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This is a virtual program. A link to join will be sent to registrants.
Legacy of Extraction: Abandoned Mines on the Navajo Nation (virtual)
Mining companies extracted millions of tons of uranium from the Navajo Nation between 1944 and 1986. Today hundreds of abandoned uranium mines litter the Navajo Nation. How have the Navajo people, land, and water suffered from exposure to these mines? Are people still at risk of radiation exposure? What is being done by the federal government to clean up contaminated sites? While they wait for cleanup, communities continue to bring awareness to and educate others about the physical and environmental hazards of the mines. How much has been lost and damaged? How do the Navajo people feel? Join investigative journalist, Arlyssa Becenti, as she reports on the abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation, and its ramifications.
Arlyssa Becenti is a multi-award winning Diné journalist from Fort Defiance, Arizona, with over ten years experience reporting on Navajo Nation. In 2020, she placed first for Arizona Press Club’s community investigative reporting for her series on the illegal hemp and marijuana farms in Shiprock, New Mexico. She was also awarded Arizona Press Club’s 2020 Nina Mason Pulliam Environmental Journalism Award for community reporting. She currently is the Indigenous Affairs reporter for The Arizona Republic, and has reported for the daily Gallup Independent, and weekly Navajo Times. She was a Roy W. Howard fellow at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, where she recently obtained her masters in investigative journalism.
This program series is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
