wasteland,” where toxic materials are excavated, exploited, and dumped, is both a racial and a spatial signifier that renders an environment and the bodies that inhabit it pollutable. Because environmental inequality is inherent in the way industrialism operates, the wasteland is the “other” through which modern industrialism is established.

In examining the history of wastelanding in Navajo country, Voyles provides “an environmental justice history” of uranium mining, revealing how just as “civilization” has been defined on and through “savagery,” environmental privilege is produced by portraying other landscapes as marginal, worthless, and pollutable.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Wastelanding tells the history of the uranium industry on Navajo land in the U.S. Southwest, asking why certain landscapes and the peoples who inhabit them come to be targeted for disproportionate exposure to environmental harm. Uranium mines and mills on the Navajo Nation land have long supplied U.S. nuclear weapons and energy programs. By 1942, mines on the reservation were the main source of uranium for the top-secret Manhattan Project. Today, the Navajo Nation is home to more than a thousand abandoned uranium sites. Radiation-related diseases are endemic, claiming the health and lives of former miners and nonminers alike.

Traci Brynne Voyles argues that the presence of uranium mining on Diné (Navajo) land constitutes a clear case of environmental racism. Looking at discursive constructions of landscapes, she explores how environmental racism develops over time. For Voyles, the “wasteland,” where toxic materials are excavated, exploited, and dumped, is both a racial and a spatial signifier that renders an environment and the bodies that inhabit it pollutable. Because environmental inequality is inherent in the way industrialism operates, the wasteland is the “other” through which modern industrialism is established.

In examining the history of wastelanding in Navajo country, Voyles provides “an environmental justice history” of uranium mining, revealing how just as “civilization” has been defined on and through “savagery,” environmental privilege is produced by portraying other landscapes as marginal, worthless, and pollutable.

More books from University of Minnesota Press

Cover of the book The Geek's Chihuahua by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Vacationland by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Degrees of Freedom by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Asking the Audience by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book The Music of Failure by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Didactic Poetries by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Shopping Town by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Sex and Harm in the Age of Consent by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Backwater Blues by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book The Force of the Virtual by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Natural:Mind by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Improper Names by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Radiance from Halcyon by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Human Programming by Traci Brynne Voyles
Cover of the book Program Earth by Traci Brynne Voyles
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy