Benefit Social Song and Dance Success!

FORGOTTEN PEOPLE Dine' Be' Iina' na' hil naa Billy Reese Kee, Chairman of the Board Don Yellowman, President (928) 401-1777 FORGOTTEN PEOPLE BENEFIT SOCIAL SONG & DANCE Saturday, June 13, 2009 Toh Naneesdizi (Tuba City) Community Center MEDIA RELEASE June 13, 2009, Toh Naneesdizi, Navajo Nation (Arizona)- Forgotten People Dine' Be' Iina' na' hil naa (Dine’ Rebuilding Communities) hosted a Benefit Social Song & Dance to celebrate the lifting of the Bennett Freeze on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at Toh Naneesdizi (Tuba City) Community Center. The Song & Dance was a great success! RAFFLE PRIZE WINNERS: Alana Lee Yazzie of Winslow won a Live Sheep dated by Mary & John Knight from Black Falls. Nick Alex of Brighton, MA won a Weaving by Zena Lane and a Camping tent, Black Mesa, Madeline Sloan of Tuba City won $100.00 cash donated by Clarence Raphael of Tuba City, Kee Crawford of Hidden Springs won a Rug dress woven by Caroline Tohannie of Black Mesa, Lee Canyon of Tuba City won a Sheepherder basket donated by Glenna Begay of Black Mesa, Rose Koiyaquaptewa of Kykotsmovi won a Quilt donated by LaDawn Yazzie of Tuba City, Daniel dejolie of Tuba City won Hay & Grain, Sarah Yellowhorse of Gap won a Sheepherder Basket donated by Jean Williams of Tuba City, Marie Tsosie of Tuba City won a Quilt donated by LaDawn Yazzie of Tuba City, Albert James won a Live Sheep donated by Mrytle & Hubert Yellowhorse of Gap, Rita Sebastian of Cape Cod, MA won a Sash Belt donated by Debbie Yazzie of Tuba City, Marsha Monestersky of Tonalea won a coral bracelet donated by Carol Colorado of Grey Mountain, Lorenzo Fowler of Tonalea won a live sheep donated by Elsie Tohannie of Black Falls, Marilyn Yellowman won a sheepherder basket donated by Shirley Morgan of Gap, Steven Yancey of Glenwood won a truck load of firewood donated by Teddy Begay, Jr. of Black Mesa, George Kee of Black Falls won a Mexican Shawl Blanket donated by Carlos Begay, Sr. of Black Mesa, Ronald Tohannie of Black Falls won 2 folding chairs donated by Valis Martinez of Cactus Valley and LG Pinto won a Mexican Shawl Blanket donated by Carlos Begay, Sr. of Black Mesa. Photos: Kee Crawford wins a rug dress AND George Kee, a veteran wins a Mexican shawl blanket Thank you Corporate sponsors: Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Harkins Movie Theater, Basha’s, Fabric Plus, McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, 7-11. Thank you Veterans and Black Falls, Box Springs, Tuba City, Gap, Black Mesa and Cactus Valley residents for your help! The money raised will benefit projects in the former Bennett Freeze and Hopi Partition Land. If you want to find out more about Forgotten People, please attend a meeting every Monday night at 6:00 PM (DST) at Debbie Yazzie’s residence South of the Old airport in Tuba City or call: (928) 401-1777, E-mail: forgottenpeoplecdc@gmail.com. --End--

Broken Rainbow Parts 1-7

Despite new water station, Black Falls residents still incur hardship.

By Kathy Helms Dine Bureau BLACK FALLS, Ariz. -- Residents couldn't have been happier when, in February, a ribbon cutting was held to officially open the Black Falls Church watering point. Ideally, it meant water haulers wouldn't have to travel long distances anymore to fill their barrels with safe drinking water. For people such as Nina Tohannie, it meant that her brother Ronald wouldn't be sending her down into Dry Spring to scrub the walls of the well with chlorine and pull out the bones and carcasses of dead animals. “When it's like that, you can smell it,” Ronald said. “We'd have to clean out the well and siphon all that water out with a water pump. Then somebody has to crawl down in there and get what's left. I can't get it with the water pump. It's really thick. So we have to take a bucket down there with a rope on it. “The hole is about 2 feet by 2 feet. Somebody kind of skinny has to go down there. You have to use a ladle or something to clean out the bottom and put it in the bucket, and then we have to pull it up and dump it out. Then we wash it with chlorine and do the same thing, load it up and dump it out. Then it clears up,” he said. In addition to animal carcasses, tests by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate the water also has traces of uranium and arsenic, though presently not above safe drinking water standards. Box Spring, Badger Spring, Tohatchi Spring and Paddock Well – all used by area residents – are above safe standards for uranium and/or arsenic. Unfortunately, getting the new watering point up and running continuously has been a problem, according to Ronald, who hauls water twice a day, four days a week, for four Black Falls families. When the system is down the water has to be brought in from nearby towns. “It's hard to get around on the dirt roads. There's no grading. It's really terrible. It does a lot of damage to the suspensions on our trucks. I'm just using two 55-gallon barrels at a time. I can't use a bigger one because it will do a lot of damage to my truck,” Ronald said. George Kee of Black Falls also helps out, hauling water from Tuba City, Flagstaff, or Leupp. “We're at about the center from each direction,” he said. Getting from Tuba City to Black Falls is a chore. If Kee takes the dirt road shortcut from Cameron, “it takes almost 3-1/2 hours to get here to the Black Falls area. Around the pavement by Wupatki, across the wash, it takes about 2-1/2 hours, but that's more mileage than to come down the valley. It's really hard on the vehicles. The tires and springs are falling apart.” Sometimes weather conditions and drifting sand make taking the shortcut impossible, which is why the Black Falls Church water point in upper Black Falls was so attractive to lower Black Falls residents. EPA paid $830,000 to extend the water line from Tolani Lake, according to Clancy Tenley. The water is provided by Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and was tested by Indian Health Service. “It passed all of the EPA requirements for safe water,” he said. But Ronald noticed recently that when the watering point was working, “the water was coming out really weak. It had a milky color to it, plus it smelled. If you set it out in the bucket for like a day, it would turn yellowish. I don't know why. What I think is there is a crack in the line where it's sucking up the dirt.” In addition to low water pressure, the card machine was not working properly and kept rejecting the prepaid debit cards, he said. On May 22, the system wasn't working at all. NTUA Deputy General Manager Rex Kontz said the watering point feeds off NTUA's system but is operated by one of the local chapters. “It's not an NTUA-operated watering point. It was constructed by Indian Health Service, and my understanding is it's still under warranty and they've had several technical problems with it. They have been responding and trying to correct all the items. “There was a water break in the main system. Once the water break was fixed, the pressure problem should have been alleviated. I'm not sure what the issue is with the power being off.” When told there was a yellow tag on the meter on May 22, he said, “A yellow tag means they (the chapter) haven't paid their bill and it's been disconnected. That's a disconnect tag.” Regarding the card reader, Kontz said it is older technology, where the card inserts into a slot. “You get sand and moisture into the card readers and those cause problems. The new generation is optical. There's a little computer chip in the card and they just hold it up to an optical scanner. There's no place to actually put the card into the system. It's all enclosed.” A vendor that works with Indian Health Service installs the new generation readers, he said. “We have an EPA grant that we're trying to get to install some watering points, and it will have the new technology. I'm open to the community leaders if they want to talk about the possibility of NTUA setting up a watering point that has an optical reader. “Some chapters like to be independent. They want to try to earn some money off of the water sales. They like to try to own those themselves. I don't recall what the situation was with Black Falls.” Kontz said NTUA charges around $3 per 1,000 gallons of water. “It's not much. If they're hauling 50-gallon drums, you're talking about almost 20 fill-ups for about $3 or $3.65 – something like that – just a few cents per barrel.” NTUA water from Tuba City runs $8 for four 55-gallon barrels, or $2 a barrel, Kee said. If the water comes from Leupp Chapter, it's 25 cents a gallon, according to Ronald. Katherine Peshlakai, 87, said she used to pay a man from Tuba City to bring water for their livestock during summer drought. He charged her $500 to haul 2,000 gallons. “He hauled maybe three times,” she said. Don Yellowman, president of The Forgotten People, a non-profit organization, said the big objective of the Black Falls water project that is providing gravity-fed water tanks and sinks to residents drinking uranium-contaminated water “is, instead of ignoring that population, addressing the issue of they need water too, and how do we come to grips with people living away from the piped water line having accessibility to water. “You still have a big population that doesn't live near the road or the waterline; they still live out in the boonies. Those folks, they're not on the radar to get piped water.” Shirley Parker lives near the Black Falls Church watering point and just a short distance from the new water line. “In her case she was told that if you want water, there's a waterline coming through your neighborhood shortly, therefore, you're eligible to get water but you need to have your facilities ready to go so you can be connected. Otherwise, you may have to wait 10 years,” Yellowman said. Because she did not have a bathroom addition, “she just allowed them to go ahead and install the bathtub and a kitchen sink and the water heater in the bedroom. She said if that's what it takes for me to get water, go ahead and put it in the bedroom. She did all that in a mad rush to get it all done, and to this day no meter has been installed. That was about a year ago.” Marsha Monestersky, program manager, said they plan to seek another EPA Environmental Justice grant to help with water and sanitation issues. They also are seeking a company might want to donate a three-quarter-ton truck for water hauling. “Or maybe somebody would like to sponsor a family and help provide a kitchen sink and gravity-fed water tank for people like Rolanda Tohannie,” a cancer victim still drinking uranium contaminated water, she said. Information: The Forgotten People, (928) 401-1777 or forgotten-people@hotmail.com

Rough and rocky traveling for Black Falls water haulers.

By Kathy Helms Dine Bureau BLACK FALLS, Ariz. -- The first time Elsie Tohannie, 80, heard anything about uranium was long before Cameron Chapter was established in 1955, when one of the mine workers brought a rock over to a meeting at Cameron Trading Post. “He put metal around it and did something, and then it lit up like amber – really bright, bright red,” she said. He was trying to let residents know what they were digging for, according to Don Yellowman, president of the Forgotten People grassroots group, who translated for Tohannie. “He didn't say anything about whether it was contaminating the water, but he knew it was falling off the truck and onto the ground as it was being hauled,” Tohannie told him. Katherine Peshlakai, 87, said the digging for uranium started back around 1945. She also remembers the Civilian Conservation Corps started building a diversion dam for water not far from her home in Black Falls. “Then the war got going and as the U.S. got deeper into the war, that dam was abandoned,” she said. Like Rolanda Tohannie, 46, a victim of thyroid and esophagus cancer, the women still don't know whether the radionuclides in the springs from which they have been hauling drinking water came from above-ground atomic testing during the Cold War, or uranium mining, or whether it's just naturally occurring. But one thing Rolanda does know is that “about two weeks ago I was sitting there after we had finished having supper, and part of my teeth fell out. I used to have thick hair, and there's just a little bit on my head now. It's like every time I comb it, I take out gobs of hair.” They're not the only ones who have noticed problems. Jerry Huskie and Florabell Paddock live near Tohatchi Spring, one of four water sources in the Black Falls area tested last year by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and found to have high concentrations of uranium and arsenic. Another family, Jimmy and Irene Lee live just a few miles away near Paddock Well, which also is highly contaminated. Because of the health risks and the families' remote locations, EPA's Division of Superfund stepped in and set up a temporary water-hauling program. “We've got the funding in place to deliver water to these families,” said EPA's Clancy Tenley. “We will make sure that they get water for up to a year, but this can only be a temporary program. “They're elderly, and we know it was a priority for the community for those two families to get water, but it's a very unusual step that we would deliver water to anyone,” he said. Paddock has relied on Tohatchi Spring since childhood. “For all of her life, even though they lived a distance away from where they live now, she remembers her father with a wagon going to that spring and bringing water home,” Yellowman said. “They also would get water from there to water their crops.” Huskie and neighbors John and Mary Knight said there were many families who once lived in the area and utilized the springs for years. “There are so many people that have passed. They died in not a normal way,” Huskie said. “We were never told as residents out here that these springs were contaminated and no one alerted us to the fact that it could cause health ailments,” he said. “If they would have informed us we would have minimized the use of those wells and tried to distance ourselves from using that, but that wasn't done.” Paddock recalled hearing rumors years ago about the wells being contaminated, and someone occasionally stopping by and chlorinating the water. “She remembers that when they would gather water to take home that the chlorine was strong-tasting. She said they would usually leave the spring alone and let several days pass and the chlorine taste would kind of taper down,” Yellowman said. Through the Superfund program, Milton Yazzie of Black Falls now hauls 20 gallons of drinking water from Flagstaff for Huskie/Paddock and the Lees every two to three weeks. “The water that Milton brings, they rely on that for their cooking,” Yellowman said. Though they budget their water, “they still have to go to Tohatchi Spring to get water for cleaning up, washing their face, washing their dishes.” Paddock produced a list of health symptoms related to drinking uranium- and arsenic-contaminated water. Except for one or two items, “We've got everything,” she said. Yazzie is sympathetic to the families' needs and makes the water deliveries as best he can, but because of the difficulties involved, he may not be able to continue much longer. “When that road goes out, I can't get in and they can't get out. It's real not good,” he said. Besides wear and tear on his vehicle, it takes a lot of fuel. Though he is reimbursed for his travel by Superfund, sometimes it takes a bit before his invoice is processed, he said. “I can't tap into my Mom's Social Security just to make errands for them. I try to maintain my vehicle, but one day the whole back brakes came out by Jimmy Lee's. I ended up grinding it all the way home and that set me back $300 bucks because it ate the rotars on both sides. “I can't take more than eight bottles because I've got a Trailblazer with lack of space, and the water is heavy,” he said. “In between Jimmy Lee's and Florabell's, it's 9 miles. It's not paved. You have to go into washes and come out the other side. I wish it was washboard road! You can't even go more than 5 miles per hour. It takes me almost an hour just between Jimmy's and Florabell's. You gotta have 4 wheel drive. I got stuck for two hours and dug my way out.” In some places, there's nothing but rock, Yazzie said. “You don't know where the road goes.” In others, there are sand dunes which have become progressively worse over the past year. “Before you get to Jimmy's; there's a big old overhang – a hardened conglomerate with sand. You can't do too much to avoid it because one wheel will go off on one end and you won't be getting out soon,” he said. Though there is the possibility of Navajo Department of Water Resources getting a water-hauling truck to serve residents, it won't work on that road, he said, because of the overhang. “The cab is going to hook up on that and you might bring it down.” Information: The Forgotten People, (928) 401-1777 or forgotten-people@hotmail.com

Black Falls : Water everywhere but none to drink.

By Kathy Helms Dine Bureau BLACK FALLS, Ariz. -- The Navajo Nation has weathered severe drought conditions for about the last 20 years, so when a water source presents itself, the last thing usually considered is whether it might be contaminated. “Water is precious,” said Eleanor Peshlakai, 67, of Black Falls. “Last year I was hauling water in my truck during the middle of a real dry spell. As I was filling up at a water trough, some of the water sprayed out from the hose and out of nowhere the lizards came running. They were thirsty. They, too, are suffering the drought, just like the humans, waiting for any form of moisture.” Peshlakai used to haul water from Box Spring, a source now posted for uranium contamination by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Last year, EPA and the Centers for Disease Control sampled approximately 250 unregulated water sources and found 22 of those exceeded drinking water standards for radionuclides. Four are in the Black Falls area. Lillie Lane from Navajo Nation EPA and Zoe Heller from U.S. EPA spent weeks posting warning signs at springs and livestock watering points, and along with representatives of the DiNEH Project conducted outreach at impacted chapters. Despite their efforts, word apparently has not trickled down to residents in some of the more isolated areas of the reservation. Don Yellowman and Marsha Monteresky of the Forgotten People said they have documented at least 14 families in the area of Box Spring alone that are still using uranium-contaminated water for personal consumption. Rolanda and Larry Tohannie live near Box Spring and continue to utilize the bad water. They didn't even know it was contaminated until one day recently when they went to fill up the gallon water jugs they carry in the trunk of their car. Since they don't have a pickup, they get water from the pipe that feeds the livestock troughs rather than pulling into the water station and loading 55-gallon barrels from the overhead pipe. It was only by accident that Larry stumbled on the metal warning sign embedded in concrete. “Water from this well is not safe to drink,” the sign states. “This water has been tested and found to exceed Navajo EPA and U.S. EPA human drinking water standards for uranium or other contaminants. Navajo Nation policy is that livestock-use-only wells are not to be used for human drinking water.” Rolanda, 46, has lived in the Box Spring area off and on since she was 5 years old and grew up drinking the water. Now, she and Larry have a permanent home just a few hundred yards from the house where she was raised by her grandparents. “Twenty-five years ago I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. They gave me radiation and now I'm taking medication, which I have to take for life. I need to go back to the clinic to get my blood drawn again so they can regulate my thyroids. I don't have any thyroids, so it's just replacements,” she said. “About 13 to 15 years ago I was going into the hospital in Phoenix and I had really bad acid reflux. I just kept throwing up. I didn't know what it was from. They told me that I had esophagus cancer. It was at the very first stages, so now it's what they say, in remission.” She has a sister who has been diagnosed with stomach cancer, she said. “Larry has heart problems and the doctors told him it's not possible he can do heavy work. He just doesn't have the strength to do it any more. So we're just taking care of one another the best way we can. We don't have reliable transportation and water is right near there, so we just run down there and get the water.” At first, Rolanda was frustrated, she said. “Now I'm just like, 'OK, I don't think anybody can do anything.' There's people that come down with their children and they carry buckets and put it into the barrels every day, day and night. I know people that drink it and give it to the cattle,” she said, lifting a dead frog out of the trough with a stick. Nina Tohannie, Rolanda's sister-in-law, understands her feeling of frustration. “That's the feeling that probably set in 15 to 20 years ago, at least for me. ... At that time I was really voicing what I thought and felt – people just come in and they study us and then they leave and there's no return. “Now, people are advocating for us and that helps. Hopefully somewhere, somehow they can come together and realize that it is an emergency situation. It's a public health issue,” she said. The Forgotten People grassroots organization was awarded a $20,000 Environmental Justice grant from U.S. EPA earlier this year and has been using the money to identify solutions, such as getting exterior elevated water tanks for Black Falls families that do not have access to piped water. "I think it is very important that we do not just complain,” Nina said. “We need to go forward and help other communities have safe clean drinking water. We need to replicate what was done here in the Black Falls community. Now we need a water truck, well maintained roads and access to safe, clean and affordable drinking water.” Clancy Tenley of U.S. EPA said his agency's goal has been to find wells that may be contaminated with uranium, sample them, post them if they are contaminated, and do public outreach. Additionally, EPA is trying to find alternative sources of water for residents in impacted areas. “Together with Indian Health Service we are constructing new water sources in Black Falls, Monument Valley, Dennehotso and also Sweetwater. These are projects that are now in line for funding,” he said. The projects will serve families in the vicinity of contaminated wells so they have an alternative without driving long distances. EPA also has invited the Navajo Nation to apply for five water trucks to do water-hauling pilot projects. “We hope to get funding to Navajo Department of Water Resources in the fall and they may be able to select this area and other areas like it on the reservation for this pilot water-hauling project,” Tenley said. “We are going to test approximately 100 more wells this fall in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control. We'll be sampling some wells that we were not able to get to last time because they were frozen or it was too muddy to get in. We'll sample in the area where CDC did their study, and then we'll do a few in the area of homes located really close to mines.” EPA Superfund officials have visited area residents three times in the past year – something virtually unheard of among most federal agencies. “We were there the day Katherine Peshlakai turned on her faucet,” Tenley said. “It was very inspiring to us.” Last August they met with area residents for about eight hours. “Every single person said the same thing. They said, 'The roads are not good, there's no power, but what we really want is water,'” he said. “I was so thankful that there is somebody that is down here that really cares,” Rolanda said. “We need good, safe drinking water to maybe let us live like five to 10 years longer. If they can't pave the road, then just grade it. It's terrible out here.” Next: Remote family makes 20 gallons of fresh drinking water last two to three weeks. Information: The Forgotten People, (928) 401-1777 or forgotten-people@hotmail.com

Water Everywhere But None to Drink. Black Falls Navajo Nation AZ

By Kathy Helms Dine Bureau BLACK FALLS, Ariz. -- The Navajo Nation has weathered severe drought conditions for about the last 20 years, so when a water source presents itself, the last thing usually considered is whether it might be contaminated. “Water is precious,” said Eleanor Peshlakai, 67, of Black Falls. “Last year I was hauling water in my truck during the middle of a real dry spell. As I was filling up at a water trough, some of the water sprayed out from the hose and out of nowhere the lizards came running. They were thirsty. They, too, are suffering the drought, just like the humans, waiting for any form of moisture.” Peshlakai used to haul water from Box Spring, a source now posted for uranium contamination by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Last year, EPA and the Centers for Disease Control sampled approximately 250 unregulated water sources and found 22 of those exceeded drinking water standards for radionuclides. Four are in the Black Falls area. Lillie Lane from Navajo Nation EPA and Zoe Heller from U.S. EPA spent weeks posting warning signs at springs and livestock watering points, and along with representatives of the DiNEH Project conducted outreach at impacted chapters. Despite their efforts, word apparently has not trickled down to residents in some of the more isolated areas of the reservation. Don Yellowman and Marsha Monteresky of the Forgotten People said they have documented at least 14 families in the area of Box Spring alone that are still using uranium-contaminated water for personal consumption. Rolanda and Larry Tohannie live near Box Spring and continue to utilize the bad water. They didn't even know it was contaminated until one day recently when they went to fill up the gallon water jugs they carry in the trunk of their car. Since they don't have a pickup, they get water from the pipe that feeds the livestock troughs rather than pulling into the water station and loading 55-gallon barrels from the overhead pipe. It was only by accident that Larry stumbled on the metal warning sign embedded in concrete. “Water from this well is not safe to drink,” the sign states. “This water has been tested and found to exceed Navajo EPA and U.S. EPA human drinking water standards for uranium or other contaminants. Navajo Nation policy is that livestock-use-only wells are not to be used for human drinking water.” Rolanda, 46, has lived in the Box Spring area off and on since she was 5 years old and grew up drinking the water. Now, she and Larry have a permanent home just a few hundred yards from the house where she was raised by her grandparents. “Twenty-five years ago I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. They gave me radiation and now I'm taking medication, which I have to take for life. I need to go back to the clinic to get my blood drawn again so they can regulate my thyroids. I don't have any thyroids, so it's just replacements,” she said. “About 13 to 15 years ago I was going into the hospital in Phoenix and I had really bad acid reflux. I just kept throwing up. I didn't know what it was from. They told me that I had esophagus cancer. It was at the very first stages, so now it's what they say, in remission.” She has a sister who has been diagnosed with stomach cancer, she said. “Larry has heart problems and the doctors told him it's not possible he can do heavy work. He just doesn't have the strength to do it any more. So we're just taking care of one another the best way we can. We don't have reliable transportation and water is right near there, so we just run down there and get the water.” At first, Rolanda was frustrated, she said. “Now I'm just like, 'OK, I don't think anybody can do anything.' There's people that come down with their children and they carry buckets and put it into the barrels every day, day and night. I know people that drink it and give it to the cattle,” she said, lifting a dead frog out of the trough with a stick. Nina Tohannie, Rolanda's sister-in-law, understands her feeling of frustration. “That's the feeling that probably set in 15 to 20 years ago, at least for me. ... At that time I was really voicing what I thought and felt – people just come in and they study us and then they leave and there's no return. “Now, people are advocating for us and that helps. Hopefully somewhere, somehow they can come together and realize that it is an emergency situation. It's a public health issue,” she said. The Forgotten People grassroots organization was awarded a $20,000 Environmental Justice grant from U.S. EPA earlier this year and has been using the money to identify solutions, such as getting exterior elevated water tanks for Black Falls families that do not have access to piped water. "I think it is very important that we do not just complain,” Nina said. “We need to go forward and help other communities have safe clean drinking water. We need to replicate what was done here in the Black Falls community. Now we need a water truck, well maintained roads and access to safe, clean and affordable drinking water.” Clancy Tenley of U.S. EPA said his agency's goal has been to find wells that may be contaminated with uranium, sample them, post them if they are contaminated, and do public outreach. Additionally, EPA is trying to find alternative sources of water for residents in impacted areas. “Together with Indian Health Service we are constructing new water sources in Black Falls, Monument Valley, Dennehotso and also Sweetwater. These are projects that are now in line for funding,” he said. The projects will serve families in the vicinity of contaminated wells so they have an alternative without driving long distances. EPA also has invited the Navajo Nation to apply for five water trucks to do water-hauling pilot projects. “We hope to get funding to Navajo Department of Water Resources in the fall and they may be able to select this area and other areas like it on the reservation for this pilot water-hauling project,” Tenley said. “We are going to test approximately 100 more wells this fall in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control. We'll be sampling some wells that we were not able to get to last time because they were frozen or it was too muddy to get in. We'll sample in the area where CDC did their study, and then we'll do a few in the area of homes located really close to mines.” EPA Superfund officials have visited area residents three times in the past year – something virtually unheard of among most federal agencies. “We were there the day Katherine Peshlakai turned on her faucet,” Tenley said. “It was very inspiring to us.” Last August they met with area residents for about eight hours. “Every single person said the same thing. They said, 'The roads are not good, there's no power, but what we really want is water,'” he said. “I was so thankful that there is somebody that is down here that really cares,” Rolanda said. “We need good, safe drinking water to maybe let us live like five to 10 years longer. If they can't pave the road, then just grade it. It's terrible out here.” Next: Remote family makes 20 gallons of fresh drinking water last two to three weeks. Information: The Forgotten People, (928) 401-1777 or forgotten-people@hotmail.com

Black Falls elders recall forced removal to contaminated land.

By Kathy Helms Dine Bureau BLACK FALLS, Ariz. -- Katherine Peshlakai, Faye Willie and Elsie Tohannie have a lot in common, besides their years. Following the Long Walk in the 1800s and the imprisonment of Navajos at Bosque Redondo, their families settled in an area later known as Wupatki National Monument. Recognition of Navajo occupancy was not include in enabling legislation that created the park, and in the early 1960s, the families were kicked out. Driven from their winter sheep camps at Wupatki and across the Little Colorado River to make way for the national monument near Flagstaff, they settled in Black Falls, an area contaminated in the 1950s by radioactive fallout from above-ground atomic testing at Nevada Test Site. They located their homes near abandoned uranium mines where ore was dug and used to fuel the Cold War. They drank from springs and wells contaminated with uranium and arsenic and dug water holes in the river to water their livestock. Now, after more than 40 years, the “Forgotten People,” as they are known, finally have safe drinking water. Through grassroots efforts and a $20,000 Environmental Justice grant, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Indian Health Service extended a water line and constructed a safe water hauling point at Black Falls Church to serve area residents living near four unregulated wells contaminated with uranium and arsenic. Indian Health Service distributed 14 water hauling tanks and Home Depot in Flagstaff provided kitchen sinks. Eleven have been installed. The tanks sit atop four stacks of cinder blocks, five high, wrapped in black plastic to prevent algae growth. Ronald Tohannie, Elsie's son, ran piping from the tanks into the homes, where water is gravity-fed into the sinks. On Feb. 24, Peshlakai, 87, turned on the faucet and drew her first cup of clean drinking water as her daughter Eleanor, 67, members of the Forgotten People organization and EPA officials gathered to watch the momentous occasion. On May 22, Ronald and George Kee siphoned water from Kee's pickup into Willie's tank. Smiling, she watched as the slow trickle filled the Starbucks mug she held under the faucet, and then tasted her first safe drinking water. Bleeding the air out of the line to get better water pressure would come later. On Mother's Day weekend, when her grandkids came to visit and asked where the water was, Elsie, 80, had the great pleasure of pointing to sink and telling them, “The water's right there.” “They couldn't believe it. They said, 'This thing actually works?' They had to run outside and look at it,” her daughter Nina, said. Willie, a downwind victim of atomic testing, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer about eight years ago. “She was in the hospital in Phoenix for at least three months. She actually went into a coma,” Nina said. “They had her on a respirator. They didn't think she was going to live. They were ready to unplug her. But they didn't and she came out of it.” Her cancer is now in remission and she has been told that she is eligible for compensation under the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. She also has thyroid and breathing problems, according to Nina. Willie was in Oklahoma being treated for tuberculosis when her family was evicted from Wupatki. “When she came back they were already on this side (Black Falls) and they were told that they couldn't go back. As far as she knows, no one ever shared a story that anyone was compensated” for the forced removal, said Don Yellowman, president of the Forgotten People, translating for Willie. Willie lives near Dry Spring, an unregulated water source. “For a lot of years she just used a bucket to get the water out of there.” Though Dry Spring does show evidence of uranium, at 20 parts per million, it is below the health-based standard of 30 parts per million, and is considered safe, according to Clancy Tenley of U.S. EPA. Arsenic has been detected at 4.7 parts per million. The safe standard is 10. “She buys a lot of bottled water. For her livestock she is using McCabe's windmill, a livestock watering point from up on the mesa. Usually my brothers haul it,” Nina said. Willie lives alone and her clean water tank had been setting empty until Kee hauled water from Tuba City to fill it. Elsie was born at a place called Hanging Sheep Skin, in Navajo. “They were nomads so they kind of moved from that area to way behind the San Francisco Peaks, then back to there and back to Wupatki,” Nina said. They were evicted from Wupatki in mid winter. “There is a news article on that, how they were chased across the river. Some of their sheep died because of exploding ice.” Ronald, Elsie's son, was 6 years old at the time. “We lived about a mile from the river and we had a sheep camp set up. One day we were herding sheep out there. I was on a horse; my mom was on foot. This ranger came by and he told us to take our sheep across the river. He followed us all the way to the river until we crossed, then he left. “We had to kind of sneak back to our sheep camp. About a week later, we loaded all our mattresses and we drove our sheep across the river then. We had a wagon with two horses. That's what we used to move. That was in the 1960s.” The water situation in Black Falls is really bad, he said. “All our water is contaminated with uranium. The only place we could go was to Dry Spring. That's about the closest one. It took us about half a day to haul water from there. We used to use buckets to load up our barrels. “We were also drinking the Box Spring water. We thought it was the best-tasting water near us. We've been drinking it for about 30 years,” he said. “We didn't know that it was contaminated.” Box Spring has been posted by EPA as contaminated with uranium and arsenic. “We tried boiling it after that, thinking it would clear up the water. We make coffee with it right now,” he said. Ronald went for a health screening about two months ago. “They told me that the only thing that was kind of abnormal was the arthritis, and my blood count wasn't right.” Peshlakai and her nine children were the last to move from Wupatki. She said the park superintendent and his assistant came to their home and remained there until they were completely packed. “A relative, Chee Paddock, had a flatbed truck. They tore down the house and loaded up the lumber. They were just cutting down the supports at the corners and putting that onto the flatbed truck. The authorities there were insisting that no trash was left behind,” Yellowman translated. “Who would do that to the kids?” Peshlakai asked. “We were the last ones that were chased out. We had to cross the river when the river was getting high in May. Our in-law, Chee Paddock, he had a little truck. He was the one that helped us, him and his wife Margaret. They're all gone now. “At that time we had a lot of sheep. They crossed by themselves. I had to drive across. I had a little truck.” One of her uncles let the family stay in a hogan in Black Falls because it was an emergency situation, she said. “You can even see right now where that house was unloaded.” They dug out watering holes in the river for the sheep and cattle and hauled drinking water from either Box Spring or Badger Spring. Badger Spring also has been posted by EPA for uranium and arsenic contamination. They stopped hauling from Box Spring about 10 years ago, according to Eleanor. “Even though we had been drinking it, it was the goodest coffee that we made!” Peshlakai said.