Background

“Several of my brothers have died from the effects of uranium (one was married to Mary Frank). So their lives ended in front of my eyes, and several others who are related to me have had the same thing happen to them”. Floyd Frank was one of the many miners that worked in the Oakspring uranium mine in Arizona. Going into the cold war, the US government invested heavily in its nuclear resources, initiating a mining boom across the Colorado Plateau, which included states of New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona (Brugge & Goble, 2000). Navajo men were primarily employed in the mining jobs, as these mines were located close to Native American reservations. Records suggest that miners were paid barely minimum wage, with pay stubs suggesting an hourly pay rate of $0.81 to $1 compared to the minimum wage of $1 to $1.15 (Brugge & Goble, 2000). However, for most Navajo men, this was their first job, and they were happy to be employed and being able to provide for their families. They were never told about the kind of effects uranium mining and radon exposure can have on them. This was not due to a lack of knowledge on their part, but because the government and mining companies chose to keep those dangers hidden, sending men into mines where the air itself was poisoned, and where the cost of their labor would only be understood years later, in sickness, loss, and silence.

Institutional Neglect

Since the 1930s, the correlation between uranium mining and lung cancer was established even though the causal agent was still debated (Brugge & Goble, 2000). Further research found stronger evidence that radon, present in abundance in uranium mines, was responsible for lung cancer (Brugge & Goble, 2000). In the 1940s, issues were raised by multiple scientists within the American Energy Commission (AEC). Duncan Holaday, a US PHS scientist, advocated for having ventilation requirements for the uranium mines (Brugge & Goble, 2000). The federal government did not make his views public, and his movement was met with resistance from government officials. Records from 1951 show that the AEC was aware that the amount of radon present in the uranium mines would put miners at a very high risk of lung cancer, but these records were also not made public (Brugge & Goble, 2000). While an act was passed to regulate ventilation requirements for beryllium mines, the AEC decided against passing a similar law for uranium mines (Brugge & Goble, 2000). Dr. Wilhelm Hueper, who initially theorized that radon was the causal agent for cancer, was forbidden from publishing his research, and even travelling to areas that were “west of the Mississippi river” (Brugge & Goble, 2000). The US PHS in the 1950s finally decided to pursue their own research to study the effects of radon on lung cancer. The subjects of this study were majority White miners, which made little sense as records have shown that white miners were majorly employed to do jobs outside the mines. The few Navajo workers that were a part of the study were not informed of the risks that were being studied, which goes against the central tenet of the Nuremberg Code established post-World War 2 (Brugge & Goble, 2000).

First Case and Advocacy

In the 1960s, the first cases of lung cancer began to show up in the Navajo people (Brugge & Goble, 2000). Navajo widows came forward with their stories and how their husbands had died. People talked about it and they finally organized themselves into a union. They started having regular meetings and after some time they consulted with some legal services and worked with them. Harry Tome, a member of the Red Tribal Council, was one of the first to notice this problem and advocate for it (Brugge & Goble, 2000). Despite his repeated attempts of contacting the media and newspapers, the story was not brought to the public limelight. It was only a decade later that Tome was able to get in touch with JFK’s Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall (Brugge & Goble, 2000).

Movement and Reform

Around the time when the stories of Navajo people started coming into limelight, the coal miners had also started unionizing for their own issues. Navajo people were hesitant to join these unions, as employers would fire anyone who would do so. However, the coal miners did bring the dangers of uranium mining forward during their protests. Anthony Mazzocchi, formerly of the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers International, argued before Congress that the research studies should include results for Navajo miners, not just for Whites (Brugge & Goble, 2000). Harry Tome, along with Secretary Udall, was able to file two lawsuits seeking damages for the miners. However, neither of these lawsuits was won by the Navajo people. “We went to the Arizona State Court then to the Supreme Court level, and lost all the way. We started again in the federal court and lost again all the way to the Supreme Court. At that time we turned to Congress and Congress heard our complaint and thought it was legitimate,” Timothy Bennaly, one of the mine workers in Shiprock, New Mexico, recalls (Brugge & Goble, 2000). It has been estimated that 500 to 600 of the thousands of uranium miners who worked between 1950 and 1990 died of lung cancer, that most of these deaths were associated with radon exposure, and that a similar number would die after 1990 (Navajo Nation Department of Health, n.d.).

Reform Passes

The families of Navajo miners kept organizing. Their efforts led to Perry Charley and Phil Harrison (also involved in previous lawsuits), sons of two miners who died due to lung cancer, ending up getting involved in other Navajo rights movements. Finally in 1990, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was passed by the United States government (Brugge & Goble, 2000). RECA is a federal law that provides partial restitution to individuals who developed certain serious illnesses following exposure to radiation from the U.S. nuclear weapons program, or their survivors (Navajo Nation Department of Health, n.d.).

Why Non-reformist Reform

In conclusion, the history of Navajo uranium miners reveals a clear pattern of institutional neglect by the United States government during the Cold War. Known health risks were ignored, warnings were suppressed, and Navajo workers were exposed to dangerous conditions without consent (Brugge & Goble, 2000). This reflects a broader trend in which marginalized communities were sacrificed for national interests. What makes this case different is the outcome. In a system that enabled injustices, the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act stands out. The government acknowledged its role, issued an apology, and created a system of restitution (Navajo Nation Department of Health, n.d.). It is also important to emphasize that this outcome was not the result of passive hope or purely peaceful appeal. Reform did not emerge from goodwill within the state, but from sustained pressure from below. Navajo miners and their families organized, formed unions, pursued legal action despite repeated losses, and continued to challenge institutional power through collective resistance (Brugge & Goble, 2000). This included acts of disobedience, persistence in the face of legal defeat, and a form of revolutionary optimism that refused to accept invisibility. It was this sustained, organized pressure that forced acknowledgment and reform, demonstrating that meaningful change within entrenched systems is not granted, but extracted.

References:

Brugge, D., & Goble, R. (2000). The history of uranium mining and the Navajo people. American Journal of Public Health. http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2024/ph241/friedman1/docs/brugge-2000.pdf

Brugge, D., & Goble, R. (n.d.). The history of uranium mining and the Navajo people. In Motion Magazine. https://www.inmotionmagazine.com/brugge.html

Navajo Nation Department of Health. (n.d.). Uranium Workers Program. https://ndoh.navajo-nsn.gov/Department/Division-of-Public-Health-Service/Uranium-Workers-Program