Native American Metaphysics and Other Grants Notes

A week ago the Cultural Properties Review Committee, which is a policy oversight group for the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division which in turn is part of the Cultural Affairs Office, met in the gym at Grants High School in a do-over exercise and named as a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP), a 660-square-mile tract, including Mt. Taylor and much, much more, mostly in an oval north and east of Grants. There is a second, small tract due north of Grants. See the following entry for more about Traditional Cultural Properties.
My newspaper column, to run in seven papers around the state starting Monday, described the meeting, which was extraordinary, a part of New Mexico that our north central urban area scarcely know exists. The metaphysics reference stems from that is how the five applicants for the TPL—four pueblos and the Navajo Nation—began their presentation—with a summary of the tribal metaphysics. They spoke, almost totally, of Mt. Taylor, ignoring the fee (private) land comprising about half the TPL.
The notes here touch items squeezed from the column by the 650 (or so) word limit. The pickups and SUVs more than filled the gym parking lot. As of 2006, Native Americans were the biggest single group in Cibola County, of which Grants is the county seat. Native American were 41% of the population, followed by Hispanics with 34%, White non-Hispanics (Anglos to New Mexicans), 24%; and blacks, 1.5%. The people attending the meeting seemed to about half Native American, half Hispanic with a handful of Anglos. McKinley County, immediately north of Cibola, was 74% Native American in 2006. Folks, this is not the Northeast Heights of Albuquerque
The TPL seems to be above 8,000 feet in altitude. I think Ambroisia Lake, the center of the previously uranium activity, probably is below 8,000. The main activity in the area is Uranium Resources' insutu project near Crownpoint, though there is a fair amount more. They haven't started, but are moving forward ever so slowly. In other words, I didn't correlate today's exploration activity with the TPL. This may have something to do with being uninformed.

One young man, a Cibola County deputy sheriff, said to me: I can understand the Indians viewpoint. But there are the jobs.....

On Monday, Navajos broke ground on a casino. Some of the June 14 signs said that casinos were a bad idea.
Navajos, the Navajo administration, that is, have banned uranium mining. But they embrace coal, which will cause them far more health problems than uranium ever did. From what I have seen, the ban stems from the legacy issues. The Navajos are still pissed about the bad old days and unwilling to accept the industry argument that things have changed.

I think, from industry's view, that the key worry is where does this go. Probably there will be a pitch for a federal TPL. Is the TPL a way around the problem of extending Indian jurisdiction to fee land? Just from looking at the topo map, the land in the new TPL seems roughly half federal (forest service) and half fee land, the mesas to the northwest. There is a little state land.
Apparently the February vote, the first effort to designate the TPL, was unanimous. Not this time, though. There were No votes.

A problem for industry is that no one was around for 20 years. So, somewhat by definition, the industry guys are "outsiders." I do think industry is absolutely trying to do the right thing, partly for moral reasons and partly because they have no choice for regulatory reasons. Coal, though worse for health uranium, is part of the background.

Navajos, I'm told, are still mad about a tailings pond spill at Church Rock, I think in the 1970s. Not unreasonably so. The industry cleaned up the mess and left. The locals stayed and have stayed mad. There is no appreciation that the industry guys doing the cleanup probably were even unhappier about the whole situation than the locals.

The uranium story is important for the nation's energy future and for New Mexico's future. The story is complex, putting is mildly. I will continue to follow it.