Respect the Energy - Building Bridges: Pt. 2

Native Existence, Resistance, and Nuclear Abolition Position

This part begins with us meeting on the evening of our arrival to Albuquerque in late September. I flew in from Detroit, Jenn from Baltimore and Leona, of course, already lives in Albuquerque. The following days would be packed and there would be much distance to travel, totaling 1400 miles in 5 days of driving on the rental vehicle. On our first day we met with Beata Tsosie Peña  outside of a library in Española, north of Santa Fe, at  the Healing Foods Oasis demonstration garden she helped create while she worked with the non profit, Tewa Women United. She would tell a story basically about how the United States and the Department of Energy (DOE) kicked Pueblos and land grant community out of the area now known as Pajarito Plateau to make way for Los Alamos, and, how this happened by force under the War Powers Act or “eminent domain” for “national security”. This was for government nuclear weapons development and weapons testing during the Manhattan Project.. She also shared the history of colonization in the area going back to the Spanish, and brought us up to speed by showing us some of the solutions they are using now to take care of the land, be good stewards and to fight back against these continuous attacks on their environment and Peoples.

Beata was so insightful and there was much perspective to be gained. She told us of how she got into the work 15 years ago, after moving back home and experiencing the rumbling of “open air detonation” coming from Los Alamos National Laboratories(LANL). “Open Detonation” is the exploding of old military high explosives for testing, demonstration or disposal. These aren’t nuclear arms per say but just regular bombs, such a desensitized way to say “getting rid of weapons of death that never got to kill to make room for newer ones that do kill better”. This was at their community's sacrifice though. After asking and making requests to Los Alamos to stop and not test(or detonate) during morning times of prayer or ceremony and being ignored, what could they do? She felt they had to begin to look at what they could do, what they did, what are the solutions to the issues they are faced with? There wasn’t just hexogen, aka RDX(research department explosive) that they found needed cleaning up in their soils. There are also plumes in the groundwater of RDX, hexavalent chromium, perchlorates, and soil contaminants of PCBs and countless other chemical combinations. This is on top of the historical legacy of nuclear and bomb building/tests in the area and the impacts from it. A plume in their aquifer was one of three that they worked for three years to get a hearing on and spent 1 year working on with their community and the public, only to have everything nullified and voided because the hearing officer was in the process of applying for a job at Los Alamos. All the public testimony was thrown out due to this conflict of interest. Now they are faced with another challenge  as the labs are currently planning to release tritium and toxin laced gasses  in the areas within miles from already vulnerable communities and face plans to increase plutonium PIT production. 

“That’s an example of how we spin our wheels a lot with bureaucracy……….so much environmental racism and institutional racism. Just constantly with these processes''-Beata

After meeting Beata, we went to the area known as Tsankawi, aka Bandelier National Monument where you can see the ancient homes of the Tewa people in one place and see the government nuclear weapons facilities and waste sites in another. Beata recommended not to give power to the desecration of the land, but to give power to the spirit and people. We did and acknowledged the land on the way down into the canyon.

I accept that the story here begins with the Pueblo Peoples and their creation story and existence and leads up to now. We wanted to respect that and Beatas wishes. We respected the land, paid homage to Tsankawi and the ancestral energy, as opposed to the energy of Los Alamos Labs. You could literally feel the spiritual power there, and the energy I associate with nuclear activities. Both were felt heavy on top of the plateau and down in the canyon bottom as well where the visitor center is. The main part I remember is when we first decided to pull off to the side of the road to give an offering to the land, we walked off the road a bit to a little more private spot that had a couple features we sought to be present for this moment. Right as we were finishing I felt a presence behind me but I was still focussed on wrapping up our little ritual when I heard it, rocks tumbling down the hill behind us, footsteps. I looked sideways without turning my head and there he was, the most militarized park ranger I ever seen and carried himself and his load down that little hill with grace. I didn't freeze but slid my eyes back towards Leona and Jenn and we acted like he wasn't there and finished. We could tell he wasn't about to give us much more space and he didnt as he interjected as smoothly as possible and we could tell this was not an ordinary occurrence for him. Very firmly, with a shade of friendliness he asked what we were doing. We had no issues with telling him what we were doing, “Honoring the land” pretty much in unison, we said. He had some more questions and side eyes and still didn't really get it or was just playing a game and so i said “we are doing prayers” and he backed off a bit but then asked if we were spreading ashes and we said no and then it was clear it was over so we bounced out to the Canyon bottom to visit the dwellings.

I couldn't shake that run in though and was kinda happy we made it out safely, the Los Alamos is a series of facilities that sit back in those mountains and it's heavily guarded by the military and probably don't take kindly to folks who do the kind of work we do. On the way back we met with a couple of younger folks, Talavi and Kayleigh from Tewa Women United’s Environmental Health and Justice program, and learned a whole new slew of info, story and perspective. Most the more condemning for the story of the Los Alamos impact on local communities from tritium and plutonium produced there. Follow the links to their work and more info on how you can support them.

Wado

Jesse Deer In Water