Rational
When I was young, I remembered when my father used to come home from working in the mines. He used to come walking up the road with dust all over his clothes, face, hands, and his personal items. We used to ran to him and help him carry his jacket and old metal lunchbox back into the house, and then we'd run back to him and dust him off. We would take his clothes while he undressed and put them in a large trough like tub while he hosed himself outside at the water pump. My father would also spray us to get the fine dust off our arms, face, and shirt. I remember the fine yellow powder would trickle down the runoff onto the road. My mom would have his dinner ready, and then she would be washing his clothes in his trough.
We never knew we were exposed to uranium tailings from my father's clothing. If my father had lived longer than 33 years, he would have most likely had some type of cancer because he did not wear protective clothing. I know now what the yellow sand is and my mother had washed his clothes every other day by hand in the trough tub. She died of cancer and now I wait to see what side effect my siblings and I will have. Currently, the uranium site where my father worked is now covered and is inhabitable. There are numerous sites on the reservation which were uranium mines and some of them are less than a mile to nearby homes. I know a lot of people within my age have had contact with the yellow sand and have lost their parents. These companies did not follow procedures and guidelines which hurt a lot of families.
When I was young I saw mine companies come onto the Reservation, set-up their structures, take and use what they needed, and then leave. For example, uranium companies did not clean the area they used; now a lot of families are experiencing serious health problems. I share issues and my experiences of events that are happening within the Reservation to my students. Our children need to know their surrounding environment and global events of how, why, and where these natural resources are in demand. They need to know that the future generations need to change if we want to live on a clean Earth. Keeping the Earth clean begins in the home, then in the classroom and our children will begin to initiate his or her actions to conserve, to protect and preserve Nihodzaan. I want my students to use their cultural philosophy to learn, protect and respect Mother Earth.
I know our students are not informed of national and global issues of what other nations are doing to increase financial gains using oil and how countries are exporting oil with great risk because of civil war and political conflicts. They need to know the various resources different countries and nations are currently using to extract fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) from the Earth. They also need to know the benefits of other natural resources like solar, thermal, wind, and water energy because these resources do not cause excessive damage to the Earth. Our students need to know these issues because the fossil fuel prices are part of their livelihood when traveling to the border towns (100 to 180 miles one way) to shop for groceries and clothes shopping, even vehicle maintenance.
They know using gasoline is an efficient way of traveling place to place, but they need to know the benefits of renewable resources like solar and wind energy because it is accessible. They do not have to depend on big energy corporations to supply their needs. In our rural town of Kayenta, there are two small wind turbines functioning at the south end of the school campus and there are huge solar panels on the reservation in several rural towns, Chinle, Crownpoint, Fort Defiance, and in Shonto. I would like to tour these sites with my students.
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